The Fourth Air Force (4 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Reserve (AFRC). It is headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, California.

4 AF directs the activities and supervises the training of more than 30,000 Air Force Reservists. If called to active duty, 4 AF's ready reserve units would be assigned to Air Mobility Command.

One of the four original pre–World War II numbered air forces, 4 AF was activated on 18 December 1940, at March Field, California with a mission of air defense of the Southwestern United States and Lower Midwest regions. During the war, its primary mission became the organization and training of combat units prior to their deployment to the overseas combat air forces.

4 AF is commanded by Maj Gen Mark A. Kyle.

Overview

Fourth Air Force is dedicated to ensuring its units and personnel are fully prepared to accomplish all assigned missions in support of national objectives. The sixty person staff consists of Traditional Reservists, Air Reserve Technicians and civilian employees. They direct the activities and supervise the equipping and training of more than 30,000 Air Force reservists in unit programs located across the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam. Reservists from 4 AF units are routinely deployed to Air Expeditionary units in combat areas of Central and Southwest Asia as part of the Global War on Terrorism.

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy, or a marine corps. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, and providing support to land and naval forces.

The term "air force" may also refer to a tactical air force or numbered air force, which is an operational formation either within a national air force or comprising several air components from allied nations. Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft.

Many air forces are also responsible for operations of the military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and communications equipment. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks and defensive systems. Some nations, principally Russia, the former Soviet Union and countries who modelled their militaries along Soviet lines, have an air defence force which is organizationally separate from their air force.

Air force usually refers to Air force, armed service that primarily conducts aerial warfare

Air Force can also refer to:

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Air Force Two is the air traffic control call sign held by any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the U.S. Vice President, but not the President. The term is often associated with the Boeing C-32, a modified 757 which is most commonly used as the Vice President's transport. Other 89th Airlift Wing aircraft, such as the Boeing C-40 Clipper, C-20B, C-37A, and C-37B have served in this role as well. The VC-25A, the aircraft most often used by the President as Air Force One, has also been used by the vice president as Air Force Two.

Although the U.S. Marine Corps carries the primary mission for helicopter support of both the president (Marine One) and vice president (Marine Two), UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters from the Air Force's 1st Helicopter Squadron are also used to support the Vice President in the Washington, D.C. area under the call sign Air Force Two.

The Boeing C-32 aircraft, under the call sign Air Force One, has been used to transport the president when smaller airports can't handle the 747-derived VC-25s, as happened in Aberdeen, South Dakota in October 2002, Worcester, Massachusetts on 10 June 2014, Watertown, South Dakota on 8 May 2015, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 13 January 2016.