.I serious don't know how any individual would define an air force. Does it have to belong to a nation state? Can it simply be sponsored by a nation state? Does it have to employ weapons? Can they be non kinetic weapons? What if a national air force only consisted of log and rescue aircraft, no weapons? Ah...doesn't matter. Don't really care. Thought
@Brett327 would have a serious answer I might learn from. In any case, the Air USA capabilities are more than decent for a, shall we say, contract air corps

. I know, it ain't state of the art current gen. But you have NEVER had that in red air, even US military.
Mission Capabilities
• Fixed Wing Close Air Support
• Government approved Live Close Air Support –Air USA provides Ordnance
• Day and Night missions including night bombing on NVG’s
• NTISR Training with MX-15’s mounted on high performance jet aircraft
• Digitally Aided CAS - VMF Strike Link Alpha
• Air Intercept Training
• DACT,ACM, and BFM
• Threat Simulation with Electronic Warfare Pods- ALQ-167, and AST-6/9
• Target Towing
Certified to Carry
IMER, MER, SUU-20, CBLS 200, AIM-9, AST-6, LATR, ALQ-167, EATS, TACTS, TSS, ACMI, ALE-43, RM-30,AN/ASQ-40T, A100, and AST-9.