How eighteen aircraft sustain a combat air patrol

An eighteen-aircraft example allocates four aircraft to the airborne patrol, four to immediate alert, four to fifteen minutes' readiness, four to thirty minutes or longer, and two spare airframes. When the patrol engages a target, the alert aircraft launch and the other groups move up in readiness. Returning aircraft are serviced, while a damaged machine goes into repair and a spare takes its place. A thirty-six-aircraft force provides two such groups with four spare airframes in total, leaving three when one aircraft becomes unavailable. An eighteen-aircraft force has only one spare left after the same loss. Larger groups also bring more engineers and stores, making it easier to fix a minor defect without interrupting operations.