Abstract
This brief examines the development of the first Danish Air Force Air Operations Doctrine, which was officially commissioned in October 1997 and remained in effect until 2010.The development of a Danish air power doctrine was heavily influenced by the work of Colonel John Warden (USAF), both through his book ”The Air Campaign” and his subsequent planning of the air campaign against Iraq in 1990-1991. Warden’s ideas came to Denmark and the Danish Air Force by way of Danish Air Force students attending the United States Air Force Air University in Alabama, USA. Back in Denmark, graduates from the Air University inspired a small number of passionate airmen, who then wrote the Danish Air Operations Doctrine. The process was supported by the Air Force Tactical Command, which found that the work dovetailed perfectly with the transformation process that the Danish Air Force was in the midst of during the latter part of the 1990s. The ideas generated by the Danish Air Force later came to good use when Danish air force officers participated in the work that led to the formulation of the NATO Air Power Doctrine (AJP 3.3). During the latter part of the 2000s, the Danish Air Force found that the AJP 3.3 had overtaken and superseded the existing Danish doctrine, which was therefore replaced with a list of recommended readings.