312th Aeronautical Systems Wing

312th Aeronautical Systems Wing

474th Tactical Fighter Group Commander's aircraft[note 1]
Active 1954-1959; 2005-2010
Country  United States
Branch  United States Air Force
Role Systems development
Part of Air Force Materiel Command
Decorations Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Col. Donald Blakeslee
Insignia
312th Aeronautical Systems Wing emblem
(approved 9 March 2009)[1]
312th Tactical Fighter Wing emblem
(approved 30 November 1958)[2]

The 312th Aeronautical Systems Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last active in June 2010 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where it managed attack and fighter aircraft systems development as part of the Aeronautical Systems Center.

The wing was first activated in 1954 as the 312th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Clovis Air Force Base, New Mexico. Until 1957, it had one fighter-bomber group assigned to it, and another one attached. From that time until it was inactivated in 1959, it was one of two North American F-100 Super Sabre wings assigned to the 832d Air Division.

History

see 312th Aeronautical Systems Group for related history

Cold War fighter wing

The wing was first activated as the 312th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Clovis Air Force Base, New Mexico in the fall of 1954.[2] A number of wings had been activated at Clovis and trained there since it reopened in 1951.[3] The 312th was assigned to Ninth Air Force upon activation.[2]

The 312th was initially equipped with a hodgepodge of obsolete Republic F-84G Thunderjets and some more modern North American F-86H Sabres. On 8 November 1954, the 474th Fighter-Bomber Group moved to Clovis from Taegu Air Base, South Korea after fighting in the Korean War. The 474th joined 312th Fighter-Bomber Group as a second flying component of the wing. the 474th group was to be a training organization. Beginning in September 1955, the wing began training in the use of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons. It began to receive new North American F-100D Super Sabres in December 1956. From April 1956 to October 1957 the wing rotated tactical squadrons to either Châteauroux-Déols Air Base or Etain-Rouvres Air Base in France, for six month deployments to United States Air Forces Europe.

In October 1957, as part of a realignment of Tactical Air Command (TAC)'s numbered air forces on a geographical, rather than a functional basis, the 312th was transferred to Eighteenth Air Force. Subsequently, it was placed under the 832d Air Division. The 312th furnished units for composite air strike forces in the Far East during 1957 and 1958, deploying F-100s and crews to Taiwan during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Wing F-100s also deployed to Turkey during the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

HQ USAF redesignated the 312th as a Tactical Fighter Wing on 1 July 1958 as part of an Air Force-wide redesignation of Fighter-Bomber and Fighter-Day units. In February 1959 as Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas was transferred to Strategic Air Command, TAC moved the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing on paper to Cannon,[4][note 2] where it assumed the 312th's mission, personnel and aircraft and the 312th was inactivated.[2]

Attack and fighter systems development

In 2004, Air Force Materiel Command began to reorganize its traditional directorates into wings and groups, activating the Fighter Attack Systems Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The following year, it consolidated this new wing with the 312th, designating it the 312th Aeronautical Systems Wing. In 2010, Materiel Command returned to its traditional organization and the wing was inactivated.

Lineage

312th Tactical Fighter Wing
Activated on 1 October 1954
Redesignated 312th Tactical Fighter Wing on 1 July 1958
Inactivated on 18 February 1959[2]
312th Aeronautical Systems Wing
Activated on 18 January 2005
Inactivated on 30 June 2010[1]

Assignments

Components

Groups

Squadrons

Stations

Aircraft

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Aircraft is North American F-100D-75-NA Super Sabre, serial 56-3176
  2. ↑ Clovis was renamed Cannon Air Force Base on 8 June 1957. Mueller, p. 57.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Robertson, Patsy (December 14, 2010). "Factsheet 312 Aeronautical Systems Wing (AFMC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ravenstein, pp. 159-160
  3. ↑ See Mueller, p. 61
  4. ↑ Ravenstein, p. 51
  5. ↑ Bailey, Carl E. (December 27, 2007). "Factsheet 312 Aeronautical Systems Group (AFMC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved April 4, 2016.

Bibliography

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

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