NATO Admits It May Lose Control of the Skies in a War

By Michael Peck,The National Interest

NATO’s new airpower strategy makes a startling admission: the alliance cannot count on achieving control of the skies.

In fact, NATO admits that the good old days, when it could operate freely over combat zones like Afghanistan, Libya and Serbia, are over.

Where once the Soviet Union was the only threat the alliance faced, NATO’s air forces must now be ready to confront a world of rogue nations, terrorist groups and cyberwarfare. Not to mention a Russia resurgent for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

NATO has just released its new Joint Airpower Strategy, or JAP, the organization’s first such air warfare blueprint since its birth in 1949. Given that airpower was always the alliance’s key advantage against the Soviets, it’s not surprising that planners are grappling with how to make it relevant in the post-Cold War environment.

Most significant is the admission that NATO aircraft must be prepared to globally, and also accept that the skies may be truly unfriendly.

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