CENTRE FOR AIR POWER STUDIES

Since late 2005, cadets on the RAF's Initial Officer Training Course at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell have enjoyed a far more extensive and rigorous academic syllabus than before. That syllabus is the handiwork of the Air Power Studies Division, a specialist branch of King's College London's Defence Studies Department.

The Air Power Studies Division aspires to provide world-class, broad and critical defence-related education to RAF non-commissioned officers as well as officers across various levels from initial officer training and junior NCO courses through to the RAF's flagship single-service course: the Higher Air Warfare Course. Based at the historic and prestigious Royal Air Force College in Lincolnshire, where it provides most of its teaching, in April 2008 the team also began teaching Royal Air Force NCOs at all levels at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire. The team works closely with the RAF Regiment on its various academic activities and sets and assesses its major essay competitions.

The Air Power Studies Division, which serves as a core component of the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies (RAF CAPS), aims to develop into a national (and internationally recognised) centre of excellence in Air Power and related Defence research and teaching. It also seeks to generate academic discourse and public awareness of Air Power's unique abilities, activities and accomplishments across the spectrum of conflict.

The team is committed to supporting the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff and the Directorate of Defence Staffs with specialist advice and the production of high-level research.

Resources for officer cadets on the Initial Officer Training (IOT) Course -- including specimens examples of Bandar Essays and Air Power Studies exam answers -- can be found HERE.