There are many leadership lessons to be learned from examining the War with Iran—some good lessons, some bad.
The planning, execution, and success of this campaign will be studied for decades. Much of the credit goes to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and the commander of Centcom, Admiral Brad Cooper.
What leadership skills did they employ?
- Deep understanding of military history
- Open to new and creative ideas
- Willingness to empower subordinates
- Communication with their bosses
- Interaction with Israeli military leaders
- Incorporation of the newest technologies.
The Iranians demonstrated bad leadership.
- Exporting terrorism
- Massacring tens of thousands of their citizens
- Unwillingness to negotiate in good faith on the nuclear enrichened issue
- During this war, attacking nations that had not attacked them.
Before I dive into my analysis, it is important to note that understanding the complexities of modern air campaigns is not easy.
The United States utilized three critical concepts, when properly employed, can turn a routine air campaign into something very powerful and decisive.
The Principal Pillars of Unapparelled Success
Effect-based targeting is a military methodology focused on achieving specific strategic, operational, or behavioral outcomes rather than merely destroying enemy physical assets. It uses a systems-based approach, combining lethal and non-lethal actions to influence an adversary’s decision-making, will, or functional capabilities.
Here is a bad example from World War II. The United States did major damage to German ball bearing factories. In the process, more than 100 B-17s were shot down. However, the effects were minimal. Germany was able to get millions of high-quality ball bearings from Sweden.
Air Dominance. Many of the analysts use the term air superiority. The better term is air dominance. I cannot imagine flying over Iran knowing that I would not encounter any enemy fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery, or surface-to-air missiles. Happily, that is the situation today for pilots from Israel and the United States.
Situational awareness is the ability to perceive, understand, and act on your surroundings to prevent incidents or to exploit opportunities. In air combat, it is being aware of the location of enemy aircraft, enemy Air Defense sites, the location of targets, and alternative targets. A bad example is when the Kuwaitis shot down three American F-15s. They should have been aware, before they fired, that they were encountering friendly aircraft.
There has been much commentary on various networks that airpower alone cannot lead to regime change. Just not true. Serbia 1999–the 78-day war. Also, Japan 1945.
While on active duty, Air Force Major General Perry Smith published a book on World War II combat aviation, flew 180 combat missions over North Vietnam and Laos in high performance aircraft (F-4Ds), commanded an F-15 fighter wing, served as the top Air Force planner, and taught executive leadership, military strategy and strategic planning for four years at the National War College.
After retirement, Smith published six books, including Rules and Tools for Leaders and Assignment Pentagon. He later served on contract as a military analyst for CNN, NBC, and CBS. He has a reasonably good understanding of the tactics, the operational principles, and the strategy of air campaigning.
To order a book and to learn more, visit www.genpsmith.com
