Far East Air Force (Royal Air Force)
former Royal Air Force command formation controlling RAF assets in areas of east Asia from 1939, via various name changes, until 1971
The former Royal Air Force Far East Air Force, more simply known as RAF Far East Air Force, was the Command that controlled all Royal Air Force assets in the east of Asia (Far East). It was originally formed as Air Command, South East Asia in 1943 during the Second World War. In 1946, this was renamed RAF Air Command Far East, and finally Far East Air Force in June 1949.
The command was disbanded on 31 October 1971.
Early history
The RAF's Far East Command was formed in January 1930 and its first officer commanding, Group Captain Henry Cave-Browne-Cave, was double-hatted as Officer Commanding RAF Singapore. This was upgraded to Headquarters Air Force Far East Command in 1933. During the Second World War, when Malaya, Singapore, Burma and Hong Kong were overrun by the Japanese, the command retreated to India, there receiving the name Air Headquarters Bengal.
The true ancestor of the postwar Far East Air Force was formed on 16 November 1943, under Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (SEAC). It was initially called South East Asia Air Command, but became Air Command, South East Asia (ACSEA) on 30 December 1943. On 1 July 1944 ACSEA comprised No.
The public source identifies “Far East Air Force (Royal Air Force)” as former Royal Air Force command formation controlling RAF assets in areas of east Asia from 1939, via various name changes, until 1971. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around East, Force and Royal.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5434527. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1946, 1949 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Far East Air Force (Royal Air Force)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.