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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Because they perform different specialized roles in support of the other operations that are specific to that branch. The Air Force handles general aviation, bombers, drones, etc, but the Navy needs combat air patrol to protect ships, the marines need close air support for troops, the army needs anti-tank gunships, etc. All of these need to be well-coordinated with other elements of a given operation, and that’s much easier to do within the same branch/chain of command.
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