The United States Air Force (USAF) is the largest aerial fighting force on the planet and differs from its peer organizations in many critical ways. As is true with the entire military infrastructure of the United States Armed Forces, the USAF maintains dozens of air bases outside the United States, ensuring that its aircraft remain battle-ready and able to reach key theaters in a matter of minutes or hours.
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Traditionally, global military forces are only concerned with maintaining a presence in their home nation, as their operations are often more strictly defense-oriented. The United States Air Force, alongside the other branches of the military, plays a major role in ensuring global stability and defending America’s allies across the planet, something that requires a significantly larger air base network.
The United States Air Force has multiple different strategic missions
The United States Air Force maintains many different core missions and the existence of global air force bases is crucial for maintaining many of them. These include air and space superiority, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), global mobility, global strike, and command and control.
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Overwhelmingly, overseas air bases serve as unique platforms from which the organization can perform all kinds of operations, whether it be conducting joint military exercises with allies in key conflict regions or monitoring adversary activity in regions like the Black Sea, South China Sea, and the Red Sea.
Without the existence of global bases, the USAF would not maintain the capability to achieve complete global vigilance and quickly establish air superiority.
Maintaining overseas air bases is essential for the continued establishment of airspace superiority
The United States Air Force must always have the ability to maintain total air dominance for military operations to be successful. As a result, the network of U.S. Air Force bases, which are located in places like Europe, the Middle East, and Eastern Asia, provide the organization with the necessary strategic positioning to allow for the rapid deployment of combat aircraft.
Related How The US Air Force Uses Air Bases For Disaster Response & Humanitarian Relief When natural disasters occur around the world, the US Air Force is often called in to provide assistance and humanitarian relief.
These crucial bases act as America’s strategic footholds in key conflict regions, allowing the Air Force to quickly respond to any regional threats that may emerge by immediately and effectively establishing air dominance. In mission statements, the Air Force has referred to the importance of establishing air superiority with the following language:
What Role Do Overseas US Air Force Bases Play In Global Operations?
