Ten years ago this week, the US and NATO allies launched Deliberate Force, a significant airpower assault on renegade Bosnian Serbs who were running amok, killing Muslims in the Yugoslav rump state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The three-week air campaign, shaped and conducted by USAF Gen. Michael Ryan (later to become Chief of Staff in 1997) forced the Serbs to down weapons and make peace in talks at Dayton, Ohio. Read our 1997 article here. Deliberate Force, bracketed between Desert Storm (1991) and Allied Force (1999) doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
