The RAF Staff College in the Interwar Years

Abstract

This chapter traces the RAF's emphasis since the mid-1970s on the conceptual component of air power, discussing among other themes the creation of the Director of Defence Studies and the Royal Air Force Centre for Air and Space Power Studies. Further it describes the aims and benefits of the integration of university faculty into upper level air force education courses and the equally productive placement of selected RAF officers in a range of academic programs in first ranked UK universities where the mix with civilian students provides additional benefits. These 'CAS fellowships' have produced, say the authors, 300 officers with unique perspectives which guarantee that RAF servicemen and women deliver quality intellectual input into questions of national security, ensuring that matters of air and space power are authoritatively articulated.