Chief of Air Force (Australia)

Chief of Air Force (CAF) is the most senior appointment in the

Between 1922 and 1997, the Air Force's senior officer was known as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), a role akin to a

The Chief of Air Force may be selected from any of the RAAF's air vice-marshal appointments, although the Air Commander or Deputy Chief of Air Force are the most frequent appointees. While every chief to date has been a pilot, since the mid-1970s there has been no legal restriction on appointees from other disciplines. The CAF is appointed by the Prime Minister and is usually a fixed-term tenure, after which the member normally retires, unless offered the more senior role of CDF. Four heads of the RAAF have gone on to attain the position of CDF or equivalent.

History

1922–38: Williams and Goble

The position now known as Chief of Air Force had its beginnings in the years immediately following World War I. A permanent Air Board was instituted on 9 November 1920 to oversee the day-to-day running of a proposed Australian Air Force, which would succeed the extant Australian Air Corps that had itself succeeded the wartime Australian Flying Corps.^[2] On 31 March 1921, the Australian Air Force came into being, the "Royal" prefix being added five months later.^[3]

Cumulatively Williams served longer as CAS than any other officer, over 13 years, and is accorded much of the credit for maintaining the RAAF's position as an independent service in the face of attempts to turn it into a branch of either the Army or Navy.[2] For this achievement, as much as for his involvement in its establishment, he is, in Stephens' words, "properly regarded as the 'father' of the Air Force".^[4]

1939–45: Crisis in command

The Williams-Goble duopoly ended in 1940. Williams was dismissed from his post in 1939 following publication of the Ellington Report, which criticised the level of air safety observed by the RAAF. Goble took over with the prospect of finally emerging from Williams' shadow but was concerned by, among other things, the emphasis he was required to place on the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), which promised to provide manpower for the air war in Europe at the expense of local defence. Goble refused to continue in the post and offered his resignation.^[6]

The Air Force expected Williams to be reappointed in Goble's place, but the

The next CAS was a major surprise to the service and to the appointee himself. George Jones was only a substantive wing commander and acting air commodore when he succeeded to the role in 1942, leapfrogging several more senior officers including the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock, a highly regarded commander who was expecting to take the position.^[11] Bostock was soon made head of RAAF Command, in charge of Australian air operations in the Pacific, while Jones' role was primarily administrative, to "raise, train and maintain" the service. Though Jones as CAS was nominally in charge of the RAAF, his new rank of Air Vice Marshal was the same as Bostock's and the command structure was not clear cut.^[8][12]

The situation led to a "disastrous" conflict at the top of the service,^[13] going far beyond the rivalry of Williams and Goble. Bostock was able to circumvent directives from Jones and the Air Board by appealing directly to Lieutenant General George Kenney, USAAF, Douglas MacArthur's chief of Pacific air operations.^[14] Jones in turn could curtail Bostock's supplies of manpower and equipment, as he did during the invasion of Tarakan in 1945 when he unilaterally grounded Australian bomber squadrons scheduled to take part in the attack. The Curtin Labor government did not act decisively to end the rift, its reaction being to again look to Britain for a suitable RAF officer senior to both men, though in the end nothing came of this. Kenney wrote that Jones and Bostock "fight each other harder than the Japs", but that he preferred their feuding to having a British officer in charge of the RAAF.^[8]

1946–75: Consolidation

Williams, Goble and Bostock were summarily retired in 1946. Jones, belatedly promoted to air marshal in 1948, oversaw the demobilisation of thousands of RAAF personnel and the creation of a peacetime service. The RAAF committed aircraft to the

Air Marshal David Evans played a major part in developing the RAAF's plans for the defence of Australia in the mid-1980s and beyond. The Air Force's role in shaping an overall strategy that exploited the "air-sea gap" was later acknowledged in the Federal Government paper "The Defence of Australia 1987". CAS from 1987 to 1992, Air Marshal Ray Funnell focused on turning the RAAF into the "air power element of a cohesive, integrated defence force". His service also saw the publication of The Air Power Manual, the RAAF's first self-produced treatise on aerial war fighting.^[24]

During the 1980s and 90s, conduct of air operations became the responsibility of the Air Commander Australia, a

• Structure of the RAAF
• Chief of the Air Staff (disambiguation)

Notes

References

• Helson, Peter (2006). Ten Years at the Top (PDF) (PhD). University of New South Wales. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 February 2008.
• Horner, David (2002). "The Evolution of Australian Higher Command Arrangements". Command Papers. Centre for Defence Leadership Studies, Australian Defence College. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012.
• ISBN 0-86777-368-5
  .
• Stephens, Alan (1995). Going Solo: The Royal Australian Air Force 1946–1971. Canberra: Aust. Govt. Pub. Service.
  ISBN 0-644-42803-1
  .
• Stephens, Alan (2006) [2001]. The Royal Australian Air Force: A History. London: Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 0-19-555541-4
  .
• Stephens, Alan; Isaacs, Jeff (1996). High Fliers: Leaders of the Royal Australian Air Force. Canberra: Aust. Govt. Pub. Service.
  ISBN 0-644-45682-5
  .

• RAAF Official Site (2008). Royal Australian Air Force leaders: Former Chiefs of the Air Force