Military Aircraft in the Jet Age : An Illustrated History of Their Impact

This comprehensive work covers the application of technology to military aircraft and their impact on society and history since the end of the Second World War.

In the 1999 Balkans War, the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was stopped with a military campaign based entirely on NATO airpower - the first time a conflict was decided with no ground troops in combat.

From the dawn of the jet age to the recent Iraq War (where nearly 75 percent of the damage was inflicted from the air), military aircraft have utterly transformed the operational theater.

This volume concludes the "Weapons and Warfare" series' coverage of aircraft by focusing on the jet age - the dramatic period from the Second World War to the present in which airpower came into its own, occupying a central role in combined arms warfare.

The book offers an expert overview of the technological evolution of military aircraft, examining the changing role of airpower in major conflicts from Korea to Vietnam to the Balkans and the two Gulf wars. These aircraft are seen not only from a technical and strategic perspective, but also in the social and historical contexts of the countries that produced them, with a particular focus on the role of airpower as both deterrent and ideological symbol during the Cold War.