The current commander of the German Air Force is Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz. The Inspector of the Air Force ("Inspekteur der Luftwaffe") is the commander of Air Force Command ("Kommando Luftwaffe"), a body created in 2013 by the merger of the Air Force Office ("Luftwaffenamt"), German Air Staff ("Führungsstab der Luftwaffe"), and Air Force Forces Command ("Luftwaffenführungskommando"). Similar to the Air Staff of the United States Air Force, the German Air Force Command is a force providing command, not an operational command. The Air Force Command is tasked with ensuring the combat readiness of the German Air Force combat units, which during operations would either be commanded by a NATO command or the Joint Operations Command of the "Bundeswehr". The Air Force command directly controls three higher commands.