air force

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Air forces are the instrument by which air power is applied. During the 20th century there have been many innovations in warfare but perhaps the most significant has been the emergence of air power, and, with it, of independent air forces. The expansion of military activity into the third dimension revolutionized the conduct of war and resulted in the development of a new arm, demanding resources and technical and financial investment on a whole new scale. Such have become the costs of maintaining large and technologically advanced air forces that, by the end of the 20th century, only the USAF can be counted as first rate.

Moreover, the emergence of strategic air forces fundamentally changed the nature of war. Civilian populations became involved in industrial war on an increasing scale as they were often mobilized and deployed to support the war effort, but they became even more directly involved when nations began to target enemy workers. The use of strategic bombers, particularly in the closing stages of WW II, helped to make war as total as it was ever to become.

Concepts on the use of air forces date back long before powered flight became a reality. Many fictional accounts of how large air fleets might be used to destroy enemy states and populations were widely read, even before the most famous, H. G. Wells's The War in the Air, was published in 1908. In the years leading up to WW I and following the innovations of the Wright brothers, the great powers began investigating the military use of aircraft. Contrary to popular belief armies and navies did explore the possibilities of the aerial dimension, if only to ensure that opponents did not gain an advantage, but the realities of pre-1914 aero-technology precluded great progress. Nevertheless, on the outbreak of war in 1914 all major powers had some form of nascent air force, though these were firmly tied to the coat-tails of the existing armed services. Britain had made the first move towards a unified air service. Her Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed in 1912. It had a Military Wing, a Naval Wing, a Central Flying School, the Royal Aircraft Factory, and a reserve. In 1914 the naval wing was detached from the RFC to form the Royal Naval Air Service, clear evidence of the assertion of control along traditional lines.

In 1914 Russia and Germany had the most aircraft, but France, the leading light of European aviation at this time, had the best developed aero-industry. For the most part it was considered that air forces would be used primarily for scouting and reconnaissance missions, both overland and at sea. Only limited consideration had been given to aerial bombing, using naval airships (see balloons). WW I saw major innovation and expansion of air arms, and by 1918 in each major power they numbered tens of thousands of personnel and thousands of operational aircraft. To support this expansion increasing demands were made on economies, adding a further drain on resources. Only the most sophisticated states could meet the challenge of air war. Still, the most important activity undertaken by aircraft between 1914 and 1918 was reconnaissance. Once the war had settled into the trench stalemate, aerial observation of enemy forces became critical to intelligence gathering and artillery direction. Artillery was the biggest killer on the battlefield and aircraft were responsible for making it more deadly. In many ways air forces reinforced the stalemate by reducing the likelihood of surprise attacks, and by aiding the defensive capability of artillery. In order to deny the use of the air to the enemy, fighters and air superiority campaigns were born, the first being the air battle over Verdun in 1916. Control of the skies also allowed the employment of aircraft on ground support operations and bombing raids as well as reconnaissance and by 1918 air forces were participating in co-ordinated ground offensives helping to break the stalemate.

Both the Central Powers and the Allies used aircraft on strategic bombing raids, targeting enemy industries and to a lesser extent enemy civilians. These produced more panic than destruction, but they resulted in April 1918 in the creation of the world's first independent air force, the Royal Air Force (RAF), to defeat the aerial threat posed by German Zeppelins and heavy bombers. Its birth was not easy. An Air Ministry was formed in late 1917 in an effort to assert greater centralized control, and Trenchard, the first chief of the air staff, was convinced that air units would be returned to their parent services once the war was over. However, the new service, its independence symbolized by its distinctive light-blue uniform, new titles, and badges of rank (and even short-lived full-dress headgear intriguingly based on a flying helmet), was to prove remarkably durable. The Americans took a step in the same direction, removing aircraft from the control of the Signal Corps and creating an Army Air Service. However, subsequent progression to an independent air force was slow, and was accompanied by the bitter personal and institutional feuding which generally surrounded the creation of these forces. Although a Committee of the House of Representatives recommended the creation of an independent air force in 1925, it took more than twenty years for the United States Air Force to emerge. France, the USSR, and Germany all formed independent air forces in the inter-war period.

However, the creation of new institutionalized air forces had little direct impact on the formulation of air warfare theory. The manner in which air forces would be used was shaped more profoundly by the strategic environment. The USA and Japan developed maritime air forces to a higher level than other powers in the 1930s because a war in the Pacific against each other appeared a likely scenario. New notions of carrier-based aircraft delivering ‘shells’ beyond the range of even the largest guns developed and by the early 1940s the fast carrier task force had been born, eventually relegating the surface battleship to a supporting role. Aircraft carrier battlegroups were to decide the outcome of the war in the Pacific, and as the US Navy acknowledged the supremacy of the air dimension in maritime operations to a degree that the imperial Japanese navy never did, they held a significant advantage throughout the war.

Other nations recognized differing strategic needs for their air forces and thus pursued alternative lines of development. The land-based European powers required air forces to support ground operations, either directly or at an operational level. Although studies of and investment in strategic air power took place in France's Armée de l'Air, Germany's Luftwaffe, and in particular the USSR's VVS (Voyenno-Vozdushnye sily), the priority for these air forces remained the support of land-based operations. The VVS's broadly based thinking, which included a major role for strategic bombing, was jettisoned in Stalin's purge of the armed forces in the late 1930s. By 1941 the VVS was deployed in a dispersed manner to support the army, and was thus swamped and overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe during BARBAROSSA. The French Armée de l'Air was created in July 1934 but suffered from political and inter-service wrangling from the start. Some wanted the air force tied directly to localized support of ground forces, others argued it should be deployed at a divisional level, while the disastrous BCR (Bombardement Combat Reconnaissance) programme drew the French up a blind alley. How the Armée de l'Air was to be used remained open to speculation until it was far too late. The Luftwaffe's development was tied very much to Germany's strategic needs, initially being a deterrent force, and then an operational level support arm for land campaigns. Despite being prohibited from building an air force, Germany studied the lessons of WW I in great detail in the 1920s and concluded that the aircraft should be used to aid ground offensives. However, it should be noted that the Luftwaffe was never conceived and designed to be a close air support force for the army. It was a hotchpotch of a force broadly capable of many tasks but not particularly proficient at any one, although at the beginning of WW II it benefited from the flexibility conferred by broadly undefined doctrine.

The inter-war period also saw the development of strategic bombing theory, most notably in the USA and Britain. Since the end of WW I the RAF had been studying the concept of using massed heavy bombers to bombard enemy nations into submission, and in the 1930s such thinking became central to RAF philosophy (for strategic bombing was a function of air power which argued strongly for the independence of the force that performed it) and briefly to British defence policy. In the USA, theoretical work in the 1930s, especially at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell airbase, laid the foundation for the daylight bombing formations that were to be deployed in WW II. In both Britain and the USA a far too sanguine view of the unescorted heavy bomber's ability to survive and be able to find and bomb targets prevailed, leading to bloody early failures in WW II.

From the mid-1930s onwards aircraft had reached a high level of technical capability, but had not become so advanced that they could be mass-produced without crippling a nation's economy, as has occurred since the 1950s. Thus WW II was to witness the largest expansion and employment of air forces to date, on a scale almost certainly never to be repeated. The demands of maintaining a first-rate mass air force were huge and only thoroughly developed and organized economies could meet the challenge. Notably, militaristic nations such as Nazi Germany and imperial Japan were unable or unwilling to mobilize the industrial and technological resources required, and their air forces declined markedly as the war progressed. Conversely, those of the West and the USSR expanded considerably, overwhelming the Axis powers in the last two years of the war.

Tactical air power was employed with spectacular success to spearhead the German blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939-41, and their opponents returned the favour massively during the ground offensives in 1944-5. The strategic bombing campaigns prosecuted by the RAF and the USAAF eventually overcame many operational difficulties, wore down and broke the German air defences, and inflicted enormous damage on Germany and Japan in 1944-5. Such strategic air forces alone were never able to bring those states to the point of capitulation, but they contributed significantly to Allied victory. By 1945 air forces were considered an essential part of the mix of military forces necessary for success in war, but the degree of destruction they could visit upon cities had reached unacceptable levels. In the post-war years air forces, most notably the independent USAF created in 1947, were predominantly concerned with strategic nuclear war, certainly until the emergence of long-range ballistic missiles. Indeed, some of the arguments over ownership (and importance) of nuclear weapons reflected earlier debates over strategic bombing, and both the USAF and the RAF took a keen interest in grand-strategic bombers like the ill-starred B-36 and much more successful B-52 in America and the V-bombers (Valiant, Victor, and Vulcan) in Britain.

Non-strategic air forces rather stagnated in the Cold War era with much greater emphasis being placed on the delivery of missiles and stand-off bombs. Innovations occurred, notably the introduction of helicopters and the growing input of high level technology, but it was not until the 1970s that major investment in air forces grew again. The Soviet VVS expanded considerably from the late 1960s onwards, but it was the US interest in the ‘air-land battle’ concept and ‘follow-on forces attack’ that brought tactical air forces back to the forefront of military thought. Of note throughout the post-war years has been the growing reliance on technology missiles, radar, fly-by-wire, ECMs (Electronic Counter Measures), stealth, to name but a few. This has resulted in smaller numbers of aircraft than the WW II era, but much more sophisticated and with extravagant unit costs. Stealth technology has escalated costs still further, to such a degree that middle powers such as France and Britain can no longer compete and even the USSR fell behind, after bankrupting itself to maintain parity with the USA in this and other areas of military technology.

The future use of air forces in the wake of the end of the Cold War is crystallizing into two particular roles. First, they may be used in large scale multinational operations such as the Gulf war, or on occasion in ‘surgical’ strikes or what are in effect policing duties. In both cases qualitative and quantitative superiority is almost certainly assured, and the likelihood in the near future of massive air-superiority campaigns is low. Secondly, they may be deployed in peace-keeping or peace implementation roles, again almost certainly in conjunction with allied powers, or under the aegis of the UN or NATO. In both cases the need for precision to limit collateral damage is vital to meet the requirements of public opinion, if not military necessity. There is little doubt that air forces in the 21st century will offer a sophisticated global reach to the USA in particular, but they cannot be considered a panacea. Limitations will continue to exist and in complicated low-intensity operations the ability of air forces to intervene decisively continues to remain open to question.

Bibliography

• Buckley, John, Air Power in the Age of Total War (London, 1999).
• Gooch, John, Airpower: Theory and Practice (London, 1995).
• Mason, Tony, Airpower: A Centennial Appraisal (London, 1995).
• Overy, Richard, The Air War 1939-1945 (London, 1980)

— Jamie Belich/Richard Holmes

1. the branch of a nation's armed forces responsible for air warfare as well as transporting personnel and equipment by air.

2. a unit larger than a division and smaller than a command in the U.S. Air Force.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

One of the five uniformed military branches. Also, in the Air Force, a unit consisting of multiple wings and given a numerical designation (e.g. 8th Air Force). Used from World War II until the 1970s.

• Commercial Airlines, Airports, and Air Force - air force: aviation branch of armed forces
• Soldiers and Military Life - air force: military branch of airborne forces

For other uses, see Air Force (disambiguation).

For military aviation conducted by armies and navies, see army aviation and naval aviation.

Four fighters and a tanker aircraft of the USAF.

USAF B-2 Spirit stealth strategic bomber.

Refuelling a Jaguar GR1 of the Royal Air Force (1991).

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or other branch. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions and providing support to surface forces.

The term "air force" may also refer to a tactical air force or numbered air force, which is an operational formation within a national air force. Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft.

Many air forces are also responsible for operations of military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and communications equipment. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as antiaircraft artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks and defensive systems. Some nations, principally Russia, the former Soviet Union and countries who modelled their militaries along Soviet lines, have an Air Defence Force which is organizationally separate from their air force.

In addition to pilots, air forces have ground support staff who support the aircrew. In a similar manner to civilian airlines, there are supporting ground crew as pilots cannot fly without the assistance of other personnel such as engineers, loadmasters, fuel technicians and mechanics. However, some supporting personnel such as airfield defence troops, weapons engineers and air intelligence staff do not have equivalent roles in civilian organizations.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Heavier-than-air military aircraft 1.2 Independent air forces 1.3 The world wars 1.3.1 World War I 1.3.2 World War II 1.4 Strategic bombing 1.5 Post World War II 2 Air armies 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References

History

Main article: Aerial warfare

Heavier-than-air military aircraft

Balloon or flying corps are not generally regarded as examples of an air force.^{[citation needed]} However, with the invention of heavier-than-air craft in the early 20th century, armies and navies began to take interest in this new form of aviation as a means to wage war.

The first aviation force in the world was the Aviation Militaire of the French Army formed in 1910, which eventually became L'Armée de l'Air. In 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, Italy employed aircraft for the first time ever in the world for reconnaissance and bombing missions against Turkish positions on Libyan Territory. The Italian–Turkish war of 1911–1912 was the first in history that featured air attacks by airplanes and dirigible airships.^[1] During World War I France, Germany, Italy, British Empire and the Ottoman Empire all possessed significant forces of bombers and fighters. World War I also saw the appearance of senior commanders who directed aerial warfare and numerous flying aces.

Independent air forces

An independent air force is one which is a separate branch of a nation's armed forces and is, at least nominally, treated as a military service on par with that of older services like navies or armies.

The British Royal Air Force was the first independent air force in the world.^[2] The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by amalgamation the British Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. On establishment the RAF comprised over 20,000 aircraft, was commanded by a Chief of the Air Staff who held the rank of Major General and was governed by its own government ministry (the Air Ministry).

Over the following decades most countries with any substantial military capability established their own independent air forces. The South African Air Force was formed on 1 February 1920 and the Australian Air Force was formed shortly afterwards on 31 March 1921, although it was not until 1922 that the head of the Service was titled as Chief of the Air Staff, placing him on a par with his Australian Army and Navy counterparts. The Canadian Air Force was formed at the end of World War I, and was abolished and reorganized several times between 1918 and 1924. It became the permanent Royal Canadian Air Force when it received the "Royal" title by royal proclamation on 1 April 1924. It did not however become independent of the Canadian Army until 1938 when its head was also designated as Chief of the Air Staff. The Finnish Air Force was established as a separate service on 4 May 1928^[3] and the United States Air Force was formed as a separate branch of the American military on 18 September 1947.^[4] The Israeli Air Force came into being the with the State of Israel on 18 May 1948, but evolved from the pre-existing Sherut Avir (Air Service) of the Haganah paramilitary. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force was not established until 1954; in World War II Japanese military aviation had been carried out by the Army and Navy.

The world wars

RAF Supermarine Spitfire played a vital role in British victory during the Battle of Britain.

World War I

Germany was the first country to organize regular air attacks on enemy infrastructure. In World War I it used its zeppelins (airships) to drop bombs on British cities. At that time, Britain did have aircraft, though her airships were less advanced than the zeppelins and were very rarely used for attacking; instead they were usually used to spy on German U-boats (submarines).

Fixed-wing aircraft at the time were quite primitive, being able to achieve velocities comparable to that of modern automobiles and mounting minimal weaponry and equipment. Aerial services were still largely a new venture, and relatively unreliable machines and limited training resulted in stupendously low life expectancies for early military aviators.^{[citation needed]}

World War II

See also: Air warfare of World War II

By the time World War II began, planes had become much safer, faster and more reliable. They were adopted as standard for bombing raids and taking out other aircraft because they were much faster than airships. The world's largest military Air Force by the start of the Second World War in 1939 was the Red Air Force, and although much depleted, it would stage the largest air operations of WWII over the four years of combat with the German Luftwaffe.

Arguably the war's most important air operation, known as the Battle of Britain, took place during 1940 over Britain and the English Channel between Britain's Royal Air Force and Germany's Luftwaffe over a period of several months. In the end Britain emerged victorious, and this caused Adolf Hitler to give up his plan to invade Britain. Other prominent air force operations during the Second World War include the Allied bombing of Germany during 1942–1944, and the Red Air Force operations in support of strategic ground offensives on the Eastern Front. The aerial warfare in Pacific Ocean theatre was of a comparable strategic significance to the Battle of Britain but was largely conducted by the US and Japanese naval aviation services and not by air forces.

Strategic bombing

The air force's role of strategic bombing against enemy infrastructures was developed during the 1930s by the Japanese in China and by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. This role for the bomber was perfected during World War II, during Allied "Thousand Bomber Raid" operations. The need to intercept these bombers, both during the day and at night, accelerated fighter aircraft developments. The war ended when United States Army Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945.

Post World War II

A Pakistani Chengdu J-7.

The United States Air Force finally became an independent service in 1947. As the Cold War began, both the USAF and the Soviet Air Force built up their nuclear-capable strategic bomber forces. Several technological advances were widely introduced during this time: the jet engine; the missile; the helicopter; and inflight refueling.

During the 1960s, Canada took the unusual step of merging the Royal Canadian Air Force with the army and the navy to form the unified Canadian Forces, with air assets divided between several commands and a green uniform for everyone. This proved very unpopular^{[citation needed]}, and in 1975 Canadian aviation units were rebrigaded under a single organization (Air Command) with a single commander. In 2011 the Canadian Forces Air Command reverted to its pre-1960s name, the Royal Canadian Air Force. Perhaps the latest air force to become independent is the Irish Air Corps, which changed its uniform from army green to blue in the 1990s. After the Sino-Indian War of 1962, India modernized the Indian Air Force which is now the world's one of the top 5 most powerful air forces.

Air armies

Several countries title their air force Air Army, notably France and Spain. In such countries the army is officially called the Land Army, although in common usage army retains its meaning of a land force.

However, in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation the term Air Army also refers to a military formation, and during WWII eighteen Air Armies operated as part of the Red Army Order of Battle as the Soviet Air Forces in World War II. The Air Armies were divided into the air forces of the military district PVO, the Frontal Aviation Air Armies assigned one to each Front, and the Anti-Air Defence Armies that included anti-aircraft guns and interceptors.

See also

v t e Air Force units and formations Section Flight Squadron Group/Wing Tactical air force Command (USAF style) Numbered air force Command (RAF style) Air force

• List of air forces
• Aerial warfare
• History of military aviation
• Military aircraft

Notes

1. ^ Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, pg.19
2. ^ Royal Air Force 90th Anniversary History of the RAF
3. ^ "FINNISH AIR FORCE AIRCRAFT HISTORY TIMELINE". Pentti Perttula. 8 April 2008. http://www.saunalahti.fi/~ambush/faf/summary.html. Retrieved 29 August 2009. 
4. ^ 80 P.L. 253, 61 Stat. 495 (1947); Air Force Link, (2006) "Factsheets: The U.S. Air Force". U.S. Air Force, December 2008. Retrieved on 9 May 2009.

References

• "AFPC – Air Force Personnel Center", Air Force Personnel Center, Randolph AFB, Texas, 2009-01-12, webpage: randolph.af.mil-Ask.

• "United States Air Force", U.S. Air Force, 2009, webpage (large): Airforce.com (has subpages about the Air Force).

v t e List of Air forces Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cameroon Canada Chad Chile China China, Republic of (Taiwan) Colombia Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Ecuador Egypt Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Finland France Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland, Republic of Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kenya North Korea South Korea Kuwait Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Moldova Morocco Myanmar Namibia Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russian Federation Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States of America Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zimbabwe

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