Military unit size designation
In
military aviation
, a
wing
is a unit of command. In most military aviation services, a wing is a relatively large formation of planes. In
Commonwealth
countries a wing usually comprises three
squadrons
, with several wings forming a
group
(around 10 squadrons). Each squadron will contain around 20 planes.
Commonwealth usage
[
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]
Origins
[
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]
On its establishment in 1912, the
British
Royal Flying Corps
(RFC) was intended to be an inter-service, combined force of the
British Army
and
Royal Navy
. Given the
rivalry
that existed between the army and navy, new terminology was used, in order to avoid marking the corps out as having an army or navy ethos. While
the term "wing" had been used in the cavalry
, its more general use predominated. Accordingly, the word "wing", with its allusion of flight, was chosen as the term of subdivision and the corps was split into a "Military Wing" (i.e. an army wing) and a "Naval Wing". Each wing consisted of a number of squadrons (the term "squadron" already being used by both the Army and the Navy).
By 1914, the naval wing had become the
Royal Naval Air Service
, and gained its independence from the Royal Flying Corps. In 1915, the Royal Flying Corps had significantly expanded and it was felt necessary to create organizational units which would control two or more squadrons; the term "wing" was re-used for these new organizational units.
The Royal Flying Corps was amalgamated with the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918, creating the
Royal Air Force
. The RFC usage of wing was maintained in the new service.
[8]
Current use
[
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]
In most
Commonwealth
air forces, as well as some others, a wing is usually made up of three or four
squadrons
. In these air forces a wing is inferior to a group. Originally all wings were usually commanded by a
wing commander
(equivalent to a
lieutenant colonel
). From World War II onwards, operational flying wings have usually been commanded by
group captains
(equivalent to
colonels
), whereas ground-based wings have continued to be commanded by wing commanders.
Air forces of
NATO
member countries which use the term 'wing' to denote their main formations include the
Spanish Air Force
(
Ala
), the
Hellenic Air Force
(
πτ?ρυγα
[
pteryga
]),
Royal Norwegian Air Force
(
luftving
,
Norwegian
for air wing),
Royal Danish Air Force
(which adopted the English term
wing
directly, although the
Danish
word is
vinge
), the
Belgian Air Component
(also adopted the English term
wing
directly), the
Polish Air Force
(
skrzydło
) and the
Slovak Air Force
(
kridlo
).
Additionally countries influenced by the US in the building of their modern air forces also use the term
wing
. Several such examples are the
Republic of Korea Air Force
, the
Japan Air Self-Defense Force
, the
Royal Thai Air Force
, the
Philippine Air Force
, the
Peruvian Air Force
, the
Venezuelan Air Force
, the
Ecuadorian Air Force
and the
Brazilian Air Force
.
A wing may also be used for non-flying units, such as the
infantry
forces of the
RAF Regiment
, (in which a wing equates to a
battalion
). Additionally,
RAF stations
are administratively divided into wings.
In 2006,
expeditionary air wings
were established at the RAF's main operating bases. These expeditionary air wings consist of the deployable elements of the main operating base and other supplementary forces. Expeditionary air wings may be subordinated to an
expeditionary air group
.
In the
British
Air Training Corps
, a wing consists of a number of squadrons within a designated geographical area, usually named after the
county
in which it is based. In this context, a wing is inferior to a "
region
" which is made up of six wings. In all, there are 36 Air Training Corps wings in six regions within the
United Kingdom
, each of which is commanded by a
RAFVR(T)
wing commander.
Canadian usage
[
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]
While the original pre-unification
Royal Canadian Air Force
followed the British pattern and used squadrons, which belonged to wings, which in turn belonged to groups, the modern
Royal Canadian Air Force
has eliminated groups. Squadrons still report to wings which now report to one of two air divisions. Wings vary greatly in size and may comprise personnel numbering in the hundreds or thousands.
In the 1990s, the
Canadian Forces Air Command
(the post-1968 RCAF until 2011) altered the structure of those
bases
under its control, declaring them to be wings under the overall control of
1 Canadian Air Division
in
Winnipeg
. For instance,
CFB Trenton
in Ontario was redesignated 8 Wing Trenton. The base commander of these bases (as well as other wings whose headquarters were stood up on bases not controlled by Air Command, such as 16 Wing at
CFB Borden
and 1 Wing at
CFB Kingston
) were re-designated Wing Commanders (or Wg Comd). As well as continuing their functions as the commanding officers of the bases they were assigned to, they also serve as formation commanders to all squadrons and units duly assigned to them by 1 Canadian Air Division or 2 Canadian Air Division (regardless if they are physically located on the base in question or elsewhere; as witness
12 Wing
in Nova Scotia, which has one unit,
443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron
, based at
Patricia Bay
near
CFB Esquimalt
in British Columbia, on the other side of the country from Shearwater).
United States
[
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]
United States Air Force & Civil Air Patrol
[
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]
Diagram of a typical US Air Force wing organizational structure
By comparison, in the
United States Air Force
, a
wing
is normally the organizational tier below a
Numbered Air Force
. Most USAF wings are commanded by a
colonel
, but some are commanded by
brigadier generals
. USAF wings are structured to fulfill a mission from a specific base, and contain a
headquarters
and four groups: an operations group, a maintenance group, a medical group and a mission support group. Such a wing is referred to as a Combat Wing Organization, which is comparable to a
brigade
in the
US Army
. Other wings, such as
Air Expeditionary Wings
, exist for various other purposes, and their scope may extend to one base, one theater or worldwide.
In
United States Air Force
usage, a military organization above a squadron level (
group
,
wing
,
air division
,
numbered air force
, air component command,
Major Command (MAJCOM)
) is an
establishment
, while that of a squadron and lower (
squadron
,
flight
, center, complex), if designated as such, is a
unit
.
[9]
[10]
"The
U.S. Army Air Service
/
U.S. Army Air Corps
/
U.S. Army Air Forces
wings that existed before 1947 are not comparable with the wings of the USAF.
World War II
wings, for example, were very large administrative and operational organizations that usually controlled several combat
groups
and numerous service organizations, often located at widely scattered locations. Many of the World War II wings were redesignated as air divisions after the war. Modern wings, as we know them, began their existence with a service test of combat wings in 1947-1948. These wings were temporary Table of Distribution (T/D) organizations, each having a combat group (the only Table of Organization establishment of the wings), an airdrome group, a maintenance and supply group, and a station medical group. In 1948, at the end of the service test, HQ USAF replaced these T/D wings with permanent
Table of Organization and Equipment
(
constituted
) combat wings having a
combat group
, an
air base group
, a
maintenance and supply group
, and a
medical group
.
"
Constituted
combat wings are always numbered in a single series beginning with Arabic "1st". Examples:
1st Fighter Wing
,
21st Space Wing
, and the
Strategic Air Command
's
509th Bomb Wing
. All
constituted
wings have one, two, or three digits in their numerical designations.
"In many cases, the numerical designation of the wing
came from the combat group that preceded it
and became an integral part of the post-World War II wing. In other words, when the 14th Fighter Wing (later,
14th Flying Training Wing
) came into existence, it received the 14th numerical designation from the 14th Fighter Group which had already existed for a number of years and which became the wing's combat component. At the same time, the other component establishments, and units of these establishments, also received the 14th numerical designations, aligning each of them directly to the 14th Wing. The tactical squadrons of the combat group, however, retained their separate and distinct numerical designations.
"The Air Force has three basic types of wings: operational, air base, and specialized mission. According to
Air Force Instruction 38-101
(1994):
- an
operational wing
is a wing that has an
operations group
and related operational mission activity assigned to it. When an operational wing performs the primary mission of the base, it usually maintains and operates the base. In addition, an operational wing is capable of self-support in functional areas like maintenance,
supply
, and
munitions
, as needed. When an operational wing is a tenant organization, the host command provides it with varying degrees of base and logistics support.
- An
air base wing
usually maintains and operates a base, and often provides functional support to a major command headquarters.
- A
specialized mission wing
may be either a host wing or a tenant wing and performs a specialized mission such as intelligence or training."
In the
Civil Air Patrol
, there are 52 wings (each of the 50 states plus
Washington, D.C.
, and
Puerto Rico
). Each wing supervises the individual groups and squadrons in that state, district or commonwealth, which are the basic operational units of the organization. Some wings, for example
Delaware Wing
, have only one group due to the small geographical and manpower size of the wing.
U.S. Naval Aviation (U.S. Navy and Marine Corps)
[
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]
The
United States Navy
follows the British structure in that a wing is an administrative formation commanding two or more
squadrons
of
aircraft
that are based on land. Several wings are combined into a Naval Air Force. The several wings assigned to each Fleet Naval Air Force control the wing's type squadrons. A
carrier air wing
(CVW, formerly known as a
carrier air group
) consists of several squadrons and is an operational formation that is based on an
aircraft carrier
. The squadrons of a CVW are also assigned to administrative type wings (such as
Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic
). Naval Air Forces are commanded by either a
rear admiral
(upper half) or a
vice admiral
and wings are commanded by
captains
, with the title of
commodore
. Carrier air wings are commanded by either a Navy captain or a USMC colonel with the title of "CAG" (Commander, Air Group), a legacy title from the former carrier air groups.
In the
United States Marine Corps
, a Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) is an overall command, equivalent to a
Marine Division
, consisting of at least two
Marine Aircraft Groups
, a
Marine Air Control Group
(MACG), a
Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron
(MWHS), and a Marine Wing Headquarters (the Wing Commander and his staff). Being equivalent to a
division
in size, its commander is usually a
major general
.
Unlike their USAF counterparts, all USN and USMC air wings are tenant activities ashore and have no command responsibility for the installation at which they are normally based when not afloat or forward deployed.
Naval air stations
and Marine Corps air stations (and facilities) have separate commanding officers that are independent of the operational wing structure. Many mission support functions on these installations, such as personnel support and medical/dental facilities, are also independent of both the air wing and air station command structures and are independent tenant commands with their own commanding officers or officers-in-charge.
United States Space Force
[
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]
The
United States Space Force
has a single command echelon known as a
delta
which combines the wing and
group
echelons found in air forces.
[11]
Equivalents in other languages
[
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]
In other languages, equivalent air force units equivalent to a US wing include:
Geschwader
in the German
Luftwaffe
;
Aviatsionniy Polk
(
Aviation Regiment
) in Russia;
Stormo
in Italy; and
escadre
or
regiment
in the
French Air Force
. (
Escadre
is also the official
Canadian French
translation of wing in the
Canadian Forces
.) The French
Escadre
and the German
Geschwader
originate from the naval term
squadron
. A similar formation in the
Swedish Air Force
is the Flygflottilj, which translates in English as air wing (literal meaning is air
flotilla
or flight flotilla). Among the NATO member countries the
Turkish Air Force
(
Ana Ussu
,
Turkish
for
main base
) and the
Bulgarian Air Force
(
авиобаза
[
aviobaza
],
Bulgarian
for
air base
or
aviation base
) use the term
air base
for their main formations. These air bases are
brigade
-equivalents commanded by
brigadier generals
unlike the air wings of other NATO members, which are
regiment
-equivalents commanded by
colonels
. The
Royal Netherlands Air Force
(
vliegbasis
,
Dutch
for
aviation base
or
air base
), the
Portuguese Air Force
(
base aerea
), the
Czech Air Force
(
zakladna letectva
,
Czech
for
air base
or
aviation base
) and the
Croatian Air Force
(
zrakoplovna baza
,
Croatian
for
aviation base
) use the term air base for
regiment
-equivalents commanded by colonels in a direct parallel to the wings of other member states.
Modern
German Air Force
usage
Unit type
|
Commanding officer
|
Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader
(en: Tactical Air Force Wing)
|
Geschwaderkommodore
(OF-5)
|
Fliegerabwehrraketengeschwader
(en: Air Defence Missile Wing)
|
Geschwaderkommodore (OF-5)
|
Non-English equivalents of the British wing include the German
Gruppe
, Italian
Gruppo
, and French
groupe
.
German usage in World War II
[
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]
The World War II German Luftwaffe
Geschwader
and
Gruppe
were similar to the wing and group of the
United States Army Air Forces
of the same era.
References
[
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]
- ^
APP-6D NATO Joint Military Symbology
. NATO Standardization Office. October 2017. pp. B-1?B-2.
- ^
APP-6D B-6
- ^
APP-6D B-1 - B-2
- ^
Royal Canadian Air Force.
"Air Command Groups (1975-2011)"
.
Royal Canadian Air Force Webpage
. Retrieved
21 April
2021
.
- ^
APP-6D B-8
- ^
APP-6D B-8
- ^
APP-6D B-8
- ^
"Command Development_P"
. Archived from
the original
on 14 July 2014.
- ^
AFI 38-101
Manpower and Organization
(PDF), 29 August 2019, pp. 69-79.
Archived
2022-12-13 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Types of USAF Organizations"
.
Air Force Historical Research Agency, Research Division, Organizational History Branch
. Archived from
the original
on 15 January 2009.
- ^
Erwin, Sandra, "Space Force to stand up three major commands, lower echelons to be called 'deltas'",
Space News
, June 30, 2020. Accessed 26 September 2022
.