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Jules Suzdaltsev, "When Did Airplanes Revolutionize War Strategy?", Seeker, 5/25/2018, www.seeker.com/when-did-airplanes-revolutionize-war-strategy-1822507597.html

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The airplane is, of course, one the great inventions of the 20th century. In reflections on the era, it's regularity ranked right up there with the television, the automobile and the Internet.

The airplane also changed the nature of warfare forever. As Jules Suzdaltsev reports in today's Seeker Daily dispatch, airplanes have fundamentally shifted the methods by which modern war is waged.

The first true military airplanes were deployed in the early days of World War I. Small reconnaissance aircraft were used to scout forward positions and keep an eye on the enemy. The intelligence provided by these scout planes gave ground commanders a new kind of tactical advantage.

These early scout planes weren't outfitted with weapons at all, although the pilot would often carry a pistol or rifle. By the second year of the war, scout planes were outfitted with mounted machine guns, initiating the era of the fighter plane.
RELATED: How Airplanes Changed The Global Economy
By the time World War II heated up, fighter planes were much faster and deadlier, with lightweight frames and modernized weapons. New technologies such as radar were developed primarily as a way to improve air combat readiness.

These new machines in the sky prompted fundamental changes to ground warfare, as well. Troops began camouflaging their equipment and moving at night, to avoid overhead detection. Airplanes fueled further weaponry innovations as engineers assembled enormous anti-aircraft guns to provide ground-to-air defense.

Most crucially, aerial bombing tactics changed the very fundamentals of ground warfare. Troops and equipment staged behind the front the lines were no longer safe. Supply lines were suddenly vulnerable to attack. The bombing of civilian targets, even entire cities, introduced a new and terrible form of war.

Prior to the advent of the airplane, the nation who fielded the largest ground army typically had the advantage. Airplanes effectively negated that advantage and ended futile tactics like trench warfare.

For good or ill, the airplane has made the waging of war much more efficient. In recent years, military drone weapons have even eliminated the need for a human pilot. Surely, there's nothing to worry about there, right?

-- Glenn McDonald
Read More: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Inventing a Flying Machine
NASA: Quest for Performance: The Evolution of the Modern Aircraft Military Factory: WW1 Scout, Fighting Scout and Reconnaissance Aircraft

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When Did Airplanes Revolutionize War Strategy?

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The airplane is, of course, one the great inventions of the 20th century. In reflections on the era, it's regularity ranked right up there with the television, the automobile and the Internet. The airplane also changed the nature of warfare forever.

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"6 and 9 August 1945Hiroshima / Nagasaki: CTBTO Preparatory Commission", Home: CTBTO Preparatory Commission, www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/6-and-9-august-1945hiroshima-nagasaki

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Home

On 16 July 1945, U.S. scientists working on the Manhattan Project successfully detonated the first-ever nuclear explosion in the ' Trinity ' test at Alamogordo, New Mexico. With World War II still dragging on in the Pacific, preparations moved forward to use nuclear bombs against Japan.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a reminder of what horrors nuclear weapons can inflict.CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo

On 6 August 1945, at 08:15, the first bomb was dropped on the centre of Hiroshima. 'Little Boy' was a gun-type fission bomb, using a conventional explosive charge to fire one sub-critical mass of uranium into another. This kind of device had never been tested before, but the scientists were confident it would work.

And it did. The bomb had an explosive yield of around 13 kilotons. At the moment of detonation, a fireball was generated that raised temperatures to 4,000 degrees Celsius, turning Hiroshima - where many buildings were made of wood and paper - into an inferno. The blast created shock waves faster than the speed of sound. This and the radiation immediately killed everything within one kilometre of the hypocentre.

After the blast, those who approached ground zero searching for the missing were exposed to radiation. Black rain, containing large amounts of radioactive fallout, caused widespread contamination. Estimates of casualties vary greatly. A more conservative estimate by the atomic archive lists 66,000 people killed immediately and a total death toll of 135,000, while the U.S.-Japanese Radiation Effects Research Foundation indicates a range of 90,000 to 166,000 deaths within the first four months.

Hiroshima's many messages of peace and hope have educated the world about the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, inspiring a global campaign focused on the unacceptability of using these arms under international humanitarian and human rights law. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message for Hiroshima Day 2014

Three days later, on the morning of 9 August, a second U.S. aircraft rose from the airbase at Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean. The nuclear bomb it carried was code-named 'Fat Man'. It was a more sophisticated plutonium-based implosion-type bomb which had been tested in the Trinity test. The primary target had been the city of Kokura. However due to a thick layer of clouds, the airplane's crew reverted to the secondary target - Nagasaki.

The bomb detonated at an altitude of approximately 500 metres and had a yield of 21 kilotons. Casualty estimates by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation for immediate deaths range from 60,000 to 80,000.

In the weeks that followed the bombings and Japan's surrender, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the object of intense studies by U.S. scientists. The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission was founded to study the effects of radioactive contamination on the victims. Its results, including the extensive film and photo material taken at the time, remained classified for decades.

The bombings were officially justified as a necessary evil to end the war and avoid an invasion of Japan, which proponents claimed would have led to a greater loss of life. Critics inside and outside of the United States, however, questioned the morality and necessity of the bombings, arguing that the main reason for Japan's surrender was the Soviet Union entering the war on the side of the allies and that the diplomatic means were not exhausted. Also the possibility of bombing an unpopulated area as a demonstration has been pointed out.

With nuclear testing, countries can develop even more powerful nuclear weapons. The CTBT bans all nuclear testing. At the CTBTO, we stand ready to implement this Treaty.CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo

Over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out after 1945 by different countries. They aided the proliferation of nuclear weapons and helped to develop weapons orders of magnitude more destructive than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

Following decades of public campaigning and arduous multilateral negotiations, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was opened for signature in 1996. It bans all nuclear explosions. The Treaty has yet to enter into force.

To commemorate the victims of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Vienna, a GENBAKU NO-HI celebration took place in the Rotunda of the Vienna International Centre on 6 August 2015 at 12:00.

External links:

Next featured nuclear test:
12 August - Soviet 'RDS-6' test

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6 and 9 August 1945 Hiroshima / Nagasaki

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Home On 16 July 1945, U.S. scientists working on the Manhattan Project successfully detonated the first-ever nuclear explosion in the ' Trinity ' test at Alamogordo, New Mexico. With World War II still dragging on in the Pacific, preparations moved forward to use nuclear bombs against Japan.

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Casey MacLean, "World War I on the homefront", NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, May 2018, sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/may18/world-war-i-on-the-homefront.html

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By the end of World War I, German U-boats had managed to sink 10 vessels off North Carolina alone, and 200 American ships in total. This summer, North Carolina will remember the 100th anniversary of these historic attacks.

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The plane was a creation from the 20th century, when it began planes did not have weapons and their main purpose was to view the enemy from above. Pilots had to manually capture pictures within in the plane, by world war two planes had become more deadly such as built in machine guns. This sudden change had forced troops to move during the night and camouflaging equipment in order to not be detected from above. When enemy troops would move pilots would drop stream messages in order to alert their own of this. Military would air drop aid equipment without having the land,  Air drops is an airlift in which items including weapons, equipment and aid. The demand for air-craft in order to bomb targets increased, bringing war to civilization with attacks aimed at civilians and industrial areas causing fear. Lift, weight, thrust and drag are forces that keep an airplane in the sky. The air that moves around the airplane wings give the airplane a lift.

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The bomb used on Hiroshima is known as "little boy" this being an atomic bomb, The bomb had never been tested before but they where sure it would work. It was carried out and dropped by the Enola Gay, this being a four engine heavy bomber. Little boy's explosion, radiation and the fire had killed anything within one kilometre of its attack. This attack making the US the first nation to use atomic weaponry.  August 9th a second bomb was brought out, known as 'Fat man', a nuclear bomb that had been trinity tested. It had been carried by a B29 Superfortress four engine heavy bomber, dropped on Nagasaki.  These bombings made Japan surrender and the reason world war two ended. The bomb may have stopped war since people where far to frighten, we don't start wars as much due the fact we are afraid it will be used. This scary weapon is made by the use of combined ingredients, chemical explosives, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion

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Submarine's where used as blockade's in world was two by both parties, sinking merchant ships and warships this resulting in limitations of food, supplies and war material. The absence of these materials causing to pauses war effort and overall performance due to the needed supplies, a submarine has ballast when a submarine goes to the surface, their ballast tanks are filled with air but when the
submarine is submerged in water it pumps water in the ballast tanks. This allows the submarine to sink. The submarine known as U-boat used by the Germans in world war one had done such an affect to Great Britain's navy that they had been prohibited from use. Just as in world war one for world war two Submarine's were used as blockade. This technology impacts war due to how it immobilized the enemy's supply.