Air Combat Command - Definition and Overview

The Air Combat Command (ACC) is the major command of the United States Air Force whose mission is to provide air combat forces (mostly aircraft), to other commands, including both commands within the Air Force as well as the unified commands that include elements from different branches of the armed forces. ACC is based at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

It was created 1 June 1992 out of the Tactical Air Command (which was thereby inactivated), but also picked up some elements formerly in the Strategic Air Command, such as bombers and ICBMs (although the ICBMs were transferred to the Air Force Space Command a year later).

ACC presently includes the First Air Force, Eighth Air Force, Ninth Air Force, and Twelth Air Force, as well as the Air Warfare Center at Nellis AFB. General Hal M. Hornburg has been the commander of ACC since November 2001.

Historically, combat command was an earlier air unit designation. During 1941 and early 1942, the tactical air units of the War Department, formerly known as the GHQ Air Force, formed the Air Force Combat Command. The AFCC was dissolved in the reorganization of the U.S. Army, effective March 9, 1942, which created the Army Air Forces as a major and semi-independent component.

External link

• ACC home page (http://www2.acc.af.mil/index.stml)