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Library > Fact Sheets > UNITED STATES AIR FORCES IN EUROPE
UNITED STATES AIR FORCES IN EUROPE
Posted 1/8/2013
Printable Fact Sheet
U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), with headquarters at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is a major command of the U.S. Air Force. It is also the air component for two Department of Defense unified commands - U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM).
Mission
As the air component for both USEUCOM and USAFRICOM, USAFE executes the Air Force, USEUCOM and USAFRICOM missions with forward-based airpower and infrastructure to conduct and enable theater and global operations. USAFE directs air operations in a theater spanning three continents, covering more than 19 million square miles, containing 105 independent states and possessing more than a quarter of the world's population and more than a quarter of the world's Gross Domestic Product.
During most of the Cold War, USAFE was a fight-in-place force postured for a large-scale conflict. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it has transitioned to an Air Expeditionary Force with a mobile and deployable mix of people and resources that can simultaneously operate in multiple locations. Its role includes warfighting as well as humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, and other non-traditional contingencies throughout its area of responsibility.
In peacetime, USAFE trains and equips Air Force units pledged to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In fulfilling its NATO responsibilities, USAFE maintains combat-ready wings based from the United Kingdom to Turkey. USAFE plans, conducts, controls, coordinates and supports air and space operations in Europe, Africa and Asia to achieve U.S. national and NATO objectives based on taskings by the USEUCOM commander.
USAFE assets stand ready to perform close air support, air interdiction, air defense, in-flight refueling, long-range transport and support of maritime operations. It maintains a formidable force despite a rapid drawdown that saw its main operating bases cut by 67 percent following the end of the Cold War. USAFE remains a highly responsive and capable combat force, as witnessed in the command's support of contingency and humanitarian operations throughout Europe and parts of Africa.
Personnel and Resources
More than 39,000 active-duty, Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian employees are assigned to USAFE. Equipment assets include about 225 fighter, attack, rotary wing, tanker, and transport aircraft, and a full complement of conventional weapons.
Organization
USAFE consists of one Numbered Air Force, seven main operating bases and 114 geographically separated locations.
Third Air Force supports USEUCOM. It is USAFE's Component Numbered Air Force responsible for maintaining continuous theater-wide situational awareness and providing the commander of Air Force forces here the capability to command and control assigned and attached Airmen.
USAFE also serves as Headquarters Air Forces Africa and supports USAFRICOM via command and control of air forces to conduct sustained security engagement and operations as directed to promote air domain safety, security and development.
The USAFE main operating bases are: RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom; Ramstein and Spangdahlem Air Bases in Germany; Aviano Air Base, Italy; Lajes Field in the Azores; and Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. These bases report to Ramstein's Third Air Force for day-to-day and contingency operations.
History
USAFE originated as the 8th Air Force in 1942 and flew heavy bombardment missions over the European continent during World War II. The command was given its current name in August 1945 when it had 17,000 airplanes and 450,000 people.
During the Berlin Airlift from 1948-1949, USAFE airlifted more than 1.6 million tons of food, fuel and medical supplies to the blockaded city. With the formation of NATO in 1949, the United States was committed to help defend Western Europe against aggression from the Soviet Union, a mission that continued until the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In March 1973, Headquarters USAFE transferred from Lindsey Air Station, Wiesbaden, West Germany, to Ramstein Air Base. In the mid-1980s, USAFE maintained and operated 25 main bases and more than 400 geographically separated units in 190 different locations. These bases supported about 850 aircraft. The community stood at more than 140,000: 60,000 active-duty Airmen, 10,000 civilian workers and almost 70,000 family members.
Beginning in late 1990, USAFE mobilized and moved more than 180 aircraft and 5,400 people to the Persian Gulf supporting Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In addition, 100 aircraft and 2,600 personnel deployed to Turkey for Operation Proven Force, which denied the Iraqis a safe haven for their military forces in the northern part of their country. USAFE also activated aeromedical staging facilities and contingency hospitals. More than 9,000 patients, mostly suffering from noncombat-related illnesses and injuries, were evacuated to Europe. Of these, more than 3,000 were treated at USAFE medical facilities.
After Desert Storm, USAFE provided emergency relief to Kurdish refugees fleeing Iraqi forces and enforced a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. This mission, known first as Operation Provide Comfort and later as Operation Northern Watch, continued until March 2003.
Since 1990, USAFE has handled more than 70 contingencies, twice as many as in the 1970s and 1980s. The command took part in Operations Provide Hope I and II, which airlifted food and medical supplies to the people of the former Soviet Union. It supported Provide Promise, the airlifting of supplies into war-torn Yugoslavia from July 1992 until December 1995.
USAFE also provided air protection over the skies of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Operation Deny Flight. Along with allies from NATO countries, USAFE aircrews applied airpower in Operation Deliberate Force, the bombing campaign that paved the way for the Dayton Peace Agreement. USAFE theater air control forces provided tactical Air Battle Management Command and Control over the Adriatic and Balkans airspaces from the outset of Operation Deny Flight in 1995 until the end of Operation Allied Force in 1999. USAFE then helped deploy Peace Implementation Forces and equipment to Bosnia-Herzegovina for Operation Joint Endeavor and sustained them by airlift.
USAFE forces again mobilized in March 1999 when NATO intervened in Kosovo to stop Serbian repression of the province's ethnic Albanian majority. Efforts to find a diplomatic solution collapsed, resulting in Operation Allied Force, the NATO-led air war over Kosovo. USAFE expanded from nine bases in five countries to 25 bases in 15 countries. The 78-day operation ended June 10, culminating in the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo and the eventual return of refugees to their homeland. USAFE's Third Air Force led Joint Task Force Shining Hope, established to assist hundreds of thousands of refugees expelled from Kosovo by Serbian soldiers and paramilitaries. USAFE continues to contribute to NATO-led forces promoting peace and stability in Kosovo.
The command has been on the front lines of the war on terror since September 11, 2001. During Operation Enduring Freedom, it supported an air bridge from Europe to Asia that delivered 3,300 tons of humanitarian daily rations to northern Afghanistan, opened a base in Kyrgyzstan for coalition forces and established a medical evacuation network that moved nearly 4,000 patients. USAFE deployed 24 fighter aircraft, eight KC-135 tankers and nearly 2,400 people in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It opened an important airfield in northern Iraq and provided critical enroute support to deploying forces, as well as vital logistical and medical support to forward-deployed forces.
Following the August 2008 clash between Russia and Georgia, USAFE built an air bridge to Georgia to provide humanitarian assistance. The effort was coordinated by the U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and Georgian officials. The Department of Defense was asked to support with a joint U.S. military operation which launched with the delivery of pallets of medicine, clothing, sleeping bags, cots and other essential items.
The staff at Third Air Force headquarters at Ramstein led the contingency planning effort as the operational arm of USAFE. The first deliveries into Georgia were flown by a C-17 Globemaster crew whose cargo included 104,000 doses of antibiotics. USAFE's 1st Combat Communications Squadron sent a team to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to provide communications support to the U.S. Embassy and to American military personnel.
USAFE averaged more than 1,500 personnel deployed to the U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility in 2006. More than 3,000 were deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and other contingency operations. USAFE also hosted an average of 300 ANG and more than 1,000 active-duty personnel to the USEUCOM's AOR in 2006.
In 2009, President Barack Obama announced the decision for the U.S. to implement a "phased, adaptive" approach for missile defense in Europe using a phased implementation, adaptive to an evolving security environment. This capability uses proven, cost-effective, increasingly capable sea- and land-based missile interceptors and sensors in Europe to defend against ballistic missile threats. The capability also augments current protection of the U.S. homeland against long-range ballistic missiles and offers more effective defenses against near-term ballistic missiles for the defense of U.S. deployed forces, their families and European allies. HQ USAFE has a leading role in the timely implementation of the "phased, adaptive" approach by organizing, training and equipping USAFE Airmen and joint forces to effectively integrate command and control of air and missile defense capabilities in support of the area air defense commander and USAFE commander.
With the command now marking its seventh decade of active service, USAFE continues to provide combat ready forces, maintain vital access to three continents, and assure friends and allies while building their operational capacity.
Most recently these unique attributes came to the forefront during U.S. support to operations in Libya in 2011. When the United Nations called upon the international community for action, USAFE was able to quickly drawn upon its people and resources to provide humanitarian assistance in the early crisis.
Later, USAFE, its NAF and several wings contributed on-hand combat forces as part of a coalition of European and other partner nations to protect the Libyan populace from the violence of the Qadhafi regime. After NATO assumed responsibility for Libya in March 2011, USAFE bases continued their support for follow-on operations.
Point of Contact
U. S. Air Forces in Europe, Public Affairs Office; Unit 3050, Box 120; APO AE 09094-0120; DSN 314-480-6558 or commercial (011) 49-6371-47-6558.
Last updated Jan. 8, 2013
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