The United States Air Force is responsible for all major aeronautical development, and aircraft for defense and attack. There are exceptions however, as the U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Army all have airborne assets which are tasked to their respective commanders to ensure use which supports those service goals and missions.
Much work between services is proceeding however, as development of joint airborne weapons has already shown. A good example is the current effort to develop an attack aircraft that will serve all service missions, the Joint Strike Fighter program.
The Air Force is responsible in equal proportion to space borne assets as well, with a heavy emphasis on reconaissance and surveillance. This has been a long term assignment for the Air Force, with only recent declassification spelling out just how involved the Air Force has been. A key customer of the Air Force has been the CIA and perhaps the NSA in their respective roles of gathering intelligence through photographs, SIGINT, and the like.
As such, the Air Force's budget for space operations has grew dramatically over the last two decades, with several large facilities being devoted to that mission. Today, a separate and unique command, the Air Force Space Command is charged with the space borne missions, making it one of the few (if not only) such commands within the world's military structures. If space is indeed the new high ground, it is clear to most that the United States Air Force hold that high ground.
The air bombardment at the opening of the Gulf War, also clearly showed that the Air Force holds a superior force in the atmosphere as well. With the addition of stealth and super cruise fighters like the F-22, the Air Force now is armed with the best equipment in the world, and we hope its training will continue to field the best air combat personnel in the world as well.
To illustrate the growth and changes in the Air Force in the last decade, we show two diagrams.
The diagram below llustrates the structure prior to the massive down-sizing of the U.S Military which began with the breakup of the former Soviet Union, a major reduction in threat to the U.S. This particular is not "live", that is, no links are embeded withing.
This second image is the current state of affairs in the U.S. Air Force, as reported by Air Force Magazine's annual Air Force Almanac 1. This image is "live", in that clicking on a particular command will display information about that command.
The Air Force also contributes to the Special Operations Command structure with special forces operators thruough Air Force Special Operations.