WT Forums

The 2005 USAF Almanac staes that as of sept 30 2004 there were 45 Active fighter squadrons but I come up with 47.

Where am I going wrong?

11 F-15C/F/A 22
6 F-15E(plus two training 333rd & 334th)
20 F-16
8 A-10
2 F-117

Thanks for any help.

Rick




Edited by - rickusn on Apr 01 2006 7:23 PM

It might be bette if you broke your numbers futher.

Fender

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
George Bernard Shaw

I can do that:

A-10(8)

51st FW S. Korea
25th FS

354th FW Alaska
355th FS

52nd FW Germany
81st FS

23rd FG N. Carolina
74th FS
75th FS

355th Wing Arizona
354th FS
357th FS
358th FS

F-117(2)

49th FW New Mexico
8th FS
9th FS

F-15E(6)

3rd Wing Alaska
90th FS

52nd Wing UK
492nd FS
494th FS

4th FW N.Carolina
335th FS
336th FS

366th Wing Idaho
391st FS

F-15C/F/A 22(11)

18th Wing Japan
44th FS
67th FS

3d Wing Alaska
12th FS
19th FS

48th FW UK
493rd FS

1st FW Virginia
27th FS
71st FS
94th FS

33rd FW Florida
58th FS
60th FS

366th Wing Idaho
390th FS

F-16(20)

35th FW Japan
13th FS
14th FS

8th FW S. Korea
35th FS
80th FS

51st FW S. Korea
36th FS

354th FW Alaska
18th FS

52nd FW Germany
22nd FS
23rd FS

31st FW Italy
510th FS
555th FS

20th FW S. Carolina
55th FS
77th FS
79th FS

27th FW New Mexico
522nd FS
523rd FS
524th FS

366th FW Idaho
389th FS

388th FW Utah
4th FS
34th FS
421st FS

Thanks again for any help.

Rick












Edited by - rickusn on Apr 02 2006 05:17 AM

I found this:

"Section 911 also would require the Air Force to maintain 46 fighter squadrons in its active force. Currently, the Air Force has 45 active squadrons. It plans to add one squadron of F/A-22 aircraft in 2004 and retire one squadron of A-10 aircraft, sustaining a force of 45 squadrons. CBO assumes that the Air Force would retain the A-10 squadron over the 2004-2008 period to meet the bill's requirement to maintain 46 active squadrons. CBO estimates that the cost to keep the A-10 squadron in active service would be about $100 million over the 2004-2008 period."

It explains the drop to 45 squadrons but I still have one squadron too many.

Got this back from AFA. The correction was due to my error. And not that of the source material I used.:

Rick Smith,

I apologize for this delay in responding to your e-mail of April 7 to Chequita Wood on the correct number of USAF (fighter) squadrons for AIR FORCE Magazine’s USAF Almanac. Your e-mail got forwarded to me, the May USAF Almanac Editor.

I ran your message through Public Affairs, who came back to me yesterday with the reply: YOU ARE CORRECT! The only slight modification they offered was that the F-15E Fighter Wing at Lakenheath is the 48th, not the 52nd.

So, first, many, many thanks for raising this with us. And although this information came too late to make any corrections to the May 2006 USAF Almanac, which is now at the printer’s (and has been for the last week or so), I am making a note of this for my file on May 2007 so I will be sure to correct this for next year. Also, I will correct the previous year tallys to accurately reflect this correct number.

I am also keeping your squadron list so we can tally this unit by unit for next year.

As editor of the USAF Almanac, I greatly appreciate your painstaking research and thoroughness. I will tell you that each year, I submit this and the other tables to USAF for checking and updating, and it is a little discouraging to learn that they did not catch this error themselves. So it makes it all the more vital that I hear from folks like you, especially when you kindly supply the itemized listing of each squadron, and thus provide me the opportunity to make corrections. Thank you!

Best Regards,

Tam Mehuron

Associate Editor

AIR FORCE Magazine

Tmehuron@afa.org

Good work.

Fender

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
George Bernard Shaw

Well actually I have cleared up the discrepancy and have Emailed the following to AFA:

After further review I have come to the conclusion that there are only 45 active squadrons.

Which would make you "CORRECT" and not I.

The 357th and 358th A-10 squadrons are classed as operational training squadrons the same as the 333rd and 334th F-15E squadrons are.

I based my conclusion partially on this along with the above facts. :

FY 2000 FY 2001 FY 2002
SQUADRONS
F-15 11 11 11
A-10 6 6 6
F-16 23 21 21
F-15E 6 6 6
F-117 2 2 2
Total 46

We know that one F-16 squadron(the 78th FS) was deactivated in 2003 to bring our total to 45.

If we are to include the two A-10 operational training squadrons to be consistent we would have to include the two F-15E training squadrons as they perform the same function.

Sorry for any confusion and wasting your time..





Edited by - rickusn on Apr 28 2006 14:37