Continental Air Forces (CAF) was aUnited States Army Air Forces major command, active 1944–1946. It was tasked with combat training of bomber and fighter personnel, and forContinental United States (CONUS) air defense. This took place after theAircraft Warning Corps andGround Observer Corps were placed in standby during 1944. It conducted planning for the postwarUnited States general surveillance radar stations, and the planning to reorganize to a separate USAF was for CAF to become the USAFAir Defense Command.
On 21 March 1946, CAF headquarters personnel and facilities atBolling Field, along with one of CAF's four Air Forces (Second Air Force—which had its HQ inactivated on 30 March[1]) becameStrategic Air Command.Eighth Air Force andFifteenth Air Force were transferred later to SAC. Most of the CAF airfields that had not been distributed to other commands when SAC was activated were subsequently transferred toAir Defense Command (to which CAF'sFirst andFourth Air Forces were assigned on 21 March),Tactical Air Command (Third Air Force), andAir Materiel Command between March 1946 and March 1947.[2]
On 16 January 1941, four Air Districts were established (Northeast,Northwest,Southeast, andSouthwest). The air districts handled air defense, "organization and training of bomber, fighter and other units and crews for assignments overseas", and training maneuvers with theArmy Ground Forces. The four districts were redesignated on 26 March 1941 as theFirst Air Force,Second Air Force,Third Air Force, andFourth Air Force, respectively.[3]
CAF was activated 12 December 1944 atAndrews Field with Brigadier General Eugene H. Beebe in command.[4][5] The four continental air forces became its components, which consolidated the CONUS air defense mission under one command.[6] In August 1945 CAF was assigned the AAFRadar Bomb Scoring mission for bomber training/evaluation whenMitchel Field's63d Army Air Force Base Unit transferred to CAF.[7] CAF's air defense mission was documented in AAF Regulation 20-1, dated 15 September 1945.[6]
A plan for developingAndrews Field as the headquarters of the Continental Air Forces for September 1944 was enacted.[8]: 164 (CAF HQ eventually transferred from Andrews toBolling Field).
After a June 1945 meeting with AAF headquarters about air defense, CAF recommended "research and development be undertaken on radar and allied equipment for an air defense system [for] the future threat", e.g., a "radar [with] range of 1,000 miles, [to detect] at an altitude of 200 miles, and at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour".[9] TheHQ AAF Director of Operations responded that "until the kind of defense needed to counter future attacks could be determined,AC&W planning would have to be restricted tothe use of available radar sets".[10] CAF's January 1946Radar Defense Report for Continental United States recommended the military characteristics of apost-war Air Defense System "based upon such advanced equipment",[11] and the Plans organization of HQ AAF reminded "the command that radar defense planning had to be based on the available equipment".[12] At the Watson Laboratories in New Jersey,[13]AMC'sElectronics Subdivision held a "Manufacturers Conference" on 26–28 June 1946 for planning the "Improved Search Radar".[14]
Planning to reorganize for a separate USAF had begun by fall 1945Simpson Board to plan "the reorganization of the Army and the Air Force".[15] In January 1946 "GeneralsEisenhower andSpaatz agreed on an Air Force organization [composed of] theStrategic Air Command, theAir Defense Command, theTactical Air Command, theAir Transport Command and the supportingAir Technical Service Command,Air Training Command, theAir University, and theAir Force Center."[15]
The Continental Air Forces reorganization began by 31 January 1946 whenAbilene Army Airfield was closed.[16][2] On 16 October 1945 CAF'sMuroc Field was transferred from CAF toAir Technical Service Command.Moody Army Airfield transferred toAAF Training Command on 1 November 1945. CAF's Bolling Field was assigned control of Andrews Field on 3 January 1946 and also Richmond Army Air Base on 2 February 1946.
Tyndall Field transferred quickly to Continental Air Forces on 28 February 1946, then TAC, and theAir University (15 May 1946).[2][17] CAF had 13 bombardment groups transferred to its numbered air forces just before it was disestablished, e.g.,40th,[failed verification]44th (2 AF), the93d,444th,448th (became 92d),449th,467th (effectively became 301st),485th,498th (became 307th),58th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy[18][verification needed], and73d Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy.
Interceptor and radar network plans at CAF HQ were passed on to ADC.[6] CAF installations reassigned on 21 March 1946 includedGrandview transferred to the Army Division Engineers,[clarification needed]Mitchel Field to ADC, and both Tyndall Field andArmy Air Base, Knob Knoster, to TAC.[2] After the HQ transfer to SAC on 21 March, numerous CAF airfields transferred to TAC, ADC, and AMC from 23 March 1946 to 16 March 1947:[2]
Air Defense Command's firstCold War network was theLashup Radar Network, which was replaced by thePermanent System that included an improvedsearch radar, which had been recommended by CAF. CAF's studies for computerizedairborne early warning and control were developed into the 1950s Lincoln Transition System that became theSemi-Automatic Ground Environment.
The US Army Air Forces redesignated Continental Air Forces as Strategic Air Command (SAC) on 21 March 1946. SAC was inactivated in 1992.
Continental Air Forces had executed...all Army Air Forces' responsibilities in theZone of the Interior, including the redeployment of air power from the European to the Pacific Theater, the air defense of the United States, joint air-ground training, and the formation and command of a Continental Strategic Reserve on completion of redeployment. During the last four months of 1945 the Continental Air Forces had also been responsible for the demobilization of Army Air Forces personnel stationed in the Zone of the Interior.Dated 21 Marchtbd--declassified 11 October 1991.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Continental Air Forces, activated 12 December 1944, had been assigned the mission of continental air defense upon activation ... 26 July - United States Air Force created as co-equal of the Army and Navy.
On 24 July 1945, the 206th was redesignated the 63rd AAFBU (RBS) and three weeks later was moved to Mitchell Field, New York, and placed under the command of the Continental Air Force.
{{cite report}}:|author= has generic name (help)In November 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower became Army Chief of Staff. One of General Eisenhower's first actions was to appoint a board of officers, headed by Lieutenant GeneralW. H. Simpson, to prepare a definitive plan for the reorganization of the Army and the Air Force that could be effected without enabling legislation and would provide for the separation of the Air Force from the Army.
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