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.It has been a workhorse since first delivery in 1956, conductingextensive operations in Vietnam and in every conflict since.The C-17 Globe-master is the newest airlifter in the inventory.It combines the strategic rangeand lift of the retiring C-141 with the forward access provided by the C-130.The Air Force also operates a variety of small aircraft for general transporta-tion of personnel and cargo, including dignitaries.124 Shaping U.S.Military ForcesTable 4.3 shows the post Cold War noncombatant aircraft inventory andits spread across the active and reserve component.The Air Force operates two aerial refuelers: the KC-10 Extender and theKC-135 Stratotanker.The Stratotanker is yet another aircraft derived fromthe Boeing 707.The Extender is a modified Douglas DC-10 commercial air-liner than can both refuel other aircraft and haul the cargo and personnel tomake the Air Force self-deploying.The Extender can carry roughly twice asmuch fuel as the Stratotanker.The Air Force operates high-altitude, all-weather photoreconnaissanceaircraft that provide national leaders and regional combatant commanderswith standoff surveillance of the battle area.A U-2 spy plane provided thephotographs of Soviet missile bases in Cuba to President Kennedy after anearlier U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union during the Eisenhoweradministration.The subsonic U-2 was followed by the higher and faster fly-ing (Mach 3.2 ) SR-71, which first saw service during the Vietnam conflict.It has been retired without replacement.The Air Force plays an importantrole for all services by providing airborne weather reconnaissance.The sametype of aircraft performs as a hurricane tracker operating from an Air NationalGuard base in Mississippi.Air Force OrganizationsThere is a command hierarchy in the Air Force, but the hierarchy is not asimportant in understanding the Air Force as it is in understanding the Army.Airpower theory is the most important component in explaining and predictingTable 4.3Air Force Mobility Aircraft in the 1990sFirst NationalAircraft Service Active Guard Reserve TotalAirliftersC-130 Hercules 1966 98 173 606 877C-141 Starlifter 1964 241 16 12 269C-5 Galaxy 1970 70 11 28 109C-17 Globemaster III 1993 0C-21 1984 70 4 0 74C-22 1963 4 4C-9 Nightingale 1968 10 10RefuelersKC-10 Extender 1981 59 59KC-135 Stratotanker 1965 457 30 158 645Air Force 125Air Force institutional behavior.Air Force organizations are inherently flex-ible.In Army parlance, there is no fixed table of organization and equipment.Aircraft and air units can and do move freely from one organization to another.More importantly, the organizations in the hierarchy are more administrativethan warfighting constructs.Aircraft are drawn from across several organiza-tions to form a flight (the lowest echelon in the Air Force hierarchy) task orga-nized for a specific mission.The organizations that most closely represent deployed combat forcesare wings and squadrons.Wings are organized under a numbered air force withthree-star command.In this regard, numbered air forces are parallel to anArmy corps.Numbered air forces, in turn, are assigned to an Air Force majorcommand, which often doubles as the Air Force component of a combatantcommand.The major commands with operational responsibilities include theAir Combat Command, Air Mobility Command, Pacific Air Forces, UnitedStates Air Forces in Europe, and Air Force Special Operations Command.The fundamental flying organization is the wing.By comparison, the wingis at the same command level as the Army s brigade that is, it is commandedby a colonel.As the Air Force decreases from its Cold War size, wings areincreasingly being commanded by brigadier generals.This behavior is notunique to the Air Force, nor is it peculiar to modern times.Each service canbe seen to act to preserve general officer billets.But there is a more compel-ling influence at work.As the number of wings has decreased, their size hasincreased.As the emphasis has shifted from fighter wings to composite wingsand expeditionary air forces, the wing has become more complex.Wings are made of flying squadrons and several smaller supporting groups,including an operations group for planning and targeting, a logistics groupfor maintenance and supply, a support group providing base security and airfield repairs, and an air control squadron the combat equivalent of civilianair traffic controllers (see Figure 4.1).Most air bases are structured to accom-modate a wing.Flying squadrons vary in size, but fighter squadrons typicallynumber 18 or 24 aircraft, attack squadrons number 18, and bomber and airliftsquadrons number between 10 and 20.Squadrons are homogeneous that is,they are made up of a single aircraft type.Wings, on the other hand, may becomposite that is, composed of squadrons of different aircraft types.Fighter wing composition has changed in the post Cold War era.A moretraditional fighter wing might contain a mix of one air superiority squadron(F-15C Eagle), one strike fighter squadron (F-15E Strike Eagle), and twomultirole fighter squadrons (F-16C Fighting Falcon).But today s wings havea wider mix of capabilities.During the spring of 1995, the 52d Fighter Wingin Germany included one air superiority squadron, two multirole fightersquadrons, and a ground attack squadron (A-10) [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]