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
Interestingly enough, in smaller countries, the Air Force tends to own all the planes. For example, the only Danish Navy helicopter squadron was transferred to the Danish Air Force in 2010.
There are many reasons why the US services do this. A big one is the different mission sets requires different pilot training. Another is the different capabilities require different aircraft.
One thing to realize is there is a lot of cooperation and sharing already.
Given their common origin, the Air Force and Army tend to work closely with each other, with Air Force transports carrying Army units.
Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard pilots go through the same intro flight school course and have common training squadrons for basic aircraft type. Each Amphib big-deck tends to have a few Navy H-60s onboard for Search and Rescue and logistics support. Carrier air groups have included Marine Hornet squadrons in the past.
Even though the Air arms are fragmented across the services, there isn’t as much overlap as you’d think. The Navy doesn’t have any high altitude bombers just as the Air Force doesn’t have any carrier-capable aircraft just as the Army doesn’t have any large troop transports.
Latest Answers