United States Air Force & Civil Air Patrol By comparison, in the
United States Air Force, a
wing is normally the organizational tier below a
Numbered Air Force. Most USAF wings are commanded by a
colonel, but some are commanded by
brigadier generals. USAF wings are structured to fulfill a mission from a specific base, and contain a
headquarters and four groups: an operations group, a maintenance group, a medical group and a mission support group. Such a wing is referred to as a Combat Wing Organization, which is comparable to a
brigade in the
US Army. Other wings, such as
Air Expeditionary Wings, exist for various other purposes, and their scope may extend to one base, one theater or worldwide. In
United States Air Force usage, a military organization above a squadron level (
group,
wing,
air division,
numbered air force, air component command,
Major Command (MAJCOM)) is an
establishment, while that of a squadron and lower (
squadron,
flight, center, complex), if designated as such, is a
unit. The
U.S. Army Air Service/
U.S. Army Air Corps/
U.S. Army Air Forces wings that existed before 1947 are not comparable with the wings of the USAF.
World War II wings, for example, were expansive administrative and operational organizations that usually controlled several combat
groups and numerous service organizations, often located at widely scattered locations. Many World War II wings were redesignated as air divisions after the war. Modern wings began with a service test of combat wings in 1947-1948. These wings were temporary Table of Distribution (T/D) organizations, each having a combat group (the only Table of Organization establishment of the wings), an airdrome group, a maintenance and supply group, and a station medical group. At the end of the service test, the Air Force implemented the
Hobson Plan and replaced these T/D wings with permanent
Table of Organization and Equipment (
constituted) combat wings having a
combat group, an
air base group, a
maintenance and supply group, and a
medical group.
Constituted combat wings are always numbered in a single series beginning with Arabic "1st". Examples:
1st Fighter Wing,
21st Space Wing, and the
Strategic Air Command's
509th Bomb Wing. All
constituted wings have one, two, or three digits in their numerical designations. In many cases, the numerical designation of the wing
came from the combat group that preceded it and became an integral part of the post-World War II wing. In other words, when the 14th Fighter Wing (later,
14th Flying Training Wing) came into existence, it received the 14th numerical designation from the 14th Fighter Group, which had already existed for several years and became the wing's combat component. At the same time, the other component establishments, and units of these establishments, also received the 14th numerical designations, aligning each of them directly to the 14th Wing. However, the tactical squadrons of the combat group retained their separate and distinct numerical designations. The Air Force has three basic types of wings: operational, air base, and specialized mission. According to Air Force Instruction 38-101 (1994): • an
operational wing is a wing that has an
operations group and related operational mission activity assigned to it. When an operational wing performs the primary mission of the base, it usually maintains and operates the base. In addition, an operational wing is capable of self-support in functional areas like maintenance,
supply, and
munitions, as needed. When an operational wing is a tenant organization, the host command provides it with varying degrees of base and logistics support. • An
air base wing usually maintains and operates a base, and often provides functional support to a major command headquarters. • A
specialized mission wing may be either a host wing or a tenant wing and performs a specialized mission such as intelligence or training." In the
Civil Air Patrol, there are 52 wings (each of the 50 states plus
Washington, D.C., and
Puerto Rico). Each wing supervises the individual groups and squadrons in that state, district or commonwealth, which are the basic operational units of the organization. Some wings, for example
Delaware Wing, have only one group due to the small geographical and manpower size of the wing.
U.S. Naval Aviation (U.S. Navy and Marine Corps) The
United States Navy follows the British structure in that a wing is an administrative formation commanding two or more
squadrons of
aircraft that are based on land. Several wings are combined into a Naval Air Force. The several wings assigned to each Fleet Naval Air Force control the wing's type squadrons. A
carrier air wing (CVW, formerly known as a
carrier air group) consists of several squadrons and is an operational formation that is based on an
aircraft carrier. The squadrons of a CVW are also assigned to administrative type wings (such as
Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic). Naval Air Forces are commanded by either a
rear admiral (upper half) or a
vice admiral and wings are commanded by
captains, with the title of
commodore. Carrier air wings are commanded by either a Navy captain or a USMC colonel with the title of "CAG" (Commander, Air Group), a legacy title from the former carrier air groups. In the
United States Marine Corps, a Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) is an overall command, equivalent to a
Marine Division, consisting of at least two
Marine Aircraft Groups, a
Marine Air Control Group (MACG), a
Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron (MWHS), and a Marine Wing Headquarters (the Wing Commander and his staff). Being equivalent to a
division in size, its commander is usually a
major general. Unlike their USAF counterparts, all USN and USMC air wings are tenant activities ashore and have no command responsibility for the installation at which they are normally based when not afloat or forward deployed.
Naval air stations and Marine Corps air stations (and facilities) have separate commanding officers that are independent of the operational wing structure. Many mission support functions on these installations, such as personnel support and medical/dental facilities, are also independent of both the air wing and air station command structures and are independent tenant commands with their own commanding officers or officers-in-charge.
United States Space Force The
United States Space Force has a single command echelon known as a
delta which combines the wing and
group echelons found in air forces. == Equivalents in other languages ==