Page "Battle" Paragraph 44

Today, direct engagements between aircraft are rare-the most modern fighter-interceptors carry much more extensive bombing payloads, and are used to bomb precision land targets, rather than to fight other aircraft.

Anti-aircraft batteries are used much more extensively to defend against incoming aircraft than interceptors.

Despite this, aircraft today are much more extensively used as the primary tools for both army and navy, as evidenced by the prominent use of helicopters to transport and support troops, the use of aerial bombardment as the " first strike " in many engagements, and the replacement of the battleship with the aircraft carrier as the center of most modern navies.