Fulltext - DiVA Portal

FÖRSVARSHÖGSKOLAN
Självständigt arbete
OP 10-13 2013-05-24
English abstract
Abstract:
The conflicts in southern Africa during the second part of the 20th-century are today a piece
of half-forgotten history that immediately invokes images of the South African apartheid
regime. Under immense pressure from the outside world, South Africa fought a conflict
against a communist force that enjoyed support from states such as Cuba and the Soviet
Union.
The conflict tended to rise and fall in intensity and during the latter part of the war;
conventional operations were executed deep into Angolan territory in order to halt the enemy
offensive. In this study the South African use of fighter jets are compared to John A. Warden
III’s theories on how an air war should be fought.
Wardens claim to fame came with the Gulf war and the following conflicts that used methods
that spawned from his ideas on how airpower should be used. This essay examines to what
extent Wardens ideas are applicable to the South African border war.
The analysis shows that specific events and operations correlate with Wardens ideas, however
there are no significant signs of what might be interpreted as operations of the type of
conceptual thinking that Wardens uses on the larger, strategic scale.
Keywords: Warden, South African Border War, Angola, Airpower
2