The Quest for Relevant Air Power

350 │ CONCLUSION
armament, and C4ISTAR. The issue of casualty aversion was addressed
by a new emphasis on force protection, while highly complex
combined air campaigns demanded an advanced and interoperable
C2 infrastructure—as the FAF painfully learned in
Desert Storm.
Apart from deployed air campaigns at the upper end of the spectrum
of military force, the post–Cold War era has seen so-called
non-kinetic air power used to great effect in humanitarian operations.
Sweden and Germany have particularly felt more at ease with
these kinds of operations in light of their particular legacies.
New Intellectualism in Air Power
Thinking and Doctrine
Developments at the grand-strategic level have influenced air
power thinking and doctrine. Sweden’s and Germany’s major defence
reforms triggered, or at least supported, a more sophisticated
approach to the doctrinal dimension of air power. The German
Air Power Centre was set up against the backdrop of the
2002–3 defence reform, and Germany also acted as the lead nation
in setting up NATO’s Joint Air Power Competence Centre,
which became operational in early 2005. Similarly, the Swedish
doctrinal debate experienced a major impetus after the country’s
defence political process began broadening, starting in 1999, and
with the SwAF readying units for rapid deployment. From 2002
onwards, the SwAF organised a series of major air power conferences
annually. It became involved in a doctrine development
process that in 2004 resulted in the SwAF’s first published air
power doctrine. In addition, the air faculty at the Swedish National
Defence College started to produce its own publications on
air power theory. Moreover, doctrine and proactive air power
thinking provided the SwAF with a means to foster NATO interoperability.
Despite Sweden’s non-membership in NATO, the
Swedish armed forces in general and the SwAF in particular have
deliberately transferred NATO concepts into their military doctrine
manuals.
Besides developments at the grand-strategic level, real operations
have triggered doctrine development and a broader air power