Group (military unit)

A group is a military unit or formation that is most often associated with military aviation. The terms group and wing differ considerably from one country to another and between branches of a national defence force. Air groups generally take two forms: a unit of two to four squadrons commanded by a lieutenant colonel, colonel or an equivalent rank, as in the United States Air Force, the French Armee de l air and the German Luftwaffe, or a much larger formation of ten or more squadrons commanded by a general officer or air commodore, as in the Royal Air Force and many other Commonwealth air forces. In those forces a group is made up of several stations or wings and is roughly equivalent to a United States wing. The group appears in the early aviation services of France and Germany during World War I, where it sat above the escadrille or Staffel and below the escadron or Geschwader, and the Royal Air Force adopted it when it was formed in 1918.