Airpower in Libya

Alex Harrowell has an excellent post on how we should think about airpower in the Libyan Civil War. The main point is that the effect of airpower is likely to be felt less in terms of the ability of Gaddafi’s forces to carry out tactical and strategic airstrikes against rebel forces, and more in terms of airlift capacity. This makes a no fly zone very complicated, because it would involve threatening to shoot down military cargo aircraft and, potentially, civilian aircraft converted to military airlift purposes.