Replication Data for: Looking to the Skies: Operation Unified Protector and the Strategy of Aerial Intervention

What are the different ways in which an intervener can use airpower to enhance a rebel organ-ization’s ability to capture government-held territory? Multiple studies have analyzed how foreign airpower can be employed as a counterinsurgency tool, intended to reduce the frequency and lethality of insurgent attacks. However, many civil wars are fought conventional-ly, and non-state actors can benefit from military interventions that helps them to overcome the advantage in capabilities often enjoyed by their government adversaries. I analyze how airpower can be used in support of a rebel organization engaged in a conventional civil war, contributing to its ability to produce salient battlefield information. I argue that that an inter-vener can employ direct attack against heavy weapons and anti-aircraft assets, and interdiction of command and control capabilities and logistics, in order to diminish the government’s ad-vantage in conventional capabilities. In doing so, foreign airpower contributes to the rebels’ ability to capture territory, a crucial intermediary goal and source of battlefield information when attempting to impose defeat on the government. Through a quantitative case study of Operation Unified Protector and the 2011 Libyan Civil War, I find that coalition airstrikes against the Libyan government’s heavy weapons, logistics, and anti-aircraft assets contributed to the Libyan rebels’ ability to capture territory. By contrast, strikes against the government’s command and control capabilities had no effect.

干预方可以通过哪些不同方式运用空中力量，提升反叛组织夺取政府控制领土的能力？已有多项研究探讨了外国空中力量作为反叛乱工具的运用方式，其核心目标是降低叛乱袭击的发生频次与杀伤力。然而，诸多内战以常规作战形式展开，非国家行为体可借助军事干预，弥补其与政府对手之间的能力差距。本文探讨空中力量如何用于支援参与常规内战的反叛组织，进而提升其获取关键战场情报的能力。本文提出，干预方可通过对重型武器与防空装备实施直接打击，以及对指挥控制系统与后勤设施实施封锁，削弱政府方在常规作战能力上的优势。通过上述行动，外国空中力量可助力反叛组织夺取领土——这是试图击败政府方过程中至关重要的阶段性目标，同时也是战场情报的重要来源。本文通过对统一守护者行动（Operation Unified Protector）与2011年利比亚内战的量化案例研究发现，联军针对利比亚政府军重型武器、后勤设施及防空装备的空袭，提升了利比亚反叛组织夺取领土的能力。相较而言，针对政府军指挥控制系统的空袭则未产生显著效果。