Taktisk nytta av attackhelikoptrar : En teoriprövande studie av Brett A. Friedmans krigföringsprinciper på taktisk nivå

Sammanfattning: Air power theories tries to describe how air power should be implemented to reach strategical ends. Therefore, in those theories, the means of air power often consists of fighter jets and strategical bombers. At the same time there are no theories of how the attack helicopter, which is typically used at the tactical level, should be implemented. Attack helicopters as well as the tactical level of war are an unexplored aspect in research of air power. The aim of this study is to examine the tactical utility of attack helicopters by testing if Brett A. Friedman´s theory of tactical tenets can contribute to the explanation of the outcome in attack helicopter operations. The study was conducted by a qualitative content analysis of two attack helicopter operations in Iraq. One successful operation in 1991 and one failed operation in 2003. The results shows that more of the tactical tenets were fulfilled in the successful operation than in the unsuccessful one. This shows that Friedman´s theory can contribute to the explanation of attack helicopters and provides incentives to further use of the theory in research about attack helicopters. By extension, this could contribute to the development of the attack helicopter capability.