Dr Rob Johnson has written a chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in Asia published in July 2026. The handbook is edited by Dr Kaushik Roy and Dennis Showalter.
Rob’s chapter is on "Air Power and the United States’ Wars in Iraq"
The Iraq Wars of 1990–1, 2003–11, and 2015–18 were characterised by the complete air supremacy of the American-led Coalition. The result was that Coalition airpower made a decisive contribution to ground manoeuvre and subsequent operational success through surveillance, strike, communications, and lift capabilities. The United States had to manage congested air space, coordinate multinational air forces, integrate air and ground forces, and select precision targets. In this period uncrewed systems became more prevalent, which generated considerable debate, but US air dominance was total.
