Commonwealth Air Force

Commonwealth Air Force
Active	1919 - present
Country	Arthurista
Allegiance	Commonwealth Defence Forces
Branch	Air Force
Size	90,000 active, 40,000 reserve
Motto(s)	Per Ardua ad Astra
March	Battle March of the CAF

In theory, the Commonwealth Air Force is the main aerial warfare branch of the Commonwealth Defence Forces. It is, traditionally, the most neglected of the Commonwealth Defence Forces' three arms of services. Given the nation's maritime focus, and the penchance of its military planners to rely on surface-to-air missiles and ballistic missiles for air defence and deep strike respectively, the Commonwealth Air Force has compete with the more prestigious Fleet Air Arm for scarce resources.

Nevertheless, CAF provides significant capabilities to the CDF which the navy is unable to deliver. While the fleet operates strike aircrafts, CAF's land based heavy bombers offers far heavier offensive capability in terms of both payload and range, as well as playing a complementary role to maintaining sea superiority when equipped with anti-ship missiles.

Recently, Fighter Command has sought to replace its multitude of models with two high performance multirole fast jets: the 4.5 generation Tempest FGR.2/3, which will be deployed in bulk as the backbone of the air force, and a smaller number of 5th-generation UFC F-29 Hurricane fighters as a 'silver bullet' force for the most dangerous and demanding missions. The resulting savings in logistical and maintenace requirement ought to enhance the overall operability and readiness of Arthurista's fighter squadrons.

Fighter Command

The title 'Fighter Command' is a holdover from the 1930s. In reality, it is responsible for all tactical fast jets in the CAF's arsenal. The aircrafts it flies can roughly be divided into three categories: heavy fighters and interceptors, lightweight fighter-bombers and long range strike aircrafts.

In line with CDF's strongly defence-oriented setup, the focus of Arthuristah fighter designs has always been short-field performance and the ability to operate in a dispersed manner and take off from roads, enhancing the resilience of Arthuristan air power in the event of a full scale invasion of the island.

Bomber Command

CAF's Bomber Command commands the strategic bomber force, with a fleet based on the Continental Imperator. It is Arthurista's main strategic deterrent.

Support Command

This branch is primarily responsible for logistics and transportation. Various variants of the Arthuristan Dynamics Centaur remain the mainstay tactical airlifter. The main strategic airlifters is the Globemaster.

Air Defence Command

Since the CAF is responsible for the strategic air defence of the nation, it is armed with numerous batteries of surface to air missiles independent to those of the army's. As of early-2014, its main weapons are the Scutum long range anti-ballistic missile, variants of the AD-12 Area Defence Missile, the Arrow anti-ballistic missile and the Lyran Skyguard.

Commonwealth Air Force Regiment

The CAF Regiment administers all ground forces which directly belong to the CAF. The majority of these are light infantry 'squadrons' (companies) used as force-protection units for airfields and other vital ground installations. It also trains the forward air controllers organic to each of the Commonwealth Army forward observation teams.

The CAF Regiment also commands two special operations units: the Ground Intervention Group and the Assault Retrieval Group. The former is tasked with providing specialist joint terminal air control and targeting support for Arthuristan special operations, whereas the latter is a specialist unit tasked with combat search and rescue operations.

Aircraft inventory

Fighter Command

• 144 x UFC Tempest
• 48 x Strike Fury (to be replaced by 2027)
• 36 x UFC F-29 Hurricane, additional 72 aircraft on order, with option for more)

Bomber Command

• 36 x Continental Imperator

Electronic Warfare Command

• 24 x Mercury ECR
• 12 x Glaucus ASaC.2
• 5 x Global Hawk
• 4 x Centaur E.1
• 4 x Centaur JSTARS

Coastal Command

• 24x Majestic Glaucus

Support Command

• Anchelli Pelican
• Arthuristan Dynamics Centaur
• C-27J Spartan
• VC10 refueller
• Tristar K.1 refueller
• Arthuristan Dynamics Centaur K.1 refueller
• Beechcraft Super King Air light utility aircraft

Reconaissance Command

• 16 x MQ-9 Predator (replaced 10x Predator's leased from the Belfrasian Air Force
• 5 x Global Hawk
• 2 x Arthuristan Dynamics Firestorm prototypes

Training Command

• 60 ADE Hawk
• 60 Short Tucano

Munitions

Air-to-air

• ASRAAM
• Python-3 (phasing out)
• AIM-120 AMRAAM (phasing out)
• ABVRM Comet

Gravity bombs

• Paveway-II (being phased out)
• ACM-9 Asmoday
• BL755 Cluster bomb (phasing out)
• JP233 anti-runway weapon

Land/surface strike missiles:

• ACM-1 Cerberus long range cruise missile
• ACM-2 Renove anti-ship missile and land-attack cruise missile
• ACM-3 Bune heavy air-launched strike missile (in limited service)
• ACM-13 Lilith
• Scorpion missile
• AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation weapon
• Matra Durandal anti-runway weapon

Ballistic Missile Defence

• AD-12 Area Defence Missile (terminal defence)

Historical Aircrafts (post-1945)

Fighters

• Greenwich Meteor
• De Havril Vampire
• Greenwich Gryphon
• Greenwich Super Tigress
• Greenwich Lightning
• Continental Reaper
• Arthuristan Dynamics Kestrel
• Arthuristan Dynamics Cyclone

Strike

• De Havril Hornet
• Arthuristan Dynamics Mercury
• Arthuristan Dynamics Draco

Bombers

• De Havril Canberra

AEW&C

• Avro Shackleton
• Fairey Gannet AEW.3 and AEW.7
• P.139B

Utility

• Hastings
• Andover
• Short Belfast
• VC10