Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

AIR SUPERIORITY
North Korea and then against the larger and more sophisticated air force of
the People’s Republic of China.
Background
In the summer of 1950, the Air Force was not prepared for an extended
conventional air campaign in Korea. FEAF, composed of the Fifth, Thirteenth,
and Twentieth Air Forces, was responsible primarily for the air
defense of Japan and for strategic bombardment of Russian and Chinese
targets in the event of a worldwide military conflict. FEAF began and
ended its actions during the Korean War outnumbered by Soviet air forces
stationed in Eastern Siberia. With the numbers and types of planes at its
disposal, FEAF had no difficulty destroying the small North Korean Air
Force, but, with the entry of the People’s Republic of China into the war,
FEAF was compelled to face the possibility that the fighting could widenand
quickly. The backdrop to the Korean War was possible Russian intervention:
air strikes against U.S. installations in Japan, attacks by aircraft
and submarines on U.S. Navy and allied naval units operating in the Sea of
Japan and the Yellow Sea, or Russian “volunteers” flying waves of supposedly
Chinese or North Korean aircraft against United Nations (U.N.) air
units. To guard against possible Russian attacks, FEAF always husbanded
its resources, releasing the minimum number of aircraft to combat in Korea
consistent with theater requirements and United Nations command policy.
FEAF really had no other choice. Until 1953, USAF Headquarters did not
have the air units available to sustain its commands in both Europe and
Korea should the fighting in Korea spread. By the spring of 1953, however,
USAF Headquarters regarded Korea as a testing ground for new air warfare
concepts and as a source of experience upon which to build a revised
doctrine of air superiority.* On the road to that stage in its thinking, the Air
Force committed the Far East Air Forces to the most frustrating weeks of
fighting since the Army Air Forces had fought both the Germans and Japanese
in 1942.
Korea as an Operating Theater
FEAF planning and operations were shaped by Korea’s geography.
North Korea borders on China and Russia-mostly the former’s province
of Manchuria. Manchuria was vital to the North Korean armed forces; it
was both supply base and sanctuary. Manchuria was immune to both attack
and blockade. North Korea could not be isolated as was Japan in World
War IF. Moreover, North Korea always had friendly forces at her back. On
the other hand, the U.S. Navy (USN) had no equal in Japanese waters. The
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