A couple of years ago, the Air Force announced that it would remake its numbered Air Forces into warfighting headquarters, trimming staff and turning them into pure command and control structures supporting specific combatant/unified commanders. Most NAFs were to lose their numbers and be identified by the unified command they supported, such as Air Force Pacific, instead of 13th Air Force. Somewhere between then and now, the Air Force abandoned the term WFHQ in favor of component NAF, or CNAF. (We just reported on the new space CNAF.) Air Force spokesman Maj. David Small assures us that the original “command and control enabling concept,” as signed out by then-Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper remains intact. Last year, current Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne signed a program action directive to implement the concept, which has an initial operational capability goal of October 2007. The PAD simply updated the terminology from WFHQ to CNAF.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.