https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated November 14, 2022
Defense Primer: The United States Air Force
When it was established as a separate service in 1947, the
U.S. Air Force (USAF) was to be “organized, trained, and
equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and
defensive air operations ... necessary for the effective
prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned.” That
statutory language remains almost identical today.
Similarly, although the words used to describe its core
missions have changed, space and cyberspace joined air as
operational domains, and the means used to carry them out
have evolved with technology, the USAF’s missions
themselves have remained remarkably constant.
Table 1. Air Force Core Missions
Source: U.S. Air Force, Global Vigilance, Global Reach, Global Power for
America at http://www.af.mil/Airpower4America.aspx.
Air and Space Superiority
The most familiar Air Force mission, air superiority,
includes establishing and maintaining control of the skies
over conflict areas, allowing U.S. forces to operate at the
times and places of their choosing. The USAF points out
that such control is almost taken as a given, as no enemy
aircraft has killed U.S. ground troops since 1953. At the
same time, potential adversary nations are creating and
exporting advanced aircraft and anti-aircraft systems that
could threaten U.S. air superiority, leading the USAF to
invest in next-generation capabilities.
USAF systems also provide direct support to ground forces,
particularly in helping to identify and destroy time-critical
targets.
Space superiority involves securing U.S. space assets and
the ability to maintain the navigational, communications,
reconnaissance, and other capabilities U.S. space platforms
provide. These systems enable all U.S. military services’
current operating plans. These responsibilities are being
migrated to the U.S. Space Force, now a separate service
within the Department of the Air Force.
Intelligence, Surveillance, and
Reconnaissance (ISR)
Gathering information, monitoring current or potential
adversaries, and providing real-time data to forces in
combat is a continuous and growing mission. The USAF
provides ISR using manned and unmanned aircraft, space
assets, and other technologies to provide policymakers and
warfighters that data where and when it is needed. Many
Air Force assets designed for other purposes (fighters,
tankers, etc.) also gather, disseminate, or perform other ISR
functions.
Rapid Global Mobility
USAF mobility forces carry cargo and personnel around the
world, enabling operations by all U.S. and many allied
military services. Tanker aircraft make global deployments
possible, and aeromedical transport makes timely
evacuation and treatment of injured troops possible. USAF
mobility forces are also used extensively for humanitarian
relief operations.
Global Strike
100% of the Earth is covered by air, and the USAF takes
advantage of that to provide strike capability worldwide
using bombers, special operations platforms, fighters, other
aircraft, and missiles.
Global strike includes the nuclear deterrent force. Two legs
of the nuclear triad—bombers and land-based
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)—are Air Force
missions. The Air Force is modernizing the bomber fleet,
and a large-scale modernization of the ICBM force is also
underway.
Command and Control
Controlling a global force—whether USAF, other services,
or allied—requires access to reliable communications and
information networks. The Air Force, through space
platforms, space control operations, cyberspace operations,
and other means, provides and defends those global
communications networks.
Each of these missions interacts with the others. Taken
together, the Air Force sums up its core missions as
providing “Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global
Power.”
Personnel
To provide these capabilities, the Air Force requested end
strength for FY2023 is 510,400 people:
323,400 in the active Air Force,
8,600 in the active Space Force,
70,000 in the Air Force Reserve, and
108,400 in the Air National Guard.
Equipment
The U.S. Air Force operates nearly 5,800 aircraft:
