United States Air Force
The Air Force organizes, trains, and equips forces for air superiority, global strike, rapid global mobility, and airborne ISR. It owns the largest share of Defense Department aircraft, and through Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Research Laboratory it is also one of the department’s largest buyers of research and development.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Service |
| Headquarters | The Pentagon, Arlington, VA |
Mission
Organize, train, and equip forces for air and space supremacy, global strike, rapid global mobility, and ISR.
The controlling statutory basis is 10 U.S.C. § 9013, which makes the Secretary of the Air Force responsible for and vested with the authority to conduct all affairs of the Department of the Air Force, read together with 10 U.S.C. § 9062 on the Air Force’s composition and functions, and mapped against the rest of the department at Title_10_Structure. Note that the current § 9013 was renumbered from the pre-2019 § 8013, which today is the Secretary of the Navy, so any source citing § 8013 for the Air Force is stale.
Key Subordinate Organizations
- ACC
- AMC
- AFSOC
- AETC
- AFMC
- AFRL
- AFGSC
- PACAF
- USAFE