Summary

  • Air Combat Command (ACC) is a major command of the United States Air Force (USAF) responsible for organizing, training, and equipping airmen to control the air, space, and cyberspace.
  • It oversees fighter, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, personnel recovery, persistent attack and reconnaissance, electromagnetic warfare, cyber warfare operations, and information warfare operations.
  • ACC was established in 1992 after the inactivation of Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC). ACC’s headquarters is located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, and it operates 48 fighter squadrons, nine attack squadrons, and six Numbered Air Forces.

To a college football fan, the acronym “ACC” means Atlantic Coast Conference, host to national championship-winning programs like the Clemson Tigers, Florida State Seminoles, George Bulldogs, Miami Hurricanes, and Pitt Panthers.

But in the military aviation context, “ACC” has a different meaning: Air Combat Command, the US Air Force major command (MAJCOM) the present-day successor to two famous, battle-hardened Cold War MAJCOMs. Simple Flying now takes a deeper dive into the facts of ACC.

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Dual Cold War ancestry

Those twin ancestors of ACC were the legendary Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC). Both TAC and SAC were established on March 21, 1946, under the banner of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF), 17 months before the US Air Force (USAF, i.e. from double-A to single-A) became a separate and independent branch of the US Armed Forces.

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TAC, as might be inferred from the first word of the acronym, covered the USAF’s tactical fighters, tactical bombers, tactical missiles, troop carrier aircraft, assault, reconnaissance, and support units, along with the capability to deploy tactical striking forces anywhere in the world. TAC was headquartered at Langley AFB, located in Hampton, Virginia, and adjacent to Newport News.

As for SAC, its mission and purpose were best described by then-USAF Historian Richard P. Hallion in his Foreword to Walton S. Moody’s 1995 book “Building a Strategic Air Force” (published by the Air Force History and Museums Program):

“From 1946 to 1991 the Strategic Air Command (SAC) operated the intercontinental and nuclear strike forces of the United States Air Force. During much of this period SAC was the premier operational command of the service. The rising tensions of the Cold War with Soviet-directed world communism gave the command a crucial role as the main force deterring potential aggression against the United States and its allies. Even after the emergence of airborne strategic nuclear forces in the late 1950s, SAC’S status as an Air Force major command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff specified command gave it the pivotal role in national strategy.”

From 1948 to 1957, SAC was commanded by the iron-willed, iron-fisted, cigar-chomping General Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990), who had already established himself as a living legend for spearheading the strategic bombing campaigns against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during WWII.

As Strategic-Air-Command.com‘s bio page on Gen. LeMay states, “When he left the command in 1957 to assume his new job as Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, SAC was the most powerful military force the world had ever seen.”

SAC was headquartered at Offut AFB, Nebraska (just south of Omaha).

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Thus is was that SAC and TAC went to war on behalf of the USAF as two separate MAJCOMS during multiple “hot wars” during the Cold War, from the Korean War to the Vietnam War to the 1991 Persian Gulf War (AKA Operation Desert Storm). TAC did so by employing fighters and fighter-bombers such as the F-86 Sabre, F-4 Phantom, F-105 Thunderchief (the “Thud”), F-15 Eagle, and F-16 Fighting Falcon (“Viper”), while SAC did so with the mighty B-29 Superfortress (a carryover from WWII) and B-52 Stratofortress AKA the “BUFF.”

Post-Cold War: ACC is born

Fast-forward to June 1, 1992. It has been six months since the collapse of the Soviet Union, signifying the end of the Cold War, and as part of the so-called “peace dividend” and the drawdown (read: downsizing) of the US Armed Forces, both TAC and SAC are inactivated, and Air Combat Command is stood up in its place. ACC ends up inheriting control of:

  • All former TAC fighters
  • All bombers
  • Reconnaissance platforms
  • Battle management resources, including AWACS and JSTARS
  • Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

As what might be viewed by some as a symbol of the so-called “Fighter Mafia” having gained more prestige than the old LeMay-era “Bomber Mafia” in the USAF’s social pecking order, ACC’s headquarters were housed at Langley AFB instead of Offut AFB. However, Offut didn’t simply fade from the scene. as it now became home to U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), which was created to manage the combined strategic nuclear forces belonging to both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy.

As per USSTRATCOM’s official info page: “The mission of USSTRATCOM is to deter strategic attack through a safe, secure, effective, and credible, global combat capability and, when directed, is ready to prevail in conflict. The command enables Joint Force operations and is the combatant command responsible for Strategic Deterrence, Nuclear Operations, Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) Enterprise Operations, Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations, Global Strike and Missile Threat Assessment.”

In 1993, control of the ICBMs was transferred from ACC to Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). Thus, when I arrived at Minot AFB, North Dakota, in February 2000 for the first operational assignment of my own USAF career as a 24-year-old Airman 1st Class (E-3) Security Forces troop, that former SAC base was now a dual ACC and AFSPC base, as it housed two of the three legs of America’s nuclear triad: bombers, as in the B-52s of the 5th Bomb Wing’ and ICBMs, as in the Minuteman IIIs of the 91st Space Wing.

I was assigned to the latter wing. The older, more seasoned troops who mentored me spoke reverently of the old days, using catchphrases like “SAC-trained killer” and “SAC kept the peace.”

Under this combined tactical and strategic asset arrangement, ACC’s warbirds fought in Operation Deliberate Force (Bosnia, 1995), Operation Desert Fox (Iraq, 1998), Operation Allied Force (Yugoslavia, 1999), and the first eight years of the Global War on Terror (GWOT).

It was also during this time period that two strategic bombers that had made their maiden flights during the TAC & SAC years finally got “blooded” in combat: the B-1B Lancer (AKA the “Bone”) and the B-2 Spirit “Stealth Bomber.”

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What goes around, comes around (sorta)

Fast-forward again, this time to August 7, 2009, and once again, strategic bombers are no longer within ACC’s purview, as dear ol’ SAC has been resurrected…. kind of.

This time, the then-new MAJCOM was christened Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), and given control of the nation’s three intercontinental ballistic missile wings, the USAF’s **entire** bomber force — “Bones,” “BUFFs,” and Spirits alike — the Long Range Strike Bomber program, Air Force Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) systems, and operational and maintenance support to organizations within the nuclear enterprise.

This in turn explains why bombers are conspicuously absent from the current ACC official Mission Statement (last updated on June 15, 2023):

“ACC organizes, trains, and equips Airmen who fight in and from multiple domains to control the air, space, and cyberspace. As the lead command for fighter, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, personnel recovery, persistent attack and reconnaissance, electromagnetic warfare, cyber warfare operations, and information warfare operations, ACC is responsible for providing combat air, space, and cyberspace power and the combat support that assures mission success to America’s warfighting commands.”

ACC HQ is still at the same location, except now it’s officially known as Joint Base Langley-Eustis. There are an estimated 1,110 aircraft under ACC control, supported by roughly 74,240 active duty airmen and 10,610 Department of the Air Force civilians (not counting the 49,000 additional personnel of the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, along with over 700 additional aircraft, when these components are activated).

F-15EX Eagle II of the 53rd Wing (jpg)

ACC operates 48 fighter squadrons and nine attack squadrons, along with six Numbered Air Forces, namely:

  • 1st Air Force/Air Forces Northern, Tyndall AFB, Florida (this includes the 53rd Wing depicted in the cover photo atop this article)
  • 9th Air Force/AFCENT, Shaw AFB, South Carolina
  • 10th Air Force, Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base/Carswell Field, Texas.
  • 12th Air Force/AF South, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona
  • 15th Air Force, Shaw AFB, South Carolina
  • 16th Air Force/Air Forces Cyber), Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas

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