The near- and far-field break-up and atomization of a water jet by a high-speed annular air jet are examined by means of high-speed flow visualizations and phase Doppler particle sizing techniques. Visualization of the jet's near field and measurements of the frequencies associated with the gas–liquid interfacial instabilities are used to study the underlying physical mechanisms involved in the primary break-up of the water jet. This process is shown to consist of the stripping of water sheets, or ligaments, which subsequently break into smaller lumps or drops. An entrainment model of the near-field stripping of the liquid is proposed, and shown to describe the measured liquid shedding frequencies. This simplified model explains qualitatively the dependence of the shedding frequency on the air/water momentum ratio in both initially laminar and turbulent water jets. The role of the secondary liquid break-up in the far-field atomization of the water jet is also investigated, and an attempt is made to apply the classical concepts of local isotropy to explain qualitatively the measurement of the far-field droplet size distribution and its dependence on the water to air mass and momentum ratios. Models accounting for the effect of the local turbulent dissipation rate in the gas on both the break-up and coalescence of the droplets are developed and compared with the measurements of the variation of the droplet size along the jet's centreline. The total flux of kinetic energy supplied by the gas per unit total mass of the spray jet was found to be the primary parameter determining the secondary break-up and coalescence of the droplets in the far field.