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This article is about the current German air force; for the Wehrmacht air arm see Luftwaffe (Wehrmacht).

For other uses of the word Luftwaffe see Luftwaffe (Disambiguation).

The German air force (German IPA: ['lʊftvafə]) is the aerial warfare branch of the Bundeswehr, the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Luftwaffe was raised as the West German air force in 1956, a year after the West German parliament (Bundestag) ratified the Paris Agreements which provided for West German sovereignty and made it possible to join NATO and WEU. During the Cold War the Bundeswehr was the backbone of NATO's conventional defense in Central Europe. The Luftwaffe owned significant numbers of tactical combat aircraft and was and still is fully integrated in NATO command structures.

The end of the Cold War and the German reunification marked a historic point for the Luftwaffe and was the start of a process of transformation and reorganization. As the possibility of a major conflict in Europe has become highly unlikely, the Luftwaffe has been significantly reduced in numbers and prepared for peacekeeping and peacemaking tasks. ... first combat ... during the Kosovo War.

Recent years saw a continuing process of restructuring, combined with the introduction of new equipment and a growing number of deployments.

History

The Luftwaffe and its predecessors

The Rudel Scandal

Main article: Rudel Scandal

Mölders controversy

Main article: Werner Mölders

German Air Force One

German air force Airbus A310-304 VIP "Konrad Adenauer" in new colours (click to enlarge)

Structure of the West German air force in 1970 (click to enlarge)

Structure of the German air force in 2008 (click to enlarge)

Raising the Luftwaffe: 1950-1970

"Rearming Germany was a long and complicated process. It was especially difficult to create a new German air force. The army generals who dominated the Bundeswehr cadre did not even want an air force but rather a small arm air corps. Moreover, Adenauer's defense staff failed to adequately budget or plan for a new air force. As rearmament began, US Air Force leaders, working closely with the small Luftwaffe staff in West Germany's shadow Defense Ministry, basically took charge of the process to ensure that the Germans built a new Luftwaffe on the American model - a large, multipurpose force organized as an independent service and fully integrated into NATO. The first Bundesluftwaffe commanders allied themselves to the Americans, often in opposition to their army comrades, to overcome the political problems caused by Adenauer's poor defense planning and create a modern air force on American lines."

Transformation: 2001-2010

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Disambiguation

(German IPA: ['lʊftvafə]) is a generic German term for an air force. In English, the word is commonly associated with

• Nazi Germany's air force, founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1946.

It is also the German name for the current

• Federal Republic of Germany's air force, founded in 1956; sometimes informally called Bundesluftwaffe (federal air force) to distinguish it from its Wehrmacht predecessor and/or its East German counterpart and to mark its allegiance to the Bundeswehr.

Additionally,

• Schweizer Luftwaffe is the name of the Swiss Air Force in German since 1996. Before 1996 its German designation was Schweizerische Flugwaffe.

For the post-industrial music-group see

• Luftwaffe (band).

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See also:

Other historic German air forces are the

• World War I-era Luftstreitkräfte, called the Deutsche Fliegertruppen until 1916, disbanded 1918, and the
• Luftstreitkräfte der NVA, the German Democratic Republic's air force, disbanded 1990.

The Austrian Air Force is called

• Österreichische Luftstreitkräfte.

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