The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.
Ninth Air Force was previously a numbered air force activated during the Second World War. For decades, Ninth Air Force supervised tactical fighter units on the U.S. East Coast. From 1983, it became the air force component of United States Central Command. From 1990, units were deployed to the Middle East against Iraq, and from 2001 against threats eminating from Afghanistan. In this role, the organization was known as United States Air Forces Central (USAFCENT).
Until August 2009, Ninth Air Force shared its commander with USAFCENT. In a complicated transfer of lineage, the Second World War-and after heritage of Ninth Air Force was bestowed solely on United States Air Forces Central, and a new Ninth Air Force, which technically had no previous history, was activated on the U.S. East Coast.
This article deals with the current organization, as the lineage of the previous organization currently belongs to USAFCENT.
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