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?
In: Other
Almost all these answers are attempts at justifying how it is – they don’t explain the reality. (u/OK-disaster2022 and u/headoutdaplane are on target)
All military services have aircraft because of history and the nature of government. *It has nothing to do with specialized roles or ease of use or anything else. *
Bottom line: Government organizations compete against each other for resources and power. Airplanes were just another tool in the toolbox of our two Services: The Department of War and the Department of Navy.
Neither Department wanted (or wants) to give up resources or power to the other. Congress forced the War Department to split into Army and Air Force in 1947. There was *no way* the Navy was going to give anything up to the War Department. So they kept their own tools (aircraft).
Now, every Service competes for resources and money when they submit a budget. Aircraft = money, force structure, etc. So every service has aircraft. And it won’t change until an outside force compels them to change (like Congress did in ‘47).
I could spend hours talking about Douhet and Mitchell, the Key West Agreement, Space Force, and a lot of other relevant stuff but this is ELI5.
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