Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Keywords

Military, Helicopter, Aviation, Capacity Building, Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan

Department

Political Science

Major

Political Science

Abstract

In 2016, the National Military Strategy of the United States of America listed building the capacity of partner nations as a key priority. By building military capacity, partner countries can become better equip to fight ongoing insurgencies, transnational terrorist organizations, and other threats to the U.S. themselves, allowing the U.S. to shift focus and resources towards other areas that need attention. In today’s battlefield, mobility and firepower are of the utmost importance. One capability that can address both of these areas is helicopters, which can greatly increase the effectiveness of a military and reduce the required number of ground troops (and therefore cost) needed to combat internal security threats. This paper seeks to address U.S. efforts to build military helicopter capabilities in partner nations and how five factors (perceived threat to the U.S., intended enemy countermeasures, terrain, national human capital, and national economics) can affect these missions. The cases of Colombia, Iraq, and Afghanistan will be examined to evaluate how the factors in each of these countries contributed to shaping the process and effectiveness of the respective U.S. capacity building mission. This paper concludes by comparing the cases and evaluating how important and in what ways these factors influence missions, and how this information can be applied to U.S. missions and policy in the future.

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Dan Caldwell

Presentation Session

Session A

Location

Plaza Classroom 191

Start Date

24-3-2017 5:30 PM

End Date

24-3-2017 5:45 PM

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Mar 24th, 5:30 PM Mar 24th, 5:45 PM

Building Military Helicopter Capacity: Influences on Process and Effectiveness

Plaza Classroom 191

In 2016, the National Military Strategy of the United States of America listed building the capacity of partner nations as a key priority. By building military capacity, partner countries can become better equip to fight ongoing insurgencies, transnational terrorist organizations, and other threats to the U.S. themselves, allowing the U.S. to shift focus and resources towards other areas that need attention. In today’s battlefield, mobility and firepower are of the utmost importance. One capability that can address both of these areas is helicopters, which can greatly increase the effectiveness of a military and reduce the required number of ground troops (and therefore cost) needed to combat internal security threats. This paper seeks to address U.S. efforts to build military helicopter capabilities in partner nations and how five factors (perceived threat to the U.S., intended enemy countermeasures, terrain, national human capital, and national economics) can affect these missions. The cases of Colombia, Iraq, and Afghanistan will be examined to evaluate how the factors in each of these countries contributed to shaping the process and effectiveness of the respective U.S. capacity building mission. This paper concludes by comparing the cases and evaluating how important and in what ways these factors influence missions, and how this information can be applied to U.S. missions and policy in the future.

 

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