United States Air Force

The United States Air Force ( USAF ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U.S. military to be formed, and is one of the most technologically sophisticated air forces. The USAF articulates its core functions in its 2010 Posture Statement as Nuclear Deterrence Operations, Special Operations, Air Superiority, Global Integrated ISR, Space Superiority, Command and Control, Cyberspace Superiority, Personnel Recovery, Global Precision Attack, Building Partnerships, Rapid Global Mobility and Agile Combat Support.

As of 2009 the USAF operates 5,573 manned aircraft in service (3,990 USAF; 1,213 Air National Guard; and 370 Air Force Reserve); approximately 180 unmanned combat air vehicles, 2,130 air-launched cruise missiles, and 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The USAF has 330,159 personnel on active duty, 68,872 in the Selected and Individual Ready Reserves, and 94,753 in the Air National Guard as of September 2008. In addition, the USAF employs 151,360 civilian personnel, and has over 60,000 auxiliary members in the Civil Air Patrol, making it the largest air force in the world.

The Department of the Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and has the authority to conduct all of its affairs, subject to the authority, direction and control of the Secretary of Defense. The Department of the Air Force is a Military Department within the Department of Defense, and it includes all elements of the United States Air Force, i.e. the technical designation of the U.S. Air Force organization . The highest ranking military officer in the Department of the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force who exercises supervision over Air Force units, and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Air Force combat forces are assigned, as directed by the Secretary of Defense, to the Combatant Commanders, and neither the Secretary of the Air Force nor the Chief of Staff have operational command authority over them.

The core values of the Air Force are: 1) Integrity First; 2) Service Before Self; and 3) Excellence In All We Do.

Mission

According to the National Security Act of 1947 (61 Stat . 502), which created the USAF:

§8062 of Title 10 US Code defines the purpose of the USAF as:

• to preserve the peace and security, and provide for the defense, of the United States, the Territories, Commonwealths, and possessions, and any areas occupied by the United States;
• to support national policy;
• to implement national objectives;
• to overcome any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United States.

The stated mission of the USAF today is to "fly, fight, and win in air, space, and cyberspace".

Operational functions

The Air Force describes its mission in terms of 17 operational functions:

• Strategic Attack – offensive action that most directly achieves national security objectives by affecting the adversary’s leadership, conflict-sustaining resources and strategy.
• Counter-air – operations to attain and maintain a desired degree of air superiority by the destruction, degradation, or disruption of enemy forces. Counter-air takes the form of both offensive counter air against enemy air and missile power at its source, and defensive counter-air against attacking enemy air and missiles over friendly territory.
• Counter-space – destruction, degradation or disruption of enemy space capability.
• Counter-land – air and space operations against enemy land forces, including air interdiction to divert, disrupt, delay, or destroy the enemy’s surface military potential before it can be used effectively against friendly forces, and close air support to help friendly surface forces in contact with enemy forces.
• Counter-sea – tasks including sea surveillance, anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare, aerial minelaying, and air refueling in support of naval campaigns.
• Information Operations – actions taken to influence, affect, or defend information, systems, and/or decision-making, through influence , network warfare , and electronic warfare operations.
• Combat Support – capabilities, functions, activities, and tasks necessary to create and sustain air and space forces, including the procurement, maintenance, distribution, and replacement of personnel and materiel.
• Command and Control – exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission, including both process and systems.
• Airlift – transportation of personnel and materiel through the air.
• Air Refueling – in-flight transfer of fuel between tanker and receiver aircraft.
• Space-lift – delivery of satellites, payloads and materiel to space.
• Special Operations – airpower conducting unconventional warfare, direct action, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, psychological operations, and counter-proliferation.
• Intelligence – product resulting from the collection, processing, integration, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of available information concerning foreign countries or areas.
• Surveillance and Reconnaissance – systematic observation of air, space, surface, or subsurface areas, places, persons, or things, by visual, aural, electronic, photographic, or other means. Surveillance is a continuing process, not oriented to a specific target, while reconnaissance looks for specific information and generally has a time constraint.
• Combat Search and Rescue – recovery of isolated personnel with rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft.
• Navigation and Positioning – provision of accurate location and time of reference.
• Weather Services – environmental information, including both space environment and atmospheric weather.

Search and rescue

See also: United States Air Force Rescue Coordination Center

The National Search and Rescue Plan designates the United States Coast Guard as the federal agency responsible for maritime search-and-rescue (SAR) operations, and the USAF as responsible for aeronautical SAR in the continental U.S. (CONUS) with the exception of Alaska. Both agencies maintain Joint Rescue Coordination Centers to coordinate this effort. To help the USAF with the vast number of primarily civilian search and rescue operations in CONUS, the USAF assigns units of the Civil Air Patrol—the official U.S. Air Force Auxiliary—in over 91% of inland search and rescue missions.

Air sovereignty

The USAF, through the Air National Guard, is the lead agency to maintain control of America's airspace.

Prior to 11th September 2001, the USAF regarded airborne attacks within the United States as a "law enforcement issue". When the attacks occurred the USAF had four fighters available to defend the east coast of the United States, and made no successful intercepts.

On July 30, 2009, Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, director of the Air National Guard said that "Technologies needed for the mission include an active, electronically scanned array radar (which can be used to detect small and stealthy air threats including cruise missiles), infrared search and track systems and beyond-line-of-sight communications". On September 14, 2009, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, chief of staff of the USAF, said that he hopes "to bring a combination of F-22, F-35, legacy aircraft, including upgraded F-15C/D and F-16C/D fighters, and unmanned aircraft to the ASA mission."

Even so, the USAF plans to retire up to 80% of their total force of F-15C/D and F-16C/D air sovereignty mission aircraft, which would leave no usable aircraft at 18 current air sovereignty sites after 2015. The GAO found that 17 of the 20 commanders of the ASA units "stated that the Air Force treats ASA operations as a temporary mission and has not provided sufficient resources."

The USAF has decided to accept "moderate risk" for the air sovereignty mission as well as deep strike and close air support, under optimistic assumptions for F-35 production. The GAO found that the Air Force used dated material to provide these reports to the Congress. The Department of Defense has used U.S. Navy and USMC aircraft for the Air Sovereignty Mission and may do so in the future.

Irregular warfare

In response to the conflicts in which the United States has been engaged since the end of the Cold War, on August 1, 2007, Air Force Doctrine Document 2-3 was released showing how air power could be used to support or defeat an insurgency.

To support these missions, the USAF considered outfitting a counter-insurgency wing with small, ground attack aircraft that can also be used for training USAF and allied pilots in addition to counterinsurgency operations. However the 2010 QDR shifted the future Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance aircraft to the Air Force’s 6t