United States Air Force

USAF

The US Air Force was the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for deploying military aircraft, satellites and missiles. It did not control all military aircraft, since the innovation of the aircraft carrier placed many combat airplanes in the hands of the US Navy. The Air Force maintained a fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles during the Earth Cold War and later World War III. Zefram Cochrane would eventually convert one such missile into the prototype warp ship Phoenix.

In 2267, an accident catapulted the USS Enterprise back three centuries to 1969. Its appearance in that year, in the airspace over the US 498th Airbase Group, caused alarm. An Air Force pilot, Captain John Christopher attempted to intercept the Enterprise.

In one version of history, his plane was destroyed and he was taken aboard the ship; in the version "recreated" by Spock's slingshot method of returning to the future, the ship vanished before he could reach it, and he returned to his base, unaware of what he had seen. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")

In an illustration he did for the Incredible Tales magazine, Roy Ritterhouse drew a space station that was operated by the US Air Force. The illustration later became part of the Deep Space 9 novella. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")

After the USS Voyager was accidentally transported to 1996, and flew through Earth's atmosphere over Los Angeles, the United States military took the incident quite seriously. Captain Janeway feared that if the ship risked another pass through the lower atmosphere, they risked getting intercepted by the Air Force. (VOY: "Future's End, Part II")

In addition, markings in the missile complex from which Zefram Cochrane launched the Phoenix woumd seem to suggest that it was previously operated by the U.S.A.F. (as it would most likely be in reality)