17 February 2010: Xinhua
The professional head of Britain's air force joined the public debate around the British government's plans for its armed forces with a speech which argued that jet fighters should not be cut to save money in the defence budget.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton said in his speech "Dominant Airpower in the Information Age" given at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based thinktank.
Sir Stephen said the war in Afghanistan was not, as it was widely portrayed, a land-based war, "it's an integrated air-land partnership, where the land component provides most, but not all, of the manpower and presence on the ground, and air power the critical enabling effects: situational awareness, vital mobility and, when necessary, decisive and precise firepower."
He also said jet fighters were essential to protect national air space from attacks like the 9/11 attack on New York, for cheaper and effective deployment such as the 300,000 missions RAF jets flew policing no-fly zones above Iraq between the first and second Gulf Wars, and for quick deployment as a deterrent as happened in Saudi Arabia just after the invasion of Kuwait.
He issued two warnings, the first against using Afghanistan as the model for future conflicts, the second against relying too much on troops on the ground.
He said, "Even if we are faced with conflicts that are similar in character to Afghanistan in the future - and that isn't certain - we cannot assume that there will be the political or popular appetite to fight them in the same way again.
