A Numbered Air Force (NAF) is a type of organization in the United States Air Force that is subordinate to a Major Command (MAJCOM) and has assigned to it operational units such as wings, squadrons, and groups. A Component Numbered Air Force (C-NAF) has the additional role as an Air Force Component Command exercising command and control over air and space forces supporting a Unified Combatant Command. Unlike MAJCOMs, which have a management role, a NAF is a tactical organization with an operational focus, and does not have the same functional staff as a MAJCOM. Numbered air forces are typically commanded by a major general or a lieutenant general.
Numerical designations for Numbered Air Forces are written out (e.g., Eighth Air Force instead of 8th Air Force), but Arabic numerals are used in abbreviations (e.g., 8 AF). Units directly subordinate to a NAF are generally numbered 6XX (where XX is the NAF number). For example, the 618th Air and Space Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center) is a unit subordinate to the Eighteenth Air Force.
Read more about Numbered Air Force: History, List of Numbered Air Forces, Named Air Forces
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All the air things wear that build this world of Wales.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“The difference between a photograph and even the most realistic painting—say, one of Courbet’s landscapes—is that in the latter there has been selection, emphasis and some discreet distortion. The painter’s deep instinctive feeling for mass and force has rearranged everything.”
—Gerald Branan (1894–1987)