Mouwembleem Central AAA Command (Sleeve badge Central Anti Aircraft Command)

United States Air Forces Central Command(USAFCENT/AFCENT) is a Named Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered atShaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint Department of Defense combatant commandresponsible for U.S. security interests in 27 nations that stretch from the Horn of Africa through the Persian Gulf region, into Central Asia.

Activated as 9th Air Force on 8 April 1942, the command fought in World War II both in theWestern Desert Campaign in Egypt and Libya and as the tactical fighter component of theUnited States Strategic Air Forces in Europe(USSTAF), engaging enemy forces in France, the Low Countries and in Nazi Germany. During the Cold War, it was one of two Numbered Air Forces of Tactical Air Command.

Co-designated as United States Central Command Air Forces (CENTAF) on 1 January 1983, on 2009 as part of a complicated transfer of lineage, the lineage and history of the Ninth Air Force was bestowed on USAFCENT, and a new Ninth Air Force, which technically had no previous history, was activated. It has fought in the 1991 Gulf War, War in Afghanistan (OEF-A, 2001–present), the Iraq War (OIF, 2003-2010), as well as various engagements within USCENTCOM.