eli5: Why does the US Military have airplanes in multiple branches (Navy, Marines etc) as opposed to having all flight operations handled by the Air Force exclusively?
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Without diving into history and to answer the heart of the question: to simplify logistics and command by preventing hard “silos”.
Often, it’s considered better to have a specialist who knows their field well rather than making one person/organization need to know how to do everything. A lot of times, that’s true. However the tradeoff of relying on outside specialists is it can make the day to day or one-off situations more complex than it needs to be.
For example, a taxi driver/chaffeur could be considered a specialist and have their own vehicle. However, the tradeoff is if you have to take a taxi to work every single day there is increased cost and there’s a risk of a taxi not being avaliable when it’s needed. There is a benefit to owning and knowing how to drive your own car, even though you are not a professional driver. Especially in one off situations, it can be beneficial to be able to drive yourself. Yes, sometimes you need a giant bus and driver to drive a crowd around, and in those cases it doesn’t make sense to own a bus. But for a large majority of cases, it’s easier just to own your own car.
In the same way, yes, the airforce may be the specialist for air operations. If you need a air specialist (let’s say drone usage), then yes, the airforce is the best option. However, if you need to get troops or equipment from point a to point b quickly, it’s simpler for the army to just have their own airplanes. Yes, if it is a massive or unique operation that requires air specialists, the air force may be involved or utilized. But a lot of times it’s just easier for a branch to just have their own plane.
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