The NAF is the senior war-fighting echelon of the US Air Force. Not all NAFs maintain this capability. A NAF conducts operations with assigned and attached forces under a command element. The 1991 reorganization did not stop with the major commands, but it extends through all headquarters levels.
Major commands sit on top of a skip-echelon structure.
The numbered air force staff is the nucleus of a wartime control center. Previously, the numbered air force employs both a functional and combat operations staff. In the restructured numbered air forces the management function disappeared, leaving only the combat operations activity. The numbered air force staff shrank to less than 100 people, about half its previou size. On 29 October 1991 TAC said that its objective wing restructure test had gone so well that it was ending it early and implementing the new organization on 1 Dec 1991.