Military aviation began during World War I when they essentially strapped machine guns onto biplanes in use at the time. The aerial combat of World War I did not effect the war significantly. Mainly because aircraft of that time did not have the weapons needed to attack ground targets well. The only weapon the biplanes had for ground attack were their machine guns which at best only did minimal damage.

During World War II air power influinced the war a lot more because of the development of bombers that could carry powerfull ground attack weaponry over long distinces. And because the bombers could do so much damadge air power was also needed and used to intercept these bombers.

As time has progressed air power is becoming increasingly more important with furthur developments in ground attacking weapons as well as the development of aircraft with stealth charecteristics that have the ability penetrate deep into enemy territory without being detected by defenses and bomb thier target. For exemple during Operation Desert Storm the United States Air Force played one of the major roles in destroying any production facilities or other key command targets.

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