Quora Answer: Why Do Terrorist Groups, Such as ISIS, Despite Capturing Airbases & Airplanes, Never Field an Air Force?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why do terrorist groups such as ISIS, even though they capture airbases and airplanes, never field an air force?” 

This is a matter of logistics and design.  It is one thing to capture an air base and its assets.  It is another matter altogether to possess the ability to use those assets.  Operating an air force requires more than simply having pilots and crew.  These groups need to gain access to ground crew, air traffic controllers, maintenance crew, and the entire logistics of keeping these aircraft airworthy, let alone combat worthy.  This means fuel, spare parts, and armament. 

Terrorist groups such as ISIS are still involved in a form of asymmetrical warfare against state actors.  They may be able to take territory due to geopolitical reasons, but they cannot go up against a determined state actor should the strategic dynamic change.  It is one thing for non-state actors to have ground troops and armour, even a few naval gun boats.  It is another thing for them to be allowed to have an air force, assuming they can resolve the above-mentioned issues.  Now, they become a threat on a wider tactical theatre, which invites further resources to bear against them.  Having an air base also means having a place of congregation that becomes a military target.  This would be counter to the doctrines of asymmetrical warfare. 

Groups such as ISIS gain territory because it is in the interest of some state actor to stymie the actions of the sovereign state in battling them, as part of a wider strategy of aggression or containment.  By themselves, they are, generally, in no position to take on a modern military.  The moment they lose their patrons, having served their purpose or outlived their usefulness, they are crushed.  A great example would be the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.  As long as they had the tacit support of India, due to sympathies for the Sri Lankan Tamils, they could fight the Sri Lankan military.  They even had their own fleet of patrol craft and single-engine aircraft at one point.  Then they assassinated Rajiv Ratna Gandhi, and lost that state support.  They were rapidly crushed, and a decades-long insurgency came to an end.