Mission

With headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base in the communities of Bossier City and Shreveport, La., 8th Air Force is one of three active-duty numbered air forces in Air Combat Command. It serves as the only information operations and bomber warfighting headquarters, employing decisive global air power for U.S. Joint Forces Command and U.S. Strategic Command.

Operations

The 8th Air Force team consists of more than 41,000 active-duty, Air National Guard
and Reserve and civilian professionals operating and maintaining a variety of aircraft capable of deploying air power to any area of the world. This air power includes the heart of America’s heavy bomber force: the B-2 Spirit, B-1B Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress aircraft. E-8C Joint STARS, EC-130H Compass Call, E-3B Sentry, RC-135 Rivet Joint and U-2S Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft round out the command’s lethal airpower arsenal.

The 8th Air Force is the first numbered air force to integrate information operations into a warfighting headquarters. The integration will give the Mighty Eighth the ability to gain, exploit and attack adversary information or information systems while defending friendly or coalition information and information systems from enemy attack. The 8th
Air Force gains the capability to collect, process, and analyze data on weather, foreign weapon systems, friendly and enemy force disposition, etc., from different sources, and to provide this information to warfighters and national decision makers.

Organization

Under Air Combat Command since June 1, 1992, 8th Air Force controls assets throughout the United States and overseas locations. The 8th Air Force was reorganized into a general purpose numbered Air Force with a warfighting mission to support the U.S. Joint Forces and U.S. Strategic Commands.

On Feb. 1, 2001, Headquarters Air Intelligence Agency realigned under Air Combat Command as a primary subordinate unit. The agency’s two wings, the 67th Information Operations Wing and the 70th Intelligence Wing, realigned under 8th Air Force.

The move created the only information operations and bomber numbered air force in the Air Force today.

The move also brought information operations capabilities into a structure similar to those of other Air Force weapons systems provided to commanders.

The Mighty Eighth became even mightier with the addition of four operational wings as the Air Force moved into the second step of integrating information operations into its combat forces Oct. 1, 2002. On the leading edge of modern warfare, Information Operations experts train to disrupt enemy communications and information systems in concert with aerospace power, physically destroying enemy defenses. Equally important, IO experts play a crucial role in protecting critical U.S. and DoD information systems This reorganization takes place as the Air Force continues to blend high-tech information systems with high-tech combat capability. Recent operations have shown that new precision-guided munitions continue to improve the accuracy of 8th Air Force bombers, and that unmanned aerial vehicles, airborne warning and control system aircraft, and joint surveillance, target and attack radar system aircraft are shortening the gap between identifying and targeting enemy forces.

The 8th Air Force will be able to give the warfighting commander better “eyes on target” to effectively use air and space capabilities to achieve joint force objectives. With this combination of resources, 8th Air Force will be everywhere you look – in air, space or cyberspace.

The IO capabilities will be integrated with all the other warfighting assets and allow the Mighty Eighth to strike anywhere in the world in “eight” seconds with electrons or “eighteen” hours with steel on target.

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