| 550th Guided Missiles Wing | |
|---|---|
B-61 Matador surface-to-surface cruise missile |
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| Active | 1949-1950 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
The 550th Guided Missiles Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Air Research and Development Command and stationed at Patrick AFB, Florida. It was inactivated on 30 December 1950.
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Established as an expansion of the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group, the 550th GMW mission was the supervision and evaluation of guided missile service tests as opposed to pure experimentation of its predecessor unit.
Like its predecessor, the 550th Guided Missiles Wing had detachments in tenant status at Holloman Air Force Base and the Navy's Guided Missile Test Center at Point Mugu. While the Holloman detachment continued to assist the Glenn L. Martin Company with developmental testing of the MX-771 Matador (i.e., it witnessed test firings and reported on the results), the Point Mugu detachment completed its Navy Convair Lark missile training and moved to the Joint Long Range Proving Ground in early January 1950
The Wing's 1st Guided Missiles Squadron was assigned air-to-surface missiles and guided bombs (e.g., VB-13 Tarzon) and the 2nd Guided Missiles Squadron worked with surface-to-surface missiles and QB-17L aircraft drones as flying targets for the early Nike Ajax surface-to-air missile or for the Hughes Falcon air-to-air missile. Often, the QB-17L would be the subject of intentional near misses to preserve the drone for as many missions as possible.
During the first ten months of its existence, the 550th Guided Missiles Wing also continued its predecessor's earlier preparations to support the atomic Operation Greenhouse testing with QB-17L drone aircraft that would fly near or even through mushroom clouds during the atomic tests, but additional QB-29/DB-29 drone aircraft and personnel were assigned to other Air Proving Ground units during this period as well.
By January 1950, the Air Proving Ground decided this piecemeal operation ought to be consolidated, and it recommended the establishment of a separate and permanent drone squadron. Personnel from the 2d Guided Missiles Squadron were subsequently transferred to a new unit, the 3200th Drone Squadron, 3200th Proof Test Group in May 1950 which took over the QB/DB-17 and QB-29 mission. While the 3200th Drone Squadron remained under the 550th for administrative purposes, its operations were essentially divorced from the 550th's missile activities when the 3200th moved to Auxiliary Field #3.
The 2nd Guided Missiles Squadron was placed on inactive status after the transfer, but it was revived at Holloman Air Force Base on 25 October 1950 when the 550th's detachment there was discontinued.
The 550th GMW moved to Patrick AFB, Florida on 11 December 1950 as a result of a reorganization of Proving Ground Command into Air Research and Development Command (ARDC). On December 6th, the 550th activated a detachment at Patrick Air Force Base and assigned it to the 3d Guided Missiles Squadron, Interceptor to coordinate the movement to Patrick. The move was accomplished between 12 and 18 December 1950. The ARDC Long Range Proving Ground Division inactivated the 550th and its squadrons on 29 December 1950 and it replaced those units with the 4800th Guided Missile Wing.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.