Michael Napier

Fully illustrated, this study explores the technology, roles, and combat performance of Coalition airpower in the biggest air campaign of the early 21st century. In 2003, a US-led Coalition invaded Iraq with the aim of overthrowing Saddam Hussain’s regime. Just as it had in the 1991 Gulf War, airpower played a vital role. However, this war was very different to its predecessor and represented a new style of warfare: focused targeting with precision-guided munitions and close integration with land forces made air power particularly effective and efficient. Airpower scholar and former RAF pilot Michael Napier explains how the 2003 air campaign was planned and fought. He describes the preparatory work that was carried out in the No Fly Zones before hostilities began, how the plan was changed at the last minute to attempt a decapitation of the Iraqi government, and how the campaign then developed to support both the advance of Anglo-American land forces and SOF operations against tactical ballistic missiles in the western desert. He analyses in detail the relationship between the conduct of air operations and progress on the battlefield during the three-week war. Illustrated with dramatic artwork, 3D diagrams, maps and photos, this book assesses what made Iraq 2003 the textbook air campaign of the early 21st century.

An illustrated account of the development and action-packed service history of the Jaguar attack jet, featuring first-hand accounts from the pilots that flew it into combat.Developed as a joint venture between Britain and France, the SEPECAT Jaguar was originally intended to be a jet trainer aircraft, but quickly evolved to fulfil a need for a supersonic attack jet with close air support, reconnaissance and tactical nuclear strike capabilities. After first entering service in the 1970s, it flew operational missions for the RAF almost continuously between 1990 and 2003, including numerous combat missions during the first Gulf War and Bosnian War, and reconnaissance missions over northern Iraq and the Balkans.In this eventful volume, former RAF pilot Michael Napier expertly chronicles the storied career of the Jaguar, as well as the remarkable experiences of those that flew it into combat. Complemented by 24 aircraft profiles that demonstrate the variety of colours worn and ordnance employed by the Jaguar, a combination of detailed research, first-hand accounts and both official and personal photographs bring to life the actions of an aircraft that was a mainstay of the RAF’s attack force for more than a decade.

Michael Napier describes the naval air power deployed by NATO, Warsaw Pact and neutral countries throughout the Cold War.In 1949, an Iron Curtain was drawn across Europe, and the Cold War that ensued between the Western North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact lasted through to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. NATO and Warsaw Pact naval forces spread over the world’s oceans, and the powerful forces of the US Navy’s Second Fleet patrolled the North Atlantic, while the Sixth Fleet was positioned in the Mediterranean. The age of the nuclear-powered supercarrier arrived in 1957 with the USS Forrestal, while the Soviet Union’s first aircraft carrier, the Kiev, was commissioned in 1975.In Over Cold War Seas, respected aviation author Michael Napier examines the naval air power of the major combatant forces as it developed from 1949 through to 1989. All the major naval aircraft types are covered, both fixed wing and helicopters, which entered service in the 1950s for light transport or rescue duties and evolved into multi-purpose machines capable of performing anti-submarine and airborne early warning missions. This detailed text is supported by a wide range of first-hand accounts of operational flying during the Cold War, as well as over 220 high-quality, contemporary images.