The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It has been headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, since activation on 5 August 2009. Ninth Air Force was previously a numbered air force activated during the Second World War. For decades, Ninth Air Force supervised tactical fighter units on the U.S. East Coast. From 1983, it became the air force component of United States Central Command. From 1990, units were deployed to the Middle East against Iraq, and from 2001 against threats emanating from Afghanistan. In this role, the organization was known as United States Air Forces Central (USAFCENT).