<text id=00od0300><title>Organization and Deployment: The Post-War Reorganization</title>
<history>US Air Force: Briefing</history>
<article><hdr>Organization and Deployment—The Post-War Reorganization</hdr><body>
<p>In a period of upheaval very much like recent reorganization, the years after VJ Day brought dramatic changes in the US defense establishment, including transformation of the USAAF into an independent United States Air Force on 18 September 1947. By this time, two of the newly-independent USAF's best-known components, Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC), had been established and were in operation.
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<p>The Cold War presented new challenges when the USAF's transports (the term airlift was not in use then) became the backbone of the 1948 Berlin Airlift, supplying that city during a Soviet blockade which was eventually broken. The USAF fielded the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber in time to coincide with the 1949 explosion of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb. Commanded and shaped by the 'bomber generals' who had led the strategic campaigns of World War II, the USAF abruptly found itself fighting not against a Soviet nuclear threat but, rather, on the Korean peninsula.
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<p>The 'police action' in Korea (1950-53) produced the first jet-versus-jet battles, established the North American F-86 Sabre as a world standard bearer, and added 40 more air aces to the USAF's hundreds from the world wars.
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<p>During the mid-1950s, the USAF reached the pinnacle of its strength, with more than 2,000 B-47s equipping SAC and being joined by the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and Convair B-58 Hustler. A 'century series' of supersonic fighters was introduced, beginning with the North American F-100 Super Sabre. It was an era of fiery tension between the world's two superpowers, enflamed by the introduction of the first ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) in the 1960s.
