1.
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
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The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medevac and it is now the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over forty variants and versions of the Hercules, including a civilian one marketed as the Lockheed L-100, the C-130 entered service with the U. S. in the 1950s, followed by Australia and others. During its years of service, the Hercules family has participated in numerous military, the C-130 Hercules is the longest continuously produced military aircraft at over 60 years, with the updated Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules currently being produced. The new transport would have a capacity of 92 passengers,72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers in a compartment that was approximately 41 feet long,9 feet high. Unlike transports derived from passenger airliners, it was to be designed from the ground-up as a transport with loading from a hinged loading ramp at the rear of the fuselage. A key feature was the introduction of the Allison T56 turboprop powerplant, as was the case on helicopters of that era, such as the UH-1 Huey, turboshafts produced much more power for their weight than piston engines. Lockheed would subsequently use the engines and technology in the Lockheed L-188 Electra. The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter also had a ramp, which made it possible to drive vehicles onto the plane. The ramp on the Hercules was also used to airdrop cargo, the new Lockheed cargo plane design possessed a range of 1,100 nmi, takeoff capability from short and unprepared strips, and the ability to fly with one engine shut down. Fairchild, North American, Martin, and Northrop declined to participate, the remaining five companies tendered a total of ten designs, Lockheed two, Boeing one, Chase three, Douglas three, and Airlifts Inc. one. The contest was an affair between the lighter of the two Lockheed proposals and a four-turboprop Douglas design. The Lockheed design team was led by Willis Hawkins, starting with a 130-page proposal for the Lockheed L-206, both Hibbard and Johnson signed the proposal and the company won the contract for the now-designated Model 82 on 2 July 1951. The first flight of the YC-130 prototype was made on 23 August 1954 from the Lockheed plant in Burbank, the aircraft, serial number 53-3397, was the second prototype, but the first of the two to fly. The YC-130 was piloted by Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer on its 61-minute flight to Edwards Air Force Base, Jack Real, kelly Johnson flew chase in a Lockheed P2V Neptune. After the two prototypes were completed, production began in Marietta, Georgia, where over 2,300 C-130s have been built through 2009. The initial production model, the C-130A, was powered by Allison T56-A-9 turboprops with three-blade propellers, deliveries began in December 1956, continuing until the introduction of the C-130B model in 1959. Some A-models were equipped with skis and re-designated C-130D, four-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers replaced the Aeroproducts three-blade propellers that distinguished the earlier A-models
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Air Combat Command
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Air Combat Command is one of ten Major Commands in the United States Air Force, reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force at the Pentagon. ACC is headquartered at Langley Field, Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Virginia and its commander is General Herbert Hawk Carlisle, with Major General Jerry D. Harris Jr. as Vice Commander, and Chief Master Sergeant Steve K. McDonald as the Command Chief Master Sergeant, in addition, ACC augments the forces of the United States European Command, United States Pacific Command and United States Central Command when needed. Air Combat Command consists of approximately 98,000 active duty members, in 2015, responsibility for the B-1 Lancer bomber fleet was also transferred from ACC to AFGSC. Air Combat Command was created 1 June 1992 after the inactivation of the Tactical Air Command, Strategic Air Command, furthermore, ACC had some KC-135 and KC-10 aerial refueling tankers and C-130 tactical airlift aircraft in its composite, reconnaissance, and certain other combat wings. In 1993, control of the ICBM force was transferred to the Air Force Space Command until transferred again to Air Force Global Strike Command on 1 Dec 2009. S, Air Force and the U. S. Navy. Historically, combat command was an air unit designation. During 1941 and early 1942, the air units of the War Department, formerly known as the GHQ Air Force. The AFCC was dissolved in the reorganization of the United States Army, effective 9 March 1942, not long after activation, ACC underwent organizational and mission changes. The first such change was the transfer of the combat search. With the realigning of search and rescue units, ACC gained additional resources, the formal transfer took place on 1 February 1993, when the Air Rescue Service was assigned to ACC. On 2 July of the year, the ARS was disestablished. The USAF Combat Rescue School was subsequently assigned to the 57th Wing at Nellis AFB, one of the most significant changes for Air Combat Command resulted from an overhaul of flying training responsibilities. Following its activation, ACC was responsible for aircrew training, including initial weapon system. On 1 July 1993, the 58th and 325th Fighter Wings—F-16 and F-15 training units transferred from ACC to Air Education and Training Command. Concurrently, Luke AFB, Arizona, and Tyndall AFB, Florida, for which those respective wings were the host units, however, on 1 October 2012, both Tyndall AFB and the 325th Fighter Wing returned to the control of ACC. The next major change resulted from a fine-tuning of aerial refueling. From its activation, Air Combat Command had assumed ownership of some C-130 Hercules theater airlift assets and KC-10 Extender, there was historical precedent for the reassignment of C-130s to Air Combat Command
4.
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
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The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some models were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s. At its inception, the B-24 was a design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted. The wing gave the Liberator a high speed, long range. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine, however, the type was difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance. It also had a ceiling and was less robust than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. While aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff favored the B-24, the B-24 was used extensively in World War II. It served in every branch of the American armed forces, as well as several Allied air forces and navies, along with the B-17, the B-24 was the mainstay of the US strategic bombing campaign in the Western European theater. Due to its range, it proved useful in bombing operations in the Pacific, long range anti-submarine Liberators played an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic Gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The C-87 transport derivative served as a range, higher capacity counterpart to the Douglas C-47 Skytrain. The B-24 was produced in large numbers. At the end of World War II, the Liberator had been surpassed by more modern types such as the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the type was rapidly phased out of US service, although the PB4Y-2 Privateer derivative carried on in service with the US Navy in the Korean War. Two B-24s, one LB-30B and one Liberator V representing a B-24H, are airworthy as of 2016, the Liberator originated from a United States Army Air Corps request in 1938 for Consolidated to produce the B-17 under license. After company executives including President Reuben Fleet visited the Boeing factory in Seattle, Washington and this new fuselage was intentionally designed around twin bomb bays, each one being the same size and capacity of the B-17 bomb bays. In January 1939, the USAAC, under Specification C-212, formally invited Consolidated to submit a design study for a bomber with longer range, higher speed, the specification was written such that the Model 32 would automatically be the winning design. The program was run under the group, Project A. Although the B-24 did not meet Project A goals, it was a step in that direction, Project A led to the development of the Boeing B-29 and Consolidateds own B-32 and B-36. The B-24 had a shoulder mounted high aspect ratio Davis wing and this wing was highly efficient allowing a relatively high airspeed and long range
5.
15th Expeditionary Mobility Task Force
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The Fifteenth Expeditionary Mobility Task Force was one of two EMTFs assigned to the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command and was headquartered at Travis Air Force Base, California. The 15 EMTF was inactivated on 20 March 2012 and its functions,15 EMTF provided strategic and theater airlift for all United States Department of Defense agencies as well as air refueling for the Air Force in both peace and wartime. Primary aircraft assigned to its units were the C-5 Galaxy, C-9 Nightingale, C-17 Globemaster III, C-21, C-130 Hercules, KC-10 Extender,15 EMTF was a redesignation of Fifteenth Air Force, effective 1 October 2003. During the Cold War,15 AF was one of three Numbered Air Forces of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command, commanding USAF strategic bombers and missiles on a global scale. Elements of 15th Air Force engaged in operations during the Korean War, Vietnam War. The first commander was General Jimmy Doolittle, 15th AF resulted from a reorganization of Doolittles Twelfth Air Force into the 15th with Doolittle in command, and the Ninth Air Force with Lewis H. Brereton in command. The new air force was activated with a strength of ninety B-24 Liberators and 210 B-17 Flying Fortresses, inherited from the Twelfth Air Force, in December, new groups, most of which were equipped with B-24s soon started arriving from the United States. It was hoped that the 15th AF stationed in the Mediterranean would be able to operate when the Eighth Air Force in England was socked in by bad English weather. The 9th AF would later move to England to serve as a unit to take part in the invasion of Europe. Assigned to the 15th Special Group in January 1945, on 1 December 1943, the Headquarters was moved to Bari Airfield, Italy. On 4 January 1944, Fifteenth, along with Twelfth Air Force were organized into Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, MAAF was the southern component of U. S. Strategic Air Forces, Europe, the overall USAAF command and control organization in Europe. The first major operation carried out by Fifteenth Air Force was bombing missions in support of the Anzio Landings in Italy, strikes on German and fascist Italian targets were carried out and caused widespread damage to Axis forces. Big Week was the name of an intense Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces series of attacks on Germany in a series of co-ordinated raids on the German aircraft industry, on 22 February 1944, Fifteenth Air Force made its first attack on Germany, with an attack on Regensburg. The Fifteenth dispatched a force of 183 bombers to the Oberstraubing Messerschmidt assembly plant, some 118 bombed with good results but fourteen were shot down. The next day the 15th sent 102 bombers to the Steyr ball-bearing works in Austria where they destroyed twenty percent of the plant, on 24 February, over 180 Liberators inflicted considerable damage to the Messerschmitt Bf 110 assembly plant at Gotha, losing 28 aircraft. On 25 February 114 B-17s and B-24s were dispatched to Steyr again, but the force became separated, despite these losses, it was believed that the USSTAF had dealt the German aircraft industry a severe blow. In April, General Eisenhower ordered the USSTAF to attack German fuel production centers by striking both the oil refineries and the factories producing synthetic fuels. The 15th started the offensive on 5 April when it dispatched 235 B-17s, the refineries were attacked again on 15 and 24 April, inflicting additional damage
6.
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
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The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing which was flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. It was one of the largest aircraft operational during World War II and it was the single most expensive weapons project undertaken by the United States in World War II, exceeding the cost of the Manhattan Project by between 1 and 1.7 billion dollars. A manned tail gun installation was semi-remote, the name Superfortress continued the pattern Boeing started with its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Designed for the strategic bomber role, the B-29 also excelled in low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions. One of the B-29s final roles during World War II was carrying out the bomb attacks on Hiroshima. The B-29 served in roles throughout the 1950s. The Royal Air Force flew the B-29 as the Washington until phasing out the type in 1954, the Soviet Union produced an unlicensed reverse-engineered copy as the Tupolev Tu-4. The B-29 was the progenitor of a series of Boeing-built bombers, transports, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft, the type was retired in the early 1960s. The B-29 production total was 3,970 aircraft, dozens of B-29s remain as static displays but only two examples, Fifi and Doc, have been restored to flying status, with Doc flying again for the first time from McConnell AFB on July 17,2016. A transport developed from the B-29 was the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, first flown in 1944, followed by its commercial airliner variant and this bomber-to-airliner derivation was similar to the B-17/Model 307 evolution. In 1948 Boeing introduced a variant of the B-29 as the KB-29. A heavily modified line of outsized-cargo variants of the Stratocruiser is the Guppy / Mini Guppy / Super Guppy which remain in service today with operators including NASA, Boeing began work on pressurized long-range bombers in 1938, in response to a United States Army Air Corps request. Boeings design study for the Model 334 was a derivative of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with nosewheel undercarriage. Although the Air Corps did not have money to pursue the design, in April 1939, Charles Lindbergh convinced general Henry H. Arnold to produce a new bomber in large numbers to counter the Nazi production, Boeings previous private venture studies formed the starting point for its response to this specification. Boeing submitted its Model 345 on 11 May 1940, in competition with designs from Consolidated Aircraft, Lockheed, Consolidated continued to work on its Model 33 as it was seen by the Air Corps as a backup in case of problems with Boeings design. Boeing received a production order for 14 service test aircraft and 250 production bombers in May 1941. The B-29 featured a design with circular cross-section for strength
7.
Strategic Air Command
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At a lower echelon, headquarters divisions included Aircraft Engineering, Missile Concept, and Strategic Communications. In 1992, as part of an overall post-Cold War reorganization of the U. S. Planning to reorganize for a separate and independent postwar U. S. Air Force had begun by the fall of 1945, with the Simpson Board tasked to plan. the reorganization of the Army, SAC initially totaled 37,000 USAAF personnel. S. Air Force as an independent service, kenney, initial units reporting to the Strategic Air Command headquarters on 21 March 1946 included the Second Air Force, the IX Troop Carrier Command and the 73d Air Division. In addition to the bombing mission, SAC also devoted significant resources to aerial reconnaissance. An F-13 squadron, the F-13 later re-designated as the RB-29 Superfortress, was also established, SAC conducted routine aerial reconnaissance missions near the Soviet borders or near the 12-mile international waters limit, although some missions actually penetrated into Soviet airspace. The flight profiles of these missions—above 30,000 feet and in excess of 300 knots—made interception by Soviet air forces difficult until the Soviets 1948 introduction of the MiG-15 jet fighter. Project Nanook, the Cold War’s first Top Secret reconnaissance effort, used the first RB-29 missions for mapping and visual reconnaissance in the Arctic, later missions were Project LEOPARD along the Chukchi Peninsula, followed by Projects RICKRACK, STONEWORK, and COVERALLS. In 1946, the US possessed only nine atomic bombs and twenty-seven B-29s capable at any one time of delivering them, unfortunately, postwar budget and personnel cuts had had an insidious effect on SAC as its Deputy Commander, Major General Clements McMullen, implemented mandated force reductions. This continued to wear down SAC as a command and morale plummeted, as a result, by the end of 1947, only two of SACs eleven groups were combat ready. In terms of overall Air Force basing and infrastructure, SAC continued to acquire a share of USAF infrastructure. In 1947, before the USAF was established as an independent service, construction commenced on Limestone AAF, Maine, fort Dix AAF, New Jersey, Spokane AAF, Washington, and Wendover Field, Utah were also transferred to SAC between 30 April and 1 September 1947. Following establishment of the USAF as a service, SAC bases in the United States consisted of
8.
97th Operations Group
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The 97th Operations Group is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the 97th Air Mobility Wing of Air Education and Training Command. It is stationed at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, the group was first activated during World War II as the 97th Bombardment Group. It was the first Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombardment group to fly a mission from the United Kingdom against a European target, the marshalling yards at Sotteville-lès-Rouen in France. In late 1942 the group moved to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, the group was inactivated in Italy on 29 October 1945. Following a four-month deployment to Alaska, the moved to Biggs Air Force Base, Texas. The group was redesignated the 97th Operations Group and activated at Eaker Air Force Base, under SAC, the group operated Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers until January 1992 and Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers until inactivating in April 1992. The group was activated in October 1992, absorbing the personnel and aircraft of the 443d Operations Group at Altus Air Force Base, the unit was assigned to the 97th Air Mobility Wing. At Altus, the became the airlift and air refueling training group for Air Mobility Command. In 1993, it transferred to the Air Education and Training Command, the 97th Operations Group is the flying component of the 97th Air Mobility Wing. It plans and executes C-17, KC-135 formal-school initial and advanced specialty training programs for up to 3,000 students annually, currently, the squadron provides direct mission support to all operational units assigned to the 97th Air Mobility Wing. Provides air traffic services, weather, airfield management, intelligence, life support, tactics, flight records, scheduling, Manages and provides administrative support for active duty, reserves, and international students at the commands airlift and tanker training center. 97th Training Squadron Manages the 97th Air Mobility Wings $1. 01-billion contracted aircrew training program for more than 350-plus assigned instructors and as many as 2,100 C-17 and KC-135 students. It deployed to England as part of Operation Bolero and became the first operationally-ready Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress group, the mission included 18 bombers -12 to attack the yards and six to fly a diversion along the coast. In the lead aircraft of the second attacking flight, Yankee Doodle, Eaker, the commanding general of the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command. The RAF supplied a heavy escort, four squadrons of Spitfires escorted the 12 B-17s to the target while five more covered the withdrawal. About half of the bombs landed in the target area, the group sortied 247 aircraft, dropped 395 tons of bombs on Nazi-controlled territory, and lost 14 aircraft. The unit was assigned first to Twelfth Air Force and later to Fifteenth Air Force, helped force the capitulation of Pantelleria Island in June 1943. Bombed in preparation for and in support of the invasions of Sicily and southern Italy in the summer, the unit participated in first shuttle-bombing mission to Russia in June 1944
9.
MGM-1 Matador
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The Martin MGM-1 Matador was the first operational surface-to-surface cruise missile designed and built by the United States. It was developed after World War II, after their experience with creating the Republic-Ford JB-2. The Matador was simillar in concept to the V-1, but it included a command that allowed in-flight course corrections. This allowed accuracy to be maintained over greatly extended ranges of just under 1000 km, to allow these ranges, the Matador was powered by a small turbojet engine in place of the V-1s much less efficient pulsejet. Matador was armed with the W5 nuclear warhead, essentially a version of the Fat Man design that was lighter and had a smaller cross section. A single US Air Force group, 1st Pilotless Bomber Squadron, was armed with the weapon and it could be easily retargeted, unlike weapons using inertial guidance systems. Accuracy at maximum range was about 1 mile, which allowed it to be used against any large target like troop concentrations or armored spearheads, First flown in 1949, Matador entered service in 1952 and left service in 1962. Matador carried several designations during its lifetime, originally known under the War Departments system as SSM-A-1, by the time it was introduced to service the Air Force had been created, and they referred to them as bombers and assigned it the B-61 designation. It was later re-designated TM-61, for missile, and finally MGM-1 when the US Department of Defense introduced the tri-service aircraft designation system in 1962. The first flight of Matador, model XSSM-A-1, occurred at the White Sands Missile Range on 20 January 1949. At the end of 1953 the first squadron was operational, but not deployed until 1954, as the 1st Pilotless Bomber Squadron, Bitburg Air Base, the missile was capable of carrying a 2000-pound conventional warhead, but it is unknown if any of these were actually deployed. By the late 1950s at least, all Matadors carried the nuclear warhead, the last Matadors were removed from active service in 1962, with a total of 1200 missiles produced. At that time, they were deployed in squadrons at Bitburg AB, West Germany, in Tainan, Taiwan, most of the support vehicles, consisting mainly of 2½ and 5-ton trucks, were disposed of on the local market. Presumably, the other sites similarly disposed of their missiles and equipment, the missile was piloted via radio link and tracked via a network of ground-based AN/MSQ-1 radar stations. This guidance system, with its communications, limited the guided range to about 400 km. As with all communications it was also prone to enemy radio jamming. While in theory the missile could be handed off in flight from one station to the next, in practice that was rarely successful. In 1954, the USAF started to develop the YTM-61C version which was equipped with the new Shanicle guidance system and it became operational in 1957 and used ground-based microwave emitters to generate hyperbolic grids for range and azimuth, which were used by the missile guidance system to navigate
10.
Cruise missile
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A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at supersonic or high speeds, are self-navigating. The idea of a torpedo was shown in the British 1909 film The Airship Destroyer. In 1916, Lawrence Sperry built and patented an aerial torpedo, a small biplane carrying a TNT charge, a Sperry autopilot, inspired by these experiments, the United States Army developed a similar flying bomb called the Kettering Bug. Germany had also flown trials with remote-controlled aerial gliders built by Siemens-Schuckert beginning in 1916, in the period between the World Wars the United Kingdom developed the Larynx, which underwent a few flight tests in the 1920s. In the Soviet Union, Sergei Korolev headed the GIRD-06 cruise missile project from 1932 to 1939, the 06/III and 06/IV contained gyroscopic guidance systems. The vehicle was designed to boost to 28 km altitude and glide a distance of 280 km, in 1944, Germany deployed the first operational cruise missiles in World War II. The V-1, often called a bomb, contained a gyroscope guidance system and was propelled by a simple pulsejet engine. Accuracy was sufficient only for use against very large targets, while the range of 250 km was significantly lower than that of a bomber carrying the same payload, the main advantages were speed and expendability. The production cost of a V-1 was only a fraction of that of a V-2 supersonic ballistic missile. Unlike the V-2, however, the deployments of the V-1 required stationary launch ramps which were susceptible to bombardment. Immediately after the war the United States Air Force had 21 different guided missile projects, all were cancelled by 1948, except four — the Air Materiel Command BANSHEE, the SM-62 Snark, the SM-64 Navaho, and the MGM-1 Matador. The BANSHEE design was similar to Operation Aphrodite, like Aphrodite, it failed, during the Cold War period both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented further with the concept, deploying early cruise missiles from land, submarines and aircraft. The main outcome of the United States Navy submarine missile project was the SSM-N-8 Regulus missile, the United States Air Forces first operational surface-to-surface missile was the winged, mobile, nuclear-capable MGM-1 Matador, also similar in concept to the V-1. Deployment overseas began in 1954, first to West Germany and later to the Republic of China and this alert was in response to the crisis posed by the Soviet attack on Hungary which suppressed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Between 1957 and 1961 the United States followed an ambitious and well-funded program to develop a nuclear-powered cruise missile and it was designed to fly below the enemys radar at speeds above Mach 3 and carry a number of hydrogen bombs that it would drop along its path over enemy territory. Although the concept was sound and the 500 megawatt engine finished a successful test run in 1961
11.
38th Combat Support Wing
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The 38th Combat Support Wing is an inactive wing of the United States Air Force. Its last assignment was with Third Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, the mission of the wing was to enhance support to Third Air Forces geographically separated units. The Wing was first activated in Japan in 1948 as the 38th Bombardment Wing, the wing served as a light bomber unit in Japan until 1949, when it was inactivated. It was activated again in Europe in 1953, in 1958, the wing became the 38th Tactical Missile Wing and controlled Martin TM-61 Matador and Martin MGM-13 Mace missile units in Germany until it was inactivated in 1966. Between 1972 and 1975 the wing was active as a flying training unit. It returned to the missile mission in Europe until its missiles were withdrawn following the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. From 1990 to 1994, as the 38th Engineering Installation Wing it was responsible for the Air Forces in house design, the 38th Bombardment Group, flying Douglas B-26 Invaders became its operational component. The wing assisted in the air defense of Japan and participated in tactical exercises, however, President Truman’s reduced 1949 defense budget required reductions in the number of combat units in the Air Force to 48, and the 38th was inactivated on 1 April 1949. Once again, the wing flew the Douglas B-26 Invader as its operational aircraft, the wing received its first Martin B-57B Canberra in June 1955, and began to replace its aging Douglas B-26 Invaders. With the B-57s arrival, the B-26s were returned to the United States, a total of 49 B-57B and eight dual control B-57C models were deployed to Laon. The mission of the B-57 was to provide a deterrent for NATO and to deliver nuclear weapons against pre-selected targets. The aircraft at Laon were painted a gloss black, the B-57 delivery was by the low altitude bombing system, in which the plane performed a vertical Immelmann turn, releasing the weapon when it was nearly vertical. An acrobatic team was organized and named the Black Knights using five B-57s, the Black Knights performed at several air shows around Western Europe, including the 1957 Paris Air Show. The Black Knights were the tactical bomber show team in the world. In 1958, President de Gaulle announced that all nuclear weapons and this meant all tactical fighter and bombing wings had to depart France. Although the wings bombers departed Europe, the 38th did not go with them. Instead, it became the 38th Tactical Missile Wing and moved on paper to Hahn Air Base West Germany, where it replaced the 701st Tactical Missile Wing, the wing assumed the operation of the 701sts Martin TM-61 Matador missiles, located on three bases in Germany. A little more than a later, the wing moved its headquarters to Sembach Air Base
12.
BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile
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The Ground Launched Cruise Missile, or GLCM, was a ground-launched cruise missile developed by the United States Air Force in the last decade of the Cold War. The BGM-109G was developed as a counter to the mobile medium-, GLCM is also a generic term for any ground-launched cruise missile. Since the U. S. deployed only one cruise missile in the tactical role. The GLCM was built by General Dynamics, a conventionally configured cruise missile, the BGM-109 was essentially a small, pilotless flying machine, powered by a turbofan engine. Also, it flies at lower altitudes than a ballistic missile. The trade-off for this low-observability flight is strike time, cruise missiles travel far more slowly than a weapon. The W84 warhead was a 0. 2-150kt variable-yield weapon and this yield contrasts with the yield of the W80 warhead found on other versions of the Tomahawk and on the ALCM from which the W84 was derived, which had a selectable yield of 5 or 150 kt. The Pentagon credited the GLCM with a range of 2000–2500 kilometers, like other U. S. cruise missiles of this period, accuracy after more than 2000 km of flight was within half the width of an American football field or 100 ft. The missile was entirely subsonic, powered by an engine with a rocket booster assisting at launch. Militarily, the GLCM was targeted against fixed targets—at the outer edge of its range, the missiles were launched from an elevated launcher, with the missile ejected from its canister for about 13 seconds of solid rocket booster flight. The fins extended at 4 seconds, the air inlet and wings deployed at 10 seconds, flying at low level, the missile was guided by TERCOM to the target. 3 This contrasted strongly with Pershing II, which had a time of 10–15 minutes. BGM-109G personnel were trained at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, on 1 October 1985, the squadron became part of the 868th Tactical Missile Training Group. The group and squadron were inactivated on 31 May 1990, an area near Fort Huachuca, Arizona was used for field training for GLCM flights. GLCM testing was conducted at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, BGM-109G missiles would be based at six locations throughout Europe, in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Comiso Air Station in Italy. Each location had its own problems, but all required extensive construction by the USAF. Initial operating capability occurred in 1983, normal basing was in blast shelters at military installations. Each TMS consisted of flights, made up of 69 people and 22 vehicles
United States
United States Air Force
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.
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