The Luftwaffe is the aerial warfare branch of The German Empire's Armed Forces, the Reichswehr. In the European theatre, the Air Force focuses on defending Europe from the Soviet Air Force using high-speed interceptors, though it is always prepared to carry out a strategic nuclear strike deep into Soviet territory if the situation calls for it. Its pilots are typically the elite of the Imperial military, trained to operate within an increasingly digitalised cockpit where the pilot acts more as a systems administrator for a soaring weapons platform than a traditional aviator, the best the Empire can muster.
In the more humid theatres of the Second Colonial War and the Vietnam War, the Luftwaffe adopts a humbler, and perhaps more traditional role. Here, its rusting airframes are committed to tasks like aerial resupply, close-air support and strategic bombing utilising heavily armed ground-attack jets to suppress insurgencies in the deep bush, or heavier bomber jets to reduce their holdouts to dust. This is a theatre of constant attrition, as a poorly planned insertion route always carries the risk of a heavy machinegun hit downing very expensive airframes. That situation has only gotten worse with the proliferation of Soviet MANPAD systems and, at least in Vietnam, advanced radar-guided systems. The Luftwaffe is also responsible for the logistical lifeblood of the colonies, maintaining a relentless schedule of long-range transport flights that ferry everything from fresh conscripts to heavy armour across thousands of kilometres of ocean. It is a service stretched to its breaking point, and yet, it still functions like clockwork. Mostly.