Today´s air force: The chips are flying

Since World War I, when aircraft first flew in combat, military leaders have realized that air superiority can spell the difference between victory and defeat on the ground or at sea. Advancing troop columns can be cut down by strafing aircraft, command posts and other targets can be bombed, and in World War II the most heavily armored battleships were sunk by air attack. The balance between British Harriers and Argentine Skyhawks was crucial to the recent Falklands conflict: had the Argentines possessed longer-range aircraft, armed with more modern weapons like the Exocet, or had the British possessed long-range surveillance planes and supersonic interceptors, the pattern of losses might have been far different.