Vulshainian Confederate Air Force
The Vulshainian Confederate Air Force (VCAF) is the branch of the Vulshainian Confederate Armed Forces tasked with combating enemies in the air.
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Mission
According to the National Defense Royal Act of 1917, which created the Confederate Air Force,
The Vulshainian Confederate Air Force shall include aviation forces both combat and service not otherwise assigned. It will be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive combat and other air operations. The Air Force is responsible for organizing air forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime components of the Air Force to meet the needs of war.
Title 4 Section 15A-Z defines the purpose of the Air Force as:
- to preserve peace and security and provide defense of Vulshain, royal possessions, and any area occupied by Vulshain
- supporting national policies
- implementing national objectives
- overcome any threat or aggression, be it from nations or other outside parties, towards Vulshain outside and within her borders, as well as her allies
- defend Vulshain's airspace
Operational Functions
The Air Force describes its mission in terms of 17 operational functions:
Strategic Attack – offensive action that most directly achieves national security objectives by affecting the adversary’s leadership, conflict-sustaining resources and strategy.
Counter-air – operations to attain and maintain a desired degree of air superiority by the destruction, degradation, or disruption of enemy forces. Counter-air takes the form of both offensive counter-air against enemy air and missile power at its source, and defensive counter-air against attacking enemy air and missiles over friendly territory.
Counter-space – destruction, degradation or disruption of enemy space capability.
Counter-land – air and space operations against enemy land forces, including air interdiction to divert, disrupt, delay, or destroy the enemy’s surface military potential before it can be used effectively against friendly forces, and close air support to help friendly surface forces in contact with enemy forces.
Counter-sea – tasks including sea surveillance, anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare, aerial minelaying, and air refueling in support of naval campaigns.
Information Operations – actions taken to influence, affect, or defend information, systems, and/or decision-making, through influence, network warfare, and electronic warfare operations.
Combat Support – capabilities, functions, activities, and tasks necessary to create and sustain air and space forces, including the procurement, maintenance, distribution, and replacement of personnel and materiel.
Command and Control – exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission, including both process and systems.
Airlift – transportation of personnel and materiel through the air.
Air Refueling – in-flight transfer of fuel between tanker and receiver aircraft.
Space-lift – delivery of satellites, payloads and material to space, conducted jointly with the Vulshainian Confederate Space Forces and the Confederate Space Aeronautics and Exploration Agency (CSAEA).
Special Operations – airpower conducting unconventional warfare, direct action, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, psychological operations, and counter-proliferation.
Intelligence – product resulting from the collection, processing, integration, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of available information concerning foreign countries or areas.
Surveillance and Reconnaissance – systematic observation of air, space, surface, or subsurface areas, places, persons, or things, by visual, aural, electronic, photographic, or other means. Surveillance is a continuing process, not oriented to a specific target, while reconnaissance looks for specific information and generally has a time constraint.
Combat Search and Rescue – recovery of isolated personnel with rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft.
Navigation and Positioning – provision of accurate location and time of reference.
Weather Services – environmental information, including both space environment and atmospheric weather.
Search and Rescue
The National Royal Search and Rescue Plan designates the Vulshainian Royal Coast Guard as the federal agency responsible for conducting maritime search-and-rescue operations (SAR). Both agencies maintain joint-operations centers across the nation. To assist the Air Force with the vast amounts of search-and-rescue operations, the Air Force assigns the Civil Air Patrol - the official auxillary to the Air Force - in over 90% of all inland rescue operations.
Air sovereignty
The VCAF, through the Air National Guard, is the lead agency to maintain control of Vulshain's airspace.
Through the use of advanced radar technologies, the Air Force is able to detect threats (cruise missiles, hostile aircraft, etc.) and respond to them accordingly. The Air Force revealed that typically, threats are dealt with by either fighters or surface-to-air missile sites, immobile and mobile. However, the Vulshainian Confederate Strategic Rocket Forces also handles the task of defending against such attacks as well.
Airlift
The VCAF provides strategic and tactical airlift in support of wartime operations, peacetime, and humanitarian efforts of the Ministry of Defence.
Aircraft Inventory
The VCAF uses a variety of different aircraft and helicopters such as the Su-27, MiG-35, Su-34, Su-35BM, Ka-52, Sukhoi T-50, Ka-60, and Mil Mi-24. It also uses the Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut and the Sukhoi Su-37 Flanker-F, as well as the Dassault Rafale and the Mirage 2000C. The VCAF also uses both the A-10 Thunderbolt II and Sukhoi Su-25 for close air support, and both aircraft are used by the Vulshainian Confederate Ground Forces.
Project Sky Fox
Recently, a new fighter is currently being developed. The project known as Sky Fox was funded and started by Royal Confederate Premier Cecilia Rainard. While the fighter developed from this project will not fully replace the aircraft in the Air Force's arsenal, it is part of the planned removal of foreign weapon systems from the military's arsenal and replaced by Vulshainian designed and built weapon systems. Several prototypes are being developed that utilize stealth technology. Premier Rainard has final say on the various prototypes and also has the power to make changes to any and all prototypes and designs as she see fits. Many of the project researchers and engineers have commented on her brilliant engineering ideas and designs.
Sixth Generation Fighter?
There are rumors that there is another project being worked on called Project Aerowolf that involves a sixth generation fighter, one that according to some sources will "...lead the way to the next generation of fighters."
New Fighters
Vulshain unveiled two of its newest fighters, the FX-44 Excalibur and the F-99 Caladbolg. The FX-44 Excalibur is armed with not only a 300 missile payload and dual machine guns, but also dual railguns as well. The extra missiles are because of the ADMM, or All-Direction Multi-purpose Missile launcher. They are capable of wiping out entire enemy groups. This makes the Excalibur a multirole fighter, capable of fighting in any situation ranging dogfights to ground support to search-and-destroy missions. It is also equipped with a built-in Electronic Counter-Measure (ECM) device that is used to 'jam' radar and prevent it from locking onto targets. The jammer emits electromagnetic pulses that can scramble radar, making it difficult for enemy pilots to lock onto the Excalibur.
The F-99 Caladbolg is mainly an air superority fighter, although it is capable of functioning as a multirole aircraft. Extremely fast, agile, and deadly, the Caladbolg is armed with a 20 mm M61 Vulcan nose mounted gatling gun, and IIR (imaging infrared) missiles, as well as the TLS, or Tactical Laser System, a high intensity chemical laser mounted in a small area beneath the nose wherein the weapon is contained. The laser is capable of cutting through even the strongest metal like a hot knife through butter.
The sixth generation fighter, the Fenrir, is still in development, but it is expected to be equipped with highly advanced technology.
Flight Suits
Vulshainian flight suits are form-fitting and are made of a special polymeric skin. The suit covers up the tail. There is a stronger, yet light-weight cermanic armor placed over the chest area, back, elbows, thighs, knees, shoulders, and neck. The flight suits are quite strong and durable. However, lobos and vulpines are unable to wear anything underneath the flight suits, mainly because it gets quite uncomfortable when wearing anything underneath the suit. Humans prefer normal flight suits. Vulpine and lobo pilots have commented that the suits are comfortable when you're not wearing anything under them, but even undergarments make wearing the suits extremely unpleasant.
Father of All Bombs
The Father of All Bombs or FoAB, is considered to be one of the most powerful non-nuclear bombs in history. Many nations, but especially Vulshain's allies in particular, are concerned and have questioned the legitimacy of the weapon's size and power. However, everyone is in agreement that Vulshain's military has a long history of being a pioneer in the development and use of thermobaric weapons. Despite possessing such a powerful and deadly weapon, the Vulshainian government has only used the FoAB a few times, but not on foreign soil. To the horror of many nations throughout the world, Vulshain used these weapons on their own soil. The fact that Vulshain used such a powerful weapon against domestic enemies during the Vulshainian Civil War has raised concerns by several nations, such as Laiatan, Vekaiyu, and Azulcena. Other nations have questioned the morality of the Confederacy's government as well as how the Vulshainian military fought during the Civil War. The FoAB has not been used since then.
