Bombs from On High

With AI-guided Chinese surveillance balloons being shot down by US F-22s over US territorial waters, it is worth revisiting the US Air Force's long-standing interest in militarized airships. This 2009 report by a US Air Force major attending the Air Command And Staff College Air University sets out the case for equipping US balloons with smart bombs. From the author's abstract: Since the advent of aviation, aircraft have migrated from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to weapons platforms. Balloons, airplanes, and UAVs all began as a means to observe the battlefield, but were later armed in order to attack the observed enemy. The DOD currently seeks stratospheric airships that could serve as persistent ISR platforms... Like their forerunners in other wars, stratospheric airships could become weaponized stratospheric airship (WSA). [The paper explores] two wartime scenarios: the low-intensity conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the near-peer conventional conflict of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The paper will show that even though limited numbers of munitions, significant munitions replenishment time, and low CAS mission situational awareness hamper the WSA concept, it should still be pursued ... because it provides a persistent, survivable, and cost effective mechanism of dropping munitions over a battlefield."" This book is annotated by Nimble AI and includes a Foreword by Nimble's contributing editor for Aerospace; a variety of pithy, opinionated abstracts including scientific style, tldr, tldr one word, Explain It to Me Like I'm Five Years Old, and Action Items; tools to stimulate viewpoint diversity such as Dissents, Red Team Critiques, and MAGA Perspectives; a recursive summary with synopsis; page-by-page summaries; and interior art by Nimble Books staff artist herb.loc['AI'].