NationStates Jolt Archive

All right, I've found information on everything I need to build a avy, an army, a marine corp, evrything, but as far as I can tell there is no information on building a realistic Airforce, whats the ratio of fighters to carg aircraft and tanker aircraft, or bombers and awacs. how much mainanence staff is required for each aircraft, what is a good structure for a fighter squadron, or a bomber squadron. I can't find anything, please help!

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Delta Aerospace Corp
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8242379#post8242379

it dpends on what you want to do with your airforce and how large you want it to be but i can offer a few pointers.

In the western style layout fighters are organised into "squadrons" of a single aircraft type.
These Squadrons are then organised into "Wings" which cosnist of a number of squadrons either all of the same type or a mix of aircraft with similar roles ie all attack types or all interceptors . ocassionally you do get "wings" which comprise of squadrons of differently tasked aircraft, these are more common in airforces with a need or desire to engage in expeditionary warfare where a wing is seen as a basic package that can be dispatched where ever needed.


In terms of Squadron configuration, there are an infinite type in RL (because often airforces don't have enough aircraft for nice rounded numbers).
Generally speaking you need 12 aircraft in a squadron(4 in action, 4 on alert and 4 in reserve) althought with single seaters the number goes upto 14or more to include a number of twin seater versions for training, testing etc. Bomber and transport squadrons can also have a number of small multi engine aircraft for similar usage to the twin seat aircraft (a good example ebign the french naval patrol squadrons that keep soem old Falcon 10s to help keep the Atlantique crews in tip top shape).
In terms of support staff i tend to operate on a rule of 12 personel per airframe for fighters, 24 for transports and 36 for surveilance/bomber aircraft plus and additional number of staff at the squadron levelequal to about 2 aircraft. This rule of thumb is quite possibly totally wrong.

Hope that helps a bit

that helps a little, Now I really want to know the approximate number of support squadrons to action (fighter, bomber) squadrons

The Empire of Xeraph would like to donate 200 aircraft to this new nation. We have very recently completely replaced our Royal Airforce with Xeraphian-made fighter jets, and therefore we have many surplus aircraft available, all in top condition.
You have your choice: we can choose your aircraft for you, or you can request a particular model.

regards,

Lt. Col. Sforza, CMDR, EX Surplus Dept.

We appreciate all the offers for cheap and free aircraft but The Nation of Samaran is currently only using in house models.

Bump

Usually, I organize my fighter wings, transport wings, training wings, etc. with 60 planes divided into three squadrons, with a total of 5,000 personnel including pilots and ground crew. I have no idea if it's at all realistic, but it's what I sell in my uber-package storefront.

Then again, I'm completely lost on how to organize echelons higher then wing. What exactly makes a Numbered Air Force? Is there a big support command like there is for an Army Corps or Field Army?

Anyone listening is free to reply to that.

My air force is organized into 2 Wings, with about 200 aircraft each.

Each wing has 2 or 3 fighter sqaudrons (20-30 aircraft each), 1-2 bomber/CAS squadrons (same number of aircraft). Usually, tanker aircraft are attached to the fighter sqaudrons, with transports and helicopters attached to army units.

I recommend a name for each sqaudron, plus a base of operations.

Get me a list of the aircraft you are going to use, and I can build one for ya.

The US airfroce is the only real basis we have a for a full sized NS airfroce (well actually the old USSR woudl also be a good giude if you can find the numbers).
the following is juts what i cna remeber off the top of my head, i'll check and edit alter

Out of the USAF's total inventory of approx 5000aircraft
about 200 of them are strategic bombers (B-52, B-2, B-1)
about 3000 are fighters
the rest are transports, recon and sensor birds and helicopters
total sensor aircraft is in the 30-50 region (including the numerous varients of the RC-135 family)

Off the top of my head this would give you an airfroce that has:
50-60% made up of fighters
5% made up of heavy bombers
5-10% of recce/EW/sensor aircraft
the remaining 25-40% of aircraft would be transprots and tankers (these can actually be the same aircraft ie KC-130, KC-10, A330 tanker).