List of Air Expeditionary units of the United States Air Force

Air Expeditionary Wings/Groups (AEW/AEGs) are a Wing/Group concept used by the United States Air Force. These units are activated under temporary orders by the owning Major Command (MAJCOM) for a specific purpose or mission. Once that mission is completed, these units are inactivated.

Origins

Faced with declining budgets in the late 1990s, the U.S. Air Force realized that the Operation Northern Watch and Operation Southern Watch (ONW/OSW) patrols over Iraq were "tedious".^[1] The patrols placed more strain on units worldwide than during the Cold War. This was because so many flying fighter, bomber, air refueling, and airlift squadrons had been inactivated after the end of the Cold War. The Air Force "had to change the way it did business".^[1]

As the no-fly zone patrols over Iraq began to appear as an ongoing, open-ended commitment, the drain on equipment and manpower forced the Air Force to reconsider how it was going to sustain ONW/OSW patrols, as well as other required deployments worldwide. The answer developed was to end the deployment of entire wings en bloc.

It was decided that U.S. Central Command Air Forces (CENTAF) would not consist of permanently assigned units,^[1] partially because of the sensitivities of Arab host states to acknowledging that U.S. forces were deployed in their countries. This made establishment of permanent units more difficult, because base access might be changed or denied with shifting, volatile, political currents. For example, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Jordanian government denied U.S. troops were stationed in Jordan. This created a lot of concern with Jordanian military personnel stationed at Shahid Muafaq Al-Salti Air Base during the initial stages. As they were being told on television and radio that there were no U.S. troops on Jordanian soil, USAF C-17 aircraft were arriving on a daily bases with personnel and supplies. The 410th Air Expeditionary Wing was quickly growing in size. Out of confusion, Jordanian Security Forces documented everything leaving the aircraft. U.S. personnel removed labels and explosive decals from the containers, as not to aggravate the situation. American troops initially were not allowed to carry weapons in plain sight. So they carried their Beretta 9mm handguns hidden in their waistbands for protection and hid their M-4 carbines from view in their vehicles.

To minimize the risk of these kind of situations happening, the decision was taken to avoid the creation of permanent units, especially in the Middle East.

Instead, elements from different wings, even from both the active-duty component and the Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard, would be melded together for each deployment. This merging of different units from different permanent wings/groups was christened the "Air Expeditionary Force" (AEF) concept. The various units were to be drawn from Air Combat Command or ACC gained components, but also from other major commands such as Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) or United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), as necessary, to meet mission requirements. AEF organizations were to be fundamentally temporary in nature, organized to meet a specific mission or commitment. They thus replaced the "Provisional" deployed units attached to the command during the 1991 (Persian) Gulf War.

Air Expeditionary Units

Unit	Shield	Location	Reports to	Status	Aircraft	Notes
13 AEG		Christchurch IAP, New Zealand	PACAF			Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica[2]
16 AEW			USAFE	Inactive
31 AEW			USAFE	Inactive
40 AEW		Diego Garcia, c.2001-2003	Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)	Inactive	Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, Rockwell B-1 Lancer
64 AEG		Eskan Village, Saudi Arabia	United States Air Forces Central	Active
320 AEW		Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, DC	Air Force District of Washington	Inactive
321 AEW		New Al Muthana Air Base, Iraq	AFCENT	Inactive
322 AEG			AFCENT	Inactive
323 AEW		RoAF 71st Air Base, Campia Turzii, Balotesti, Romania	USAFE	Inactive		Activated from 14 Mar to 30 Apr 2008.
332 AEW		Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base, Kuwait	AFCENT	Inactive	A-10, C-130, F-16CG/C+, HH-60G, Predator UAV
363 AEW		Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia	ACC	Inactive		Redesignated 363 FTG
370 AEAG			ACC	Active	Iraq
376 AEW		Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan	AFCENT	Inactive	KC-135
379 AEW		Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar	AFCENT	Active	KC-135, C-130
380 AEW		Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE	AFCENT	Active	U-2, RQ-4, KC-135, KC-10
384 AEW		Shaikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain	ACC/AFCENT
385 AEG		Incirlik AB, Turkey	AMC	Active
386 AEW		Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait	ACC/AFCENT	Active	C-130
387 AEG		Kuwait City IAP, Kuwait	AFCENT	Active
398 AEG			ACC	Inactive
401 AEW			USAFE	Inactive
404 AEG		Ramstein AB, Germany	United States Air Forces Africa	Active	C-130	Air Forces Africa[3]
405 AEW			ACC	Inactive	B-1 Lancer	Thumrait, Oman during Afghan, Iraq Wars.[4]
406 AEW		Diyarbakir, Turkey[5]	USAFE/AFCENT	Inactive
407 AEG		Ali Air Base, Iraq, 14 April 2003 – 16 December 2011;Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, 2016–present.	AFCENT	Active	C-130H
409 AEG		Ārba Minch IAP, Ethiopia	United States Air Forces Africa			ISR operations (UAVs), seemingly Horn of Africa.[3]
410 AEW		Prince Hassan Air Base (H-5), and Shahid Muafaq Al-Salti Air Base, Jordan 2003	ACC	Inactive
416 AEG			ACC	Inactive
432 AEW		Creech Air Force Base, Nevada	ACC	Active	MQ-1, MQ-9
438 AEW		Kabul IAP, Afghanistan	AFCENT	Active
444 AEW			ACC	Inactive
447 AEG		Iraq	USAFE	Inactive
449 AEG		Camp Lemonier, Djibouti	USAFE	Active
451 AEG		Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan	AFCENT	Active	MQ-1, MQ-9, MC-12W Liberty, E-11A
455 AEW		Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan	AFCENT	Active	F-16C
457 AEG		RAF Fairford, United Kingdom (2003)	AFCENT	Inactive	Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
466 AEG		Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar	AFCENT	Active		Previously Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan
467 AEG		Iraq	AFCENT	Inactive		Inactivated Dec 2011
484 AEW		Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar	ACC	Inactive	Expeditionary Air Support Operations
485 AEW		Iraq	AFCENT	Inactive	C-130
486 AEW		Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base, Kuwait	ACC	Inactive	C-130
487 AEW		Cairo West, Egypt (2003)	ACC	Inactive		The unit's last known assignment was in 2003 at Cairo West Airfield, Egypt, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was commanded by Brig. Gen. Randal D. "Randy" Fullhart (March 2003 – May 2003).
506 AEG		Joint Base Balad, Iraq	AFCENT	Inactive	C-130
651 AEG		Camp Bastion, Afghanistan	AFCENT	Active	HH-60	Activated 29 June 2011

Other air expeditionary wings/groups

The 462d Air Expeditionary Group was assigned to AMC and activated at Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility, British Indian Ocean Territory, from 15 July 2002, for an unknown period.

In June 2002, the 492d Bombardment Group was converted to provisional status as the 492d Air Expeditionary Group and assigned to Air Mobility Command (AMC) to activate or inactivate as needed for contingency operations. AMC activated the unit once, at Lajes Field in the Azores from March through May 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[6]

From June 2013 – January 2014, the Personnel Recovery Task Force/563d Air Expeditionary Group, was active at Trapani Air Base, Italy.^[7]

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wing emblems of the United States Air Force.

References

• Air Force Instruction 38-101, AIR FORCE ORGANIZATION, 4 APRIL 2006 (with Change 2, dated 20 July 2006, and later).