CDF air units and formations

Among the three arms of service in the Community Defence Forces of Sober Thought, the CDF Air Service ranks between the CDF Land Service and CDF Naval Service in reliance on large pieces of equipment. Similarly, its air units and formations are also curious hybrids of those of their siblings along with innovations of their own.

Units

Unlike the Land Service, there is no rigid division into sub-units and units, since in practical terms the detachment, flight and squadron all exist as effective sub-units and units in various contexts. Unlike the Naval Service, beyond the level of air detachment, there is no obvious and inviolable unit like a boat or ship to indicate a unit. Hence a unit commander can hold any rank in the lieutenant range, and can have as a deputy either an other rank or another officer.

Detachment

The detachment is the lowest organisational level in the Air Service, ranging from as few as a single pilot and to as many as a couple of dozen ground crew. Among the flight crew, this represents the number of personnel required to fly a single rotary- or fixed-wing aircraft. In some cases this represents a single pilot, but frequently it includes (depending on the aircraft and mission) one or more of a co-pilot, weapons technician, navigator, flight engineer, communicator, or observer.

Among ground crew, the size and composition of a detachment consists of those necessary perform a specific task. Detachments common for looking after aircraft include refuelling, ordnance, airframe maintenance and electrical engineering. Detachments common for looking after air crew include medical, food and administration.

In certain cases a detachment will combine both flight and ground crew, notably when forming the air component on a corvette, frigate, boat tender or similar small ship. Since CDF naval aviation squadrons of this type exist primarily on paper only, these detachments create a sense of identity and unity commonly reserved for real squadrons.

Detachments have at least one and often two officers of the Vice Lieutenant rank among the air crew; all pilots in the flight crew are officers and the senior ground crew is an officer. If one encounters more senior officers in operational detachments, they have additional responsibilities in flights and squadrons. These lowly subunits are identified by letter, the fourth and last one appearing on aircraft markings, chosen by the detachment officer in consultation with the flight lieutenant.

Flight

The air forces' flight falls between the detachment and the squadron in the organisational scheme. It resembles the ground forces' CDF armoured platoon (having the same number of aircraft as CDF tanks) and company (having the same commanding officer, a full Lieutenant known as a flight lieutenant).

Three or four detachments make up most squadron's flights, but there are exceptions to this. CDF strategic air transport planes have such large carrying capacities, flying crew and cabin crew that a flight in those squadrons consists a single large troop, cargo or fuel carrying airplane. Community Vessel Destroyers have such little room that a flight consists of two No. 77 airframe helicopters.

Within squadrons, flights are distinguished by the names of colours which the flight lieutenant and squadron leader choose (like detachment letters) to demonstrate a certain amount of individuality. The three broad groups of names are conventional rainbow colours (blue, red, orange, etc.), "non-colour" shades (black, white, grey, etc.) and blended or exotic colours (pink, aqua, lime, etc.). There is no hard-and-fast list of acceptable colour names, but the three major considerations are distinctiveness, brevity and good taste. For instance, short and sensible names like pink and rose cannot be used in the same squadron because while they are orthographically distinct they are are not conceptually distinct.

Flight lieutenants' call signs start with the colour of their flight followed by the word "Leader" or "One", e.g., Green Leader, Silver One, Gold Leader. Many flight lieutenants try to coordinate this with their own detachment letter, e.g., Yellow Flight might be commanded by a Lieutenant flying Y for Young. Pilot officers commanding in the same flight bear a sequential number in the flight, e.g., Green Two, Green Three, Silver Four.

Squadron

The squadron is the basic building block of the Air Service and is considered the primal unit, despite its tenuous existence in CDF naval aviation. Like its subunit the flight, the squadron occuppies a status somewhere between a company and a battalion in the Land Service. The squadron leader is invariably a Chief Lieutenant, although the number of aircraft and personnel under this commanding officer varies considerably in the range of 6-20 and 80-600, respectively.

When originally raised, a squadron counts among its air crew members not just the flight crew (both flying crew and cabin crew) but also the ground crew. Frequently, however, when squadrons are combined for operational purposes the ground crew of all squadrons are consolidated into composite units and the squadron becomes a combat unit only. Regardless of composition, flying squadrons bear ordinal numbers only, although they may acquire unofficial nicknames as well. Composite ground crew squadrons typically bear names only and derive their identity from the wing or air group to which they are subordinated.

Squadrons consist of two to seven (usually three) flight subunits -- that is, actual groups of aircraft -- and two or three ground subunits, both somewhat confusingly called flights. In naval aviation, the flights are combined flight-ground crew units based on a single warship. Outside naval aviation, most squadrons have three aircraft flights and two ground flights (one to support the aircraft and another to support the personnel).

Formations

The Land Service separates units and formations in part by their mixture of combat, combat support and non-combat support units; however, since the squadron already combines an appropriate mix, this distinction is not helpful in the Air Service. Furthermore, the distinction between formation and superformation -- hazy enough on land -- is practically untenable in the air because massed flying formations are the exception rather than the rule.

Instead, the Naval Service, where various ships and boats are combined, provides a somewhat better model for the Air Service. But even here the comparisions are not quite apt, since a task force flag officer is expected to be in the combat zone in a way that an air division commander is not ordinarily expected to fly combat missions.

Wing

The commanding officer of a wing is a Vice Commander or (especially if of an independent wing) or full Commander. Regardless of rank, this officer known for historical reasons as a wing commander is responsible for about twenty to sixty aircraft and about five hundred to twenty-five hundred personnel. Two or more full squadrons combine to make a wing, and they they are divided into at least two flying and one ground squadron. The exact number of flying squadrons in a wing usually gives clues to the wing's role:

• Two squadrons usually indicate a limited mission (e.g., reconnaissance) or cramped quarters (e.g., on a strategic or tactical aircraft carrier).
• Three squadrons usually indicate the norm
• Four squadrons usually indicate a large mission or composite wing (e.g., bombers with organic fighter escorts, or a coastal defence wing)
• Five or six squadrons usually indicate a largely administrative function (e.g., notional wings subordinate to the Naval Service).

Wings bear ordinal numbers in separate sequences for strategic, ground support and naval support formations. Generally speaking, naval aviation has the most stable wings both afloat and ashore. In contrast, squadrons are moved in and out of strategic and army cooperation wings on a rapid basis depending on the mission requirements.

Group

In many respects, an air group is just a wing writ large. The group captain, or commanding officer, is a Chief Commander (especially if commanding an independent air group) or Commander. There is a huge overlap in the number of aircraft, number of personnel and responsibilities between wings and groups as well. Group captains command at least forty and usually not much more than one hundred aircraft, along with their associated troops. Similar inferences can be drawn about its mission based on the number of subordinate wings rather than squadrons.

Higher formations

Even moreso than in Land Service or even the Naval Service, at the higher levels the idea of the formation breaks down. The main difference among the three classes of higher formations -- air division, air corps and air force -- is function rather than actual bulk. None of these is ever actually expected to take flight en masse and conduct combat operations at once; the days of thousand plane raids like in the Second World War are over. The air division, the smallest higher formation, does have at least a vanishingly slim chance of being used for functional combat unit.

The air division is most commonly encountered as an agglomerate for administration purposes, for instance the entirety of naval aviation in one population wave is combined into a Naval Air Division. The number of people and aircraft in an air division differs widely, but is never less than a hundred airplanes and helicopters organised into at least two air groups. Similarly, its commanding officer is variously a Vice Marshal or Chief Commander.

The air corps is just a somewhat larger organisation performing a similar purpose on a greater scale, as exemplified by the Army Air Corps raised to support the ten division-equivalents the Land Service raises for every one hundred million inhabitants. Each full Marshal commands at least two air divisions, a few hundred aircraft and tens of thousands of people.

Finally, the air force is the ultimate air formation -- a gargantuan yet operationally useless organisation. The air component raised in each population wave forms a notional air force under a Chief Marshal, but larger organisations under Grand Marshals are also possible even though they may be equally classed as air forces.