What Happened to BAI? Army and Air Force Battlefield Doctrine Development From Pre-Desert Storm to 2001

<p>This study set out to determine why the term Battlefield Air Interdiction (BAI) disappeared from the military lexicon following the Persian Gulf War. To accomplish this task the study demonstrates that BAI was present in both US Army and US Air Force doctrine before the war and that it was removed after the war. Additionally the study investigates three possible explanations for this occurrence. First it considers whether BAI was eliminated because it no longer served a useful purpose. Second it contemplates whether service self-interest was instrumental in removing BAI from the doctrine. Finally the study examines each service's doctrinal development process to determine if the processes themselves were a contributing factor. BAI was important to the Army because it represented a class of targets that lay at an intermediate distance from the front line whose attack and neutralization was critical to mission accomplishment in both offensive and defensive operations. BAI was also important to the Air Force. BAI gave aerial platforms access to targets inside the Fire Support Coordination Line (FSCL) without penny packing airpower to lower-level ground commanders.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>