Talk:Ninth Air Force

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Curtain Up at AFCENT's Air Warfare Center

—Marc V. Schanz For almost a decade, what has been known as the "Gulf Air Warfare Center" has served as a low-key hub for training, exercising, and academics for US security cooperation in the Middle East. But with the success of Operation Inherent Resolve, both US Air Forces Central Command and the UAE, who host the center at several bases in the country, are now touting its work more openly. The training center's hub is at Al Dhafra Air Base, in the United Arab Emirates, and is operated jointly by the UAE Air Force and Air Defense and AFCENT, the center's commander Col. Mark Blomme told Air Force Magazine. The respective militaries maintain staff at the AWC, composed of subject matter experts who conduct integrated training operations. Representatives from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom also participate along with UAE and USAF personnel to provide "regionally focused" air and missile defense training for around 2,000 participants from 10 nations every year.

The participation of states like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia in Operation Inherent Resolve has paid dividends in combat and built legitimacy for the operation in the Middle East, according to senior USAF leaders. This cooperation was years in the making, though, and a key component has been the US Air Forces Central Command Air Warfare Center, based out of Al Dhafra AB, UAE. On the first night of OIR's strikes in Syria, AWC Commander Col. Mark Blomme told Air Force Magazine, the US strike package commander and the flight lead for the UAE contingent collaborated to prosecute strikes on ISIS targets. They knew each other well already, as they had been classmates at the AWC several years earlier. "Relationships pay huge dividends, but they take time to develop," Blomme said. Though a low profile effort for years, the strategic value of the center's security assistance programs "cannot be overstated," he said. "It has given nations in the region the confidence to participate in coalition operations in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria," he said. Air Force Magazine, January 2015.

AFCENT: was it ever a major command?

Garuda28 you removed the category I added to Ninth Air Force by this edit. My question is not about Ninth Air Force; it's clearly a NAF. But what (was) CENTAF/AFCENT? I put that category there because I thought AFCENT was a Major Command, with 9 AF, a NAF, under it. What was AFCENT from 2009-2020? Can you or anyone help me out here? Trying to understand.. Buckshot06 (talk) 08:43, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

AFCENT from 2009 to 2020 was a named air force, which has the same status as a numbered air force. It was under ACC the entire time and never had MAJCOM status (despite its misleading name). The other ninth air force was separate organized under ACC at the same time and had no organizational link except as a force provider for all of the component-numbered air forces. Does that make sense (because it sure as heck confuses me sometimes)? Garuda28 (talk) 12:45, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. No, it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!! But everything I can find, surprising the hell out of me, backs you up; my assumption of AFCENT as a MAJCOM parenting 9 AF as a NAF was clearly incorrect. Someone should talk to the Air Force and get them to organize themselves in a clearer way, unless we still think we have a chance of confusing Putin's not so friendly watchers.. Buckshot06 (talk) 02:58, 1 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]