Chapter 1: Our Mission and our Structure
"The mission of the Air Force is not drill, or uniforms, or push ups
the mission of the Air Force is to kick butt."
- MGen Mark Welsh (USAFA C/O 1976)
When I was a basic cadet at CA Wing's encampment in 1996, we had an Air Force Structure, Mission, and Heritage class. It was about 3 hours long, and the only thing I remember from it is that it made me want to gouge my eyes out. I want to teach you about the Air Force that YOU are a part of so that you understand where CAP fits, and what opportunities are available to you in your future. This article is partly to teach you, and partly to help you teach others by using it as a hand out in your own class.
Part 1: What we do
The first thing we have to nail down is what the Air Force does.
The Official Air Force Mission Statement right now is:
To deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace.
That is cool, but I don't understand what that all means, so I am going to tell you how I define our mission:
The controlled application of military violence to achieve a political objective. We operate in places others can't (air, space, cyberspace) to kill the bad guys and break their stuff.
To do that mission well, we have to be good at certain things. Those are our "core competencies".
- Air and space superiority - We have to own the skies
That means that we keep enemy planes from bombing us, and we keep enemy planes from attacking us as we bomb them. When most people think of this role, they think of dogfights, but that is only one part of it. We would much rather bomb the enemy's runways so they can't take off to threaten us in the first place - so even bombers can be "air superiority" assets.
- Global attack - We have to be able to put a bomb anywhere in the world
That means we have to be able to get a plane there to drop the bomb. Sometimes that means long range bombers. Sometimes that means tankers to gas up the strike fighters. Sometimes that means launching a cruise missile, or even a computer virus. We also need planes that can penetrate enemy defenses like the F-117 and B-2. The enemy needs to know that he is never safe from us, even hidden in a cave across the world or protected by air defenses.
- Rapid global mobility - We have to be able to get there
Cool toys, tactics, and training win battles. Being able to move and mass wins wars. We need LOTS of BIG planes to move not only ourselves, but the other services to the fight.
- Precision engagement - We don't want to have to blow up a city just to shut down a factory
We can't afford to hurt innocent civilians or our own troops when we attack a target. We spend a great deal of time and effort figuring out what we want to attack and how to do that without hitting anything else.
- Information superiority -We like to mess with the enemy's ability to communicate
We need to be able to get our message out to the world, but keep him from doing the same. We need to be able to communicate with each other but keep the enemy commanders from giving commands to their troops.
- Agile combat support - We have to be able to support the force
get gas and bombs to our planes and food to our people
A plane without gas in it is a very expensive paperweight. A bomber with no bombs, or cargo plane that needs a new engine is useless. Soldiers who aren't getting paid or fed don't help much. The military is a huge machine and it takes a lot of people and resources to keep it moving.
We built our Air Force around those tasks.
Part 2: How we do it.
The organizations in the Air Force that we use to create, train, and prepare our forces are called Major Commands (you might hear them called MAJCOMS). Major Commands are all about getting us ready to fight and they are built around core functions.
F-15C from Langley AFB |
A C-130 conducting a LAPES drop |
T-6 Texan II |
Air Force ICBM test. |
Air Education and Training Command- Handles all of the schools in the Air Force. They own pilot training, basic training, officer training, professional military education schools, and technical schools. AETC is where pretty much everyone in the Air Force starts.
Air Combat Command- Owns all of the Fighters, Bombers, and Rescue forces at Air Force Bases in the US. ACC owns the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, which directs our SAR missions.
Air Mobility Command - Is in charge of our tankers and cargo planes. AMC is always operating, always moving people to and from contingencies, always flying.
Air Force Special Operations Command- Owns all the units in charge of inserting, extracting, and re-supplying Special Operations Forces, trains other countries to fly, and does direct attack using the mighty AC-130 Gunship.
Air Force Materiel (with an "e") Command- Designs, builds, and fixes systems for the Air Force. Most of our scientists and engineers work for AFMC to create the next generation of weapons and equipment. AFMC also handles depot level maintenance on our aircraft.
Pacific Air Forces and US Air Forces in Europe- Are two major commands that we use to give us an edge in rapid global mobility and global attack. We position forces around Europe and Asia to help protect our allies and to be close by if a fight breaks out.
Air Force Space Command- Runs our satellites and missiles. They provide early warning if someone attacks, they help us communicate and navigate (using GPS), and they give us an instant global strike capability through intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard- Are in charge of keeping forces ready in case of a war or contingency. Don't let the term "reserve" fool you, many of them are busier than Active Duty forces, but the reserves give the Air Force more flexibility to handle a sudden demand like September 11.
That system works great in peacetime, but when we go to war, we work with our sister services and our allies. We also want our commanders to be experts in the region we are fighting in (imagine how different fighting in the jungles of Vietnam might be from the deserts of Iraq). So when we fight, we fight as a component of larger joint Unified Combatant Commands.
Those commands are mostly geographic in nature:
- US Central Command - handles operations in Central Asia and the Middle East
- US Southern Command - handles operations in Central and South America
- US Pacific Command - handles operations in the Pacific Rim
- US Northern Command - protects North America
- US European Command - handles operations in Europe and most of Africa
Map of geographic Unified Combatant Commands. |
But some operations are always running all over the world. We are always transporting stuff, watching for nuclear threats, and employing Special Ops Forces. So some of our unified commands are functional:
- US Strategic Command -Is responsible for our nuclear operations
- US Transportation Command - Is responsible for moving all of the people and stuff that the other commands will need for their operations
- US Special Operations Command - Is in charge of doing shady things in shady places with shady people
- US Joint Forces Command - Is in charge of getting our domestic based forces ready to deploy
As you can tell, we have a lot going on all over the place. If you want to learn more about what the Air Force does and how we are built to do it, I suggest the following reading:
Of course, Airpower is more than just the Air Force. Everyday, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, even other agencies like the Intelligence Community and the Federal Aviation Administration contribute to our dominance and exploitation of the air.
1st Lt James Naugle is an Active Duty Air Force officer who graduated the Air Force Academy in 2003. He travels the country spreading "truthiness" to CAP squadrons about Air Force careers and commissioning sources. He has been active in Civil Air Patrol since he was 13.