On 5 June 1967, the Israeli Air Force launched a surprise attack against the Egyptian Air Force and started what was to be known as the Six Day War. The Six Day War is a good example of when a small nation manages to singlehandedly defeat a superior adversary. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the success of the Israeli Air Force and their contribution to the victory. The use of air power in the Six Day War will be analyzed, using John Warden’s Five Ring Model and Shaun Clarke’s theories about risk-based coercion and SPOT-bombing. Research findings indicate that Shaun Clarke’s theories about coercion may to some extent explain the success of the Israeli Air Force. Attacking the armed forces created the threat of further violence against more valuable and vulnerable targets causing the Arabic leaders to choose peaceful solutions instead of continued fighting. Furthermore, the SPOT-bombing analyzes show that the psychological effect that the Israeli Air Force had on their adversary played a significant role in the campaign against Egypt. However, Warden’s model could not explain the reasons behind the outcome of the war.

This study aims to test the strength of Shaun Clarkes air theory SPOT-bombing for small nations, to see if the theory could be of good use for all the small states around the world which are not able to master the capacity needed for large nation air theories. The British use of airpower during the Falkland war serves as case which is compared to the SPOT-bombing theory. The British task force, although much smaller than the Argentine military force, succeeded to win the war through extensive use of airpower. The studies analytic results reveal that the indicators taken from the air theory are not found to any greater extent in the British use of airpower during the war. Therefore this study is not able to strengthen or falsify Clarkes air theory as a whole, but reaches the conclusion that using unconventional methods are useful for a smaller state to get effect on strategic level against a larger opponent. Still, after this study there is more work to be done to test the relevance of the SPOT-bombing for small nations air theory, to be able to state if it is worth for small states to base their airpower doctrines upon it.