- published: 11 Jul 2015
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The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world. The RAF has taken a significant role in British military history, playing a large part in the Second World War and in more recent conflicts.
The RAF is one of the most capable and technologically sophisticated air forces in the world. As of January 2012[update] it operated 827 aircraft, making it the largest air force of a European Union country and the second largest in NATO (after the USAF). Most of the RAF's aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations (principally Afghanistan and the Middle East) or at long-established overseas bases (Ascension Island, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands).
The RAF's mission is to support the objectives of the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), which are to "provide the capabilities needed: to ensure the security and defence of the United Kingdom and overseas territories, including against terrorism; to support the Government’s foreign policy objectives particularly in promoting international peace and security."
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or other branch. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions and providing support to surface forces.
The term "air force" may also refer to a tactical air force or numbered air force, which is an operational formation within a national air force. Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft.
Many air forces are also responsible for operations of military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and communications equipment. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as antiaircraft artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks and defensive systems. Some nations, principally Russia, the former Soviet Union and countries who modelled their militaries along Soviet lines, have an Air Defence Force which is organizationally separate from their air force.
Everyone's leaving
The house is in mess
You and your magic friend
Chose to confront me folding the air into a dark affair
We need an air force
To gather the pieces, the love and the fear
I made your skin crawl on this night
Oh, my love
Lock up the doors
There's no easing the pain
Losing a life of games
Brought to impostures and comfort in death
You walk alone, my friend
We need an air force
To gather the pieces, the love and the fear
I made your skin crawl on this night
Oh, my love
Take off these sad clothes I need you to feel my despair Breaking the atmosphere
All of your talk of the dead will not stop
Breathe me like toxic love
We need an air force
To empty the streets with their naked machines
You made my skin crawl on this night
Oh, my love
We won't be air borne
Caught with the dust and the salt on the floor
We need an air force in this life