The Air Force Operations & Planning Smartbook

The role of the Air Force is to defend the US and protect its interests through airpower, guided by the principles of joint operations and the tenets of airpower. Airpower is the ability to project military power or influence through the control and exploitation of air, space, and cyberspace to achieve strategic, operational, or tactical objectives.

Airpower exploits the third dimension of the operational environment, the electromagnetic spectrum, and time to leverage speed, range, flexibility, precision tempo, and lethality to create effects from and within the air, space, and cyberspace domains.

From this multi-dimensional perspective, Airmen can apply military power against an enemy‘s entire array of diplomatic, informational, military, and economic instruments of power, at long ranges and on short notice. Airpower can be applied across the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war simultaneously. Due to its range, speed, and flexibility, airpower can compress time, controlling the tempo of operations.

Historically, airpower has been associated with its more familiar and visible aspects, such as air-to-air combat, strategic bombing, and long-range heavy airlift. However, airpower has many less visible but equally important missions across the range of military operations: providing close air support and tactical mobility to our ground forces; positioning and resupplying remote forces; obtaining and providing detailed and timely intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; providing humanitarian relief; projecting world-wide command and control; and training of coalition partners in the use of airpower, just to name a few.

The Air Force Operations & Planning SMARTbook covers the fundamentals, principles and tenets of airpower; airpower operations (Air Force missions, roles & functions); command and control (AOC, AFFOR & JFACC); planning for operations (AFOPE, JOPPA, joint air tasking cycle, OODA); targeting and assessment; and agile combat support (ACS)!

About SMARTbooks

Recognized as a “whole of government” doctrinal reference standard by military, national security and government professionals around the world, SMARTbooks comprise a comprehensive professional library designed for all levels of Service.

SMARTbooks can be used as quick reference guides during operations, as lesson plans in support of training exercises, and as study guides at military education and professional development courses.

The SMARTbook series of references are carried at virtually every Army and Air Force base around the world and have spanned the globe with more than 500,000 copies sold.

Click the “Related” tab above to browse our additional SMARTbook titles!