Offensive Counter-Air (OCA) is a military term for the suppression of an enemy's military air power by destroying or disabling the aircraft on the ground and/or destroying or crippling the runways and other infrastructure necessary to operate them.
Operations include attacks on air bases. Aircraft on air bases are often more concentrated and vulnerable than they are in flight, and destroying them at their bases may be much easier than destroying them in aerial combat. Attacks on bases crowded with aircraft can have devastating results in the struggle for control of the air. After the Six-Day War in June 1967 where Israel destroyed much of Egypt's air force on the ground, most air forces have provided protection, such as bunkers for their aircraft to prevent wholesale destruction of their aircraft. Even if the attacker does not catch aerospace forces on the ground, destruction of critical base facilities can still be decisive. When air bases or space launch facilities cannot provide landing, launching, or critical support (e.g., maintenance, fuel, munitions), aerospace forces are effectively grounded.
Offensive counter-air strikes have been used since World War I, and the German attacks against allied airfields during World War II in 1945 was a particularly successful example.[1] But perhaps the most successful single OCA mission to date was the Israeli offensive that opened the Six Day War of 1967, when the Heyl Ha'avir destroyed a large portion of the air power of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, mostly on the ground. (See Operation Focus Other successful attacks include US counter air operations in Korea in 1950 and 1953, French and British attacks during the Suez Crisis and many others.[2] However, there have also been notable failures like Operation Chengiz Khan initiated by Pakistan during the 71 war and Iraqi attacks on Iran.[3]
During the 1950s, Cold War strategy of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact called for OCA to be carried out with tactical nuclear weapons, but by the mid-1960s, new policies of 'proportional response' brought about a return to conventional tactics. Beginning shortly before the Six Day War, specialized weapons were developed for disrupting runways, such as the BLU-107 Durandal anti-runway bomb. Various such weapons continue to be fielded, notably the Hunting JP233 munition used by RAFPanavia Tornado aircraft during the 1991 Gulf War.
Although OCA missions are often carried out via air strikes, they are not limited to aerial action. As a common rubric of the Cold War held, a tank parked at the end of an enemy runway is a perfectly valid counter-air weapon.
