Reclaiming Lost Ground

Airborne Electronic Attack is a critical component of offensive counter air as evidenced by air operations during Vietnam through Operation Allied Force. The decisions Air Force leaders make not to fund AEA in a fiscally constrained environment reveal how service culture views electronic warfare. Multiple theorists on military mission development provide insight into how a service develops a mission. A survey of military innovation literature reveals three complementary models for how a military service evolves in its core mission areas, however, fringe mission development requires a fourth theory on how an organization allocates limited resources. Dr. Barry R. Posen identifies civilian intervention against resistant military leadership as the key item in military innovation. Dr. Stephen Peter Rosen concludes that military innovation occurs as the military institution recognizes it must change to meet new international security situations, and internal groups within the service compete. Owen Reid Cot offers a third proposition on the source of innovation; the military changes dramatically when services compete. Asa A. Clark, IV surveys how militaries reform under budgetary constraints. This thesis integrates the four mission development theories using an adaptation of John W. Kingdon garbage can model.