• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Division

Named and numbered air divisions have existed, until recently, since World War II. Many of the numbered air divisions began as wings during the war, although some of them were postwar organizations. In an effort to encourage rapid decision-making, and to create flat structures without intermediate levels, HQ USAF gradually inactivated all of the air divisions and by mid-1995, only one named division was still active.

Official policy dictated the use of Arabic numerals for numbered air and aerospace divisions. Examples: 2d Air Division, 7th Air Division, and 1st Strategic Aerospace Division. Following the initiation of Major Command-controlled (MAJCON) four-digit Table of Distribution (T/D) organizations in 1948, the major commands were briefly authorized to organize air divisions, provided they secured USAF approval. Two four-digit air divisions (4310th Air Division and 7217th Air Division) were subsequently organized.

A numbered air or aerospace division was an intermediate echelon of command within an operational command. It could be assigned either to an air force or directly to a major command. Such divisions usually were composed of two or more operational wings. Particular characteristics of a numbered air or aerospace division's headquarters were:

a. Small in size (from 14 to 35 people)
b. Operational focus--staff is primarily engaged in operations, in contrast to the full complement of staff functions at a MAJCOM headquarters.
c. Relationship to higher headquarters--functions as a field extension of a higher headquarters.

Exceptions to these characteristics can be found. For example, some divisions assigned to a numbered air force may have performed little more than an inspection function, while other divisions which reported directly to a major command may have had a limited assortment of staff functions.

Although nearly all named divisions were of the Air Force-controlled (AFCON) variety, there were also some T/D air divisions organized as named establishments, such as the Yukon Air Division and the Antilles Air Division. As the years passed, however, USAF began maintaining tighter control over its divisions, and eventually all headquarters above wing level became AFCON (T/O) units. Those constituted divisions were usually numbered, but some were named for various reasons. Examples of named divisions include: Aeronautical Systems Division, Aerospace Medical Division, and Air Force Contract Management Division. A named division was an organization within a large support command that was assigned a major or important segment of that command's mission--e.g., the Electronic Systems Division handled a large part of the Air Force Systems Command's work-load in electronic systems. Because they were usually technical or highly specialized in nature, named divisions generally had a large number of personnel. One named division of an operational command was the USAF Southern Air Division which absorbed resources of the United States Air Forces Southern Command in 1976, and was part of Tactical Air Command.

Although the Air Force had establishments known as divisions, a division within an establishment's headquarters, such as a personnel or materiel division, is not a unit; it is merely a part of the establishment's headquarters. With other organizational entities in the Air Force the distinction is sometimes less clear.