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Actually, I think they should go the opposite way: they should eliminate the Air Force, and make it part of the Army again. The AF was split off because of the

Actually, I think they should go the opposite way: they should eliminate the Air Force, and make it part of the Army again. The AF was split off because of the Cold War, and is just a relic of that time. No other modern military force has a separate "air force", because having it separate only complicates things when conducting a conventional ground war. For a while the Air Force even thought they were going to make the Navy obsolete, because they wanted to rely on ICBMs and long-range bombers for everything.

rjsw 9y ago
Most modern military forces have a separate "air force", can you list which countries don't ?
tomjakubowski 9y ago
> No other modern military force has a separate "air force", because having it separate only complicates things when conducting a conventional ground war. Besides the US: Turkey, Syria, Russia, Israel all off the top of my head have air force and ground army (along with, at least, a navy) separate under one "Armed Forces" command. What modern air forces operate as part of the army, rather than separately (as most navies do)?
- smacktoward 9y ago
  The big one is China, where all the services are technically branches within the People's Liberation Army: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    But, from one perspective, that doesn't mean they don't have an Air Force as a top level service, it just means the PLA is the aggregate (like “Armed Forces” of many other countries) under which the top-level services exist.
  - gorkonsine 9y ago
    That really doesn't sound any different than the US, it's just different naming. In the US, all four services are branches within the "Department of Defense". So US DOD = China PLA. To properly compare, you need to look at whether the air force has the same level of autonomy from the ground army as the navy does. If it does, it's just like the US. If not, it's not.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> No other modern military force has a separate "air force" The UK has the same high level structure as the US (A “Naval Service” including Navy and Marines, an Army, and an Air Force.) It's a fairly common structure. The Chinese PLA actually has more services (Ground Force, Air Force, Rocket Force, Navy, Strategic Support Force.) There probably are modern militaries where one of the top-level divisions isn't something like an air Force, but they aren't dominant among modern, large-scale forces.

rjsw 9y ago

Most modern military forces have a separate "air force", can you list which countries don't ?

tomjakubowski 9y ago

> No other modern military force has a separate "air force", because having it separate only complicates things when conducting a conventional ground war. Besides the US: Turkey, Syria, Russia, Israel all off the top of my head have air force and ground army (along with, at least, a navy) separate under one "Armed Forces" command. What modern air forces operate as part of the army, rather than separately (as most navies do)?

smacktoward 9y ago
The big one is China, where all the services are technically branches within the People's Liberation Army: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  But, from one perspective, that doesn't mean they don't have an Air Force as a top level service, it just means the PLA is the aggregate (like “Armed Forces” of many other countries) under which the top-level services exist.
- gorkonsine 9y ago
  That really doesn't sound any different than the US, it's just different naming. In the US, all four services are branches within the "Department of Defense". So US DOD = China PLA. To properly compare, you need to look at whether the air force has the same level of autonomy from the ground army as the navy does. If it does, it's just like the US. If not, it's not.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> No other modern military force has a separate "air force" The UK has the same high level structure as the US (A “Naval Service” including Navy and Marines, an Army, and an Air Force.) It's a fairly common structure. The Chinese PLA actually has more services (Ground Force, Air Force, Rocket Force, Navy, Strategic Support Force.) There probably are modern militaries where one of the top-level divisions isn't something like an air Force, but they aren't dominant among modern, large-scale forces.