Пятнадцатая воздушная армия ВВС США: история и современность

US Air Force formation

The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force and Twelfth Air Force into a new numbered air force responsible for generating and presenting Air Combat Command’s conventional forces. Established on 1 November 1943, Fifteenth AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the European Theater of World War II, bombing Europe from bases in southern Italy and engaging in air to air fighter combat against enemy aircraft. During the Cold War, 15 AF was one of three Numbered Air Forces of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC), commanding USAF strategic bombers and missiles on a global scale. Elements of 15th Air Force engaged in combat operations during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm. 15 AF was redesignated Fifteenth Expeditionary Mobility Task Force (15 EMTF) on 1 October 2003. 15 EMTF provided support for strategic airlift for all United States Department of Defense agencies as well as air refueling for the Air Force in both peace and wartime for the Pacific region. 15 EMTF inactivated on 20 March 2012. On 20 August 2020, 15 AF was reactivated as an Air Combat Command numbered air force, taking over the previous conventional flying forces of both the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces.

Fifteenth Air Force (15th AF) was established on 1 November 1943 in Tunis, Tunisia as part of the United States Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations as a strategic air force. It commenced combat operations the day after it was formed. The first commander was General Jimmy Doolittle. 15th AF resulted from a reorganization of American air forces in the Mediterranean in late 1943. Lewis H. Brereton's Ninth Air Force (9th AF) was moved to England, taking over the medium bomber units of Eighth Air Force, while Twelfth Air Force gave its strategic units to 15th AF, becoming the Americans' Mediterranean tactical air force. The new air force was activated with a strength of ninety B 24 Liberators and 210 B 17 Flying Fortresses, inherited from the Twelfth Air Force and Ninth Air Force. In December, new groups, most of which were equipped with B 24s soon started arriving from the United States. 13 new groups were added. It was hoped that the 15th AF – stationed in the Mediterranean – would be able to operate when the Eighth Air Force (8th AF) in England was socked in by bad English weather. The 9th AF would later move to England to serve as a tactical unit to take part in the invasion of Europe. Once bases around Foggia in Italy became available, the 15th was able to reach targets in southern France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans, some of which were difficult to reach from England.

The 15th Air Force began its operations on 1 November 1943, attacking the Rimini Marshalling yard with 28 B 25's assigned to the 321st BG (M). On 1 December 1943, the Headquarters was moved to Bari Airfield, Italy. On 4 January 1944, the Fifteenth, along with Twelfth Air Force, were organized into Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, along with the Royal Air Force 205 Group. MAAF was the southern component of U. S. Strategic Air Forces, Europe, the overall USAAF command and control organization in Europe. The first major operation carried out by Fifteenth Air Force was bombing missions in support of the Anzio Landings in Italy, Operation Shingle beginning on 22 January 1944. Strikes on German and fascist Italian targets were carried out and caused widespread damage to Axis forces.

"Big Week" was the name of an intense Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces series of attacks on Germany in a series of co ordinated raids on the German aircraft industry. The plan, code named "Operation Argument," was to use both American strategic air forces in Europe, with support by the Royal Air Force with night bombing raids to destroy or seriously cripple the German ability to produce combat aircraft. The Americans were facing strong Luftwaffe fighter opposition to their daylight bombing raids over Nazi occupied Europe, and it was planned to initiate Operation Argument at the earliest possible date. On 22 February 1944, Fifteenth Air Force made its first attack on Germany, with an attack on Regensburg. The Fifteenth dispatched a force of 183 bombers to the Oberstraubing Messerschmidt assembly plant. Some 118 bombed with good results but fourteen were shot down. The next day the 15th sent 102 bombers to the Steyr ball bearing works in Austria where they destroyed twenty percent of the plant. On 24 February, over 180 Liberators inflicted considerable damage to the Messerschmitt Bf 110 assembly plant at Gotha, losing 28 aircraft in the process. On 25 February 114 B 17s and B 24s were dispatched to Steyr again, but the force became separated and the Liberators bombed the Fiume oil refinery instead. Seventeen bombers were lost. Despite these losses, it was believed that the USSTAF had dealt the German aircraft industry a severe blow.

In April, General Eisenhower ordered the USSTAF to attack German fuel production centers by striking both the oil refineries and the factories producing synthetic fuels. The 15th started the offensive on 5 April when it dispatched 235 B 17s and B 24s from Italy to transportation targets in the vicinity of the Ploiești oilfields in Romania. The refineries were attacked again on 15 and 24 April, inflicting additional damage. Attacks on oil targets had assumed top priority by October and vast fleets of heavy bombers, escorted by P 38 Lightning and P 51 Mustang fighters, attacked refineries in Germany, Reichsgau Sudetenland, Slovakia and Romania. The P 51 escorts were able to establish an environment of air superiority, enabling the bombers to roam widely across southern and eastern Europe, attacking targets at Brüx in Reichsgau Sudetenland, Bratislava in Slovakia, Budapest, Komárom, Győr, and Pétfürdő in Hungary, Belgrade and other cities in Yugoslavia, and Trieste in north eastern Italy.

By June 1944, the 15th Air Force was bombing railway networks in southeast Europe in support of Soviet military operations in Romania. Throughout the summer of 1944, Austrian aircraft manufacturing centers at Wiener Neustadt were bombed and oil producing centers were attacked. On 2 June, the 15th Air Force flew its first "shuttle" mission when 130 B 17s and P 51 escorts landed in Russian controlled territory after a raid in Hungary. Two more shuttle missions followed.

In August, the 15th began attacking targets in Southern France in preparation for Operation Anvil, the invasion of Southern France. Marseilles, Lyon, Grenoble, and Toulon were all attacked by B 24s and B 17s.

After the Romanian 1944 coup, the 15th Air Force bombed the German occupied airports of Băneasa and Otopeni. Between 31 August and 3 September 1944, aircraft from the 15th AF carried out Operation Reunion by airlifting the released Allied prisoners from Romania.

On 25 June 1950, the armed forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) invaded South Korea. On 27 June the United Nations Security Council voted to assist the South Koreans in resisting the invasion. President Harry S. Truman authorized General Douglas MacArthur (commander of the US occupying forces in Japan) to commit units to the battle. MacArthur ordered General George E. Stratemeyer, CIC of the Far Eastern Air Force (FEAF) to attack attacking North Korean forces between the front lines and the 38th parallel. At that time, the 22 B 29s of the Twentieth Air Force 19th Bomb Group stationed at Andersen Field on Guam were the only aircraft capable of hitting the Korean peninsula, and this unit was ordered to move to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa and begin attacks on North Korea. These raids began on 28 June. On 29 June, clearance was given for B 29 attacks on airfields in North Korea. On 8 July, a special FEAF Bomber Command was set up under the command of Major General Emmett O'Donnell. Although President Truman wasn't willing to risk extensive use of the U. S. bomber force in the United States, which was being used as a deterrent for possible Soviet aggression in Europe, a few groups of B 29 bombers – that were not part of the nuclear strike force – were released. On 13 July, the FEAF Bomber Command took over command of the Twentieth Air Force 19th Bombardment Group and of the Fifteenth Air Force's 22nd and 92nd Bombardment Groups which had been transferred from SAC bases in the United States. Later in July, the Fifteenth Air Force 98th and 307th Bombardment Groups were sent to Japan to join the FEAF. The 92nd and 98th BGs and the 31st SRG operated from bases in Japan, whereas the 19th, 22nd, and 307th BGs were based in Okinawa. When the Korean War ended on 27 July 1953, the B 29s had flown over 21,000 sorties, nearly 167,000 tons of bombs had been dropped, and 34 B 29s had been lost in combat (16 to fighters, four to flak, and fourteen to other causes). B 29 gunners had accounted for 34 Communist fighters (16 of these being MiG 15s) probably destroyed another 17 (all MiG 15s) and damaged 11 (all MiG 15s). Losses were less than one per 1000 sorties.

With the end of fighting in Korea, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had taken office in January 1953, called for a "new look" at national defense. The result: a greater reliance on nuclear weapons and air power to deter war. His administration chose to invest in the Air Force, especially Strategic Air Command. The nuclear arms race shifted into high gear. The Air Force retired nearly all of its propeller driven B 29/B 50s and they were replaced by new Boeing B 47 Stratojet aircraft. By 1955 the Boeing B 52 Stratofortress would be entering the inventory in substantial numbers, as prop B 36s were phased out of heavy bombardment units rapidly. Also after the deployment of forces to Far East Air Force in order to engage in combat over Korea, the history of Fifteenth Air Force becomes indistinguishable from that of Strategic Air Command. During the Cold War, Fifteenth Air Force aircraft stood nuclear alert, providing a deterrence against an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union. During the Vietnam War, squadrons of 15th Air Force B 52 Stratofortesses (B 52Ds mostly, some B 52Gs) were deployed to bases on Guam, Okinawa and Thailand conducting Arc Light strikes on communist forces. The 15th Air Force also included missile squadrons, such as the 703d Strategic Missile Wing and 706th Strategic Missile Wing. Between the Vietnam War and 1991, 15 AF units and assets consisted of reconnaissance aircraft (SR 71 until 1989, U 2), bombers (B 52D until 1984, B 52G, B 52H and B 1B), aerial refueling (KC 135, KC 10), and intercontinental ballistic missiles (Titan II until 1984, Minuteman II/III, Peacekeeper).

Fifteenth Air Force became exclusively an aerial tanker formation with KC 135 and KC 10 aircraft on 1 September 1991. When Strategic Air Command was inactivated on 1 June 1992 and its assets divided between the newly created Air Mobility Command and Air Combat Command, Fifteenth Air Force became part of Air Mobility Command. Headquarters Fifteenth Air Force moved from March Air Force Base to Travis Air Force Base on 2 July 1993 with the BRAC transition of March AFB to March Air Reserve Base, and merged its tankers with the airlift aircraft of the Twenty Second Air Force. The Twenty Second Air Force's flag moved to the Air Force Reserve Command at Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia. Fifteenth Air Force was one of the two numbered air forces assigned to the Air Mobility Command. Its main area of operations was the region stretching west of the Mississippi River to the east coast of Africa, pole to pole, but was often tasked to support Air Mobility Command's global reach mission. Its primary mission was to provide strategic and theater airlift for all Department of Defense agencies as well as air refueling for the Air Force in both peace and wartime. This included the aeromedical evacuation of sick and injured. With the assigned military work force of 28,912 personnel and an assigned civilian work force of 5,288 people, Fifteenth Air Force managed almost 300 aircraft and many support facilities in the United States and in the Pacific and Indian Oceans – all the way to Diego Garcia. The 15 AF commander was also the Commander, Task Force 294 (TF 294), which provided aerial refueling to aircraft that supported the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) in time of war. TF 294 included 26 units from the AMC, the Air National Guard, and the Air Force Reserve Command. The 15 AF staff assured the operational readiness of its units by conducting readiness assessment visits and staff assistance visits. It acted as an advocate for its subordinate units and enforces higher headquarters policies and directives. As a result of an Air Mobility Command restructuring, Fifteenth Air Force was redesignated the Fifteenth Expeditionary Mobility Task Force, focused on air mobility support in peacetime and wartime. 15 AF operational flying organizations were transferred to Eighteenth Air Force. 15 EMTF retained AMC's Pacific region airlift and air refueling enroute support organization as well as AMC's contingency response units. The 15 EMTF provided rapid and flexible transportation support from six major Air Force bases in the United States and 47 locations throughout the Pacific.

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