The Quest for Relevant Air Power

Chapter 7
Conclusion
As the preliminary findings demonstrate, each air force has responded
to the air power challenges of the post–Cold War era according
to its context. The following discussion synthesises the responses of
the air forces examined across the four guiding challenges—shifting
defence and alliance policies, real operations, new intellectualism in air
power thinking and doctrine, and procurement.
Shifting Defence and Alliance Policies
Since the threat and risk spectrum of the post–Cold War era was
no longer determined by two opposing blocs, the military-strategic
focus shifted from territorial defence to deployed operations. Power
projection in support of the UN, the ESDP, or NATO has become
the determining factor in shaping Continental European air power.
Amongst the four countries, the Netherlands was the first to accept
these new realities; consequently, its military transformation was
the most advanced in the period studied. Its rapid shift towards expeditionary
warfare allowed the RNLAF to contribute to deployed
operations disproportionately to the size of the country. France, under
the presidency of Jacques Chirac, came to terms with the new
realities in the mid-1990s. Whereas the country’s military strategic
doctrine had long been dominated by the nuclear force, conventional
power assumed centre stage, offering the possibility to prevent,
contain, or stabilise regional crises.
Germany and Sweden, on the other hand, only began to accept
the new strategic realities at the end of the 1990s, significantly
delaying the transformation of their air forces. Germany’s
historical legacy and the vestiges of Sweden’s neutral tradition
exacerbated these delays. Moreover, both nations had been
frontline states, and their decision makers found it difficult to
relax after the Cold War. The GAF had a unique experience in
the early 1990s, when it was tasked to disband the East German
Air Force and to integrate some of its personnel and equipment.
This process did not lead to a hybrid between Western and East-