Air Combat Command: Difference between revisions

The Air Combat Command (ACC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force whose mission is to provide air combat forces (mostly aircraft), to other commands, including both commands within the Air Force as well as the United States' Unified Combatant Commands that include elements from different branches of the armed forces. ACC is headquartered at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

ACC is one of ten major commands (MAJCOMs), reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force (HQ USAF).

Mission

ACC operates fighters, bombers, reconnaissance, battle management, and electronic-combat aircraft, as well as command, control, communications, and intelligence systems, and conducts global information operations. As a force provider, ACC organizes, trains, equips, and maintains combat-ready forces for rapid deployment and employment while ensuring stragetic air defense forces are ready to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty and wartime air defense. ACC numbered air forces provide air componency to USCENTCOM and USSOUTHCOM with Headquarters ACC serving as the air component to USNORTHCOM and USJFCOM. ACC also augments forces to United States European Command, USPACOM, and USSTRATCOM.

Units

ACC presently includes the First Air Force, Eighth Air Force, Ninth Air Force, and Twelfth Air Force, as well as the Air Warfare Center at Nellis AFB. General Ronald E. Keys has been the commander of ACC since May 2005.

Personnel and resources

More than 109,000 active duty members and civilians make up ACC's workforce (approximately 98,000 active duty members and more than 11,000 civilians). When mobilized, more than 63,000 members of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, along with over 600 aircraft, are assigned to ACC. In total, ACC and ACC-gained units consist of more than 1,750 aircraft.

History

Air Combat Command was created 1 June 1992 by the merging of the Tactical Air Command (TAC), Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Military Airlift Command (MAC). A brief ceremony at Langley Air Force Base (AFB) marked the inactivation of TAC and the activation of ACC. On the same day, Air Mobility Command (AMC) at Scott AFB, Illinois, came into being.

Activation

Following the inactivation of SAC at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, a new unified command, the United States Strategic Command, stood up at Offutt, created to manage the combined strategic nuclear forces belonging to the Air Force and the Navy.

Upon activation, ACC assumed control of all fighter resources based in the continental United States, all bombers, reconnaissance platforms, battle management resources, and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Furthermore, ACC had some tankers and C-130s in its composite, reconnaissance, and certain other combat wings. In 1992 control of the ICBM force was transferred to the Air Force Space Command.

Historically, combat command was an earlier air unit designation. During 1941 and early 1942, the tactical air units of the War Department, formerly known as the GHQ Air Force, formed the Air Force Combat Command. The AFCC was dissolved in the reorganization of the U.S. Army, effective March 9, 1942, which created the Army Air Forces as a major and semi-independent component.

Mission Realignments

Combat Search and Rescue

Not long after activation, ACC underwent organizational and mission changes dictated by the Air Force Chief of Staff's evolving vision of the Air Force. The first such major change was the transfer of the combat search and rescue mission from AMC to ACC. With the realigning of search and rescue units, ACC gained additional resources, as well as a new mission. This move was due to General McPeak's decision to remove the responsibility for combat search and rescue from a "support" command and integrate it into the Air Force's warfighting organizational structure. The formal transfer took place on 1 February 1993, when the Air Rescue Service (ARS) was assigned to ACC. On 2 July of the same year, the ARS was redesignated the USAF Combat Rescue School and was assigned to the 57th Wing at Nellis AFB, Nevada.

Flight Training

One of the most significant changes for ACC resulted from an overhaul of flying training responsibilities. Following its activation, ACC was responsible for aircraft-specific aircrew training, including initial weapon system and continuation training. On 1 July 1993, the 58th and 325th Fighter Wings -- F-16 and F-15 training units -- transferred from ACC to the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). Concurrently, Luke AFB, Arizona, and Tyndall AFB, Florida, for which those respective wings were the host units, also moved from ACC to AETC ownership.

Tanker and Airlift

The next major organizational change resulted from a fine-tuning of tanker and airlift resources. From its activation, ACC had assumed ownership of a few C-130 theater airlift assets and KC-10 and KC-135 tankers. Just as ownership of overseas C-130 resources had already been transferred to theater commanders, General McPeak determined that all C-130s based in the CONUS would be under the control of ACC, while at the same time, almost all KC-135 tankers would be assigned to AMC.

There was historical precedent for the reassignment of C-130s to ACC. During the earliest days of TAC, the command had carried out the "tactical" or combat airborne aspect of airlift operations, leaving the "strategic" or aerial resupply mission to Military Air Transport Service (the precursor of MAC). The tactical airlift mission included logistical airlift, airborne operations, aeromedical evacuation, and air support for special operations. This division of the airlift mission continued until 1 December 1974, when TAC transferred its CONUS-based tactical airlift units, including ANG and Reserve units, to MAC. MAC gained the overseas units from theater commands on 31 March 1975.

On 1 October 1993, all AMC C-130s transferred to ACC and all ACC KC-135 tankers except those at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, which supported the fighter and bomber aircraft of the composite wing stationed there, transferred to AMC. The command also kept two KC-135s at Offutt AFB. Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, transferred to AMC on 1 October 1993, with McConnell AFB, Kansas, and Fairchild AFB, Washington, transferring in January and July, respectively, of the following year.

Operational Deployments

In Southwest Asia, ACC provided active duty and reserve component forces for Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch to deter Iraqi aggression. In October 1994, ACC also demonstrated its ability to react quickly to the buildup of Iraqi troops near the border of Kuwait. In addition, ACC, from its inception, has provided indispensable support to counter-drug operations, including Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), reconnaissance and fighter aircraft, and radar and connectivity assets.

Participation in humanitarian operations has also been a recurring theme. Air Combat Command supported the humanitarian efforts of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), deploying active duty and air reserve component forces to Provide Promise and Deny Flight in Eastern Europe and Operation Provide Comfort out of Incirlik AB, Turkey. Provide Promise offered humanitarian relief airlift support to the city of Sarajevo, while Deny Flight enforced the "no-fly" zone against Serb air attacks on Bosnian civilians. Operation Provide Comfort, another humanitarian operation, also provided relief to Kurdish inhabitants of northern Iraq who had undergone fierce repression by the Iraqi government.

In addition, ACC supported US Atlantic Command's humanitarian relief to Haitian refugees associated with Operation GTMO at Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Similarly, the command supported Operation Safe Haven and the processing of Cuban refugees during the latter part of the summer of 1994. Across the Atlantic, Air Combat Command units participated in Operation Restore Hope, largely an Air Mobility Command humanitarian operation intended to provide food for Somalia. Also, ACC regular and gained C-130 Air National Guard units deployed to Uganda and Kenya to participate in Support Hope. This operation, conducted by the US European Command, comprised part of the United Nations effort to provide humanitarian relief to victims of the civil war in Rwanda.

In keeping with its global responsibilities, ACC initiated a series of "Global Power" missions in 1993. ACC's bomber wings are required to perform out-of-CONUS training flights to demonstrate the capability to perform their "quick reaction" worldwide mission. On one of the global power missions, two B-1B aircraft of the 28th Bomb Wing, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, set a B-1 flying time record on the first leg of their round-the-world flight, 11-13 August 1993. The following year, two B-52s from the 2d Bomb Wing, Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, circumnavigated the globe in 47.2 hours, the longest jet aircraft flight in history.

Global War On Terror

Air Combat Command units flew operational missions during the 2002 Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan (OEF-A) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The task of developing a comprehensive listing of ACC units present in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat areas is particularly difficult as the events of 11 September 2001 and the Global War on Terrorism has made such an effort significantly difficult. The USAF seeks to improve operational security (OPSEC) and to deceive potential enemies as to the extent of American operations, therefore a listing of which units deploying where and when is unavailable.

However, it is certain that ACC units are actively flying combat missions currently over both Afghanistan and Iraq.

See Also

• First Air Force
• Eighth Air Force
• Ninth Air Force
• Twelfth Air Force
• Tactical Air Command
• Strategic Air Command

References

This article contains information that originally came from US Government publications and websites, in the public domain.

External links

• Air Combat Command web site