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by Air University Press (Contribution by), Ph. D. David R. Mets (Author)
Dr. David R. Mets's "The Long Search for a Surgical Strike: Precision Munitions and the Revolution in Military Affairs" is a broad, though-provoking examination of the relationship between the advancement in conventional weapons guidance technology and the "revolution in military affairs" (RMA). He defines and RMA as a rapid change in military technology, doctrine, and organization leading to a sweeping new way that wars are fought. Dr. Mets then considers whether the improvement in conventional air weapons accuracy since World War II is the foundation, the main pillar, one of the principal supports, or is irrelevant to the RMA - which is said to be afoot. Clearly, the air theorists of the 1920s were fully persuaded that indeed a revolution was afoot. Equally clearly, the visions of Guilio Douhet, William "Billy" Mitchell, and the Air Corps Tactical School were no more than partially fulfilled in World War II. Dr. Mets also explores the degree to which the shortcomings of aerial weapons were responsible for the denial of their visions and the degree to which those inadequacies were overcome in the conflicts that followed. He closes with an estimate as to whether their dreams of a revolution are about to be fulfilled.
