27th Air Division


The 27th Air Division was a United States Air Force numbered air division and the geographic Air Defense Command region controlled by the 27th AD. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command 's Tenth Air Force, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. It was inactivated on 19 November 1969.

Norton AFB

Activated as the 27 Air Division on 7 September 1950, the unit was assigned to ADC for most of its existence, the division's initial air defense area was southern California and later southern Nevada.
The 4705th Defense Wing was a temporary unit that absorbed the 1st Fighter-Interceptor Wing's personnel and equipment five days after it was organized in early 1952 at Norton Air Force Base. These units included, for example, the 94th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at George Air Force Base). The wing was discontinued and the 94th FIS reassigned directly to 27th Air Division, which had reorganized at Norton in February, one month later.
In May 1958, the 27th AD directed a hostile intercept of a "declared unknown" aircraft, but the "interceptor pilot remembered...that opening bomb bay doors was to be considered a hostile act only after declaration of an Air Defense Emergency or Warning Yellow or Red" The 27th AD was designated 1 of 23 NORAD divisions effective 10 June 1958 by NORAD General Order 6.

Rocky Mountain Division

The "27th Air Division " was to transfer to the midwest with command of 2 NORAD sectors during deployment of SAGE. In addition to a hardened Air Defense Direction Center at Stead Air Force Base for the Reno sector; NORAD's 25 July 1958 SAGE Geographic Reorganization Plan identified the Super Combat Center/Direction Center nuclear bunker for the division was to be at Denver, Colorado. The division's general area was west-to-east from the western Nevada state meridian to the Great Plains near Oakley, Kansas; and north–south from mid-Wyoming to just south of the Four Corners latitude. Existing Permanent System radar stations in the planned Rocky Mountain Division included the Fallon, Tonopah, and Winnemucca Air Force Stations ; and facilities and cities to be protected by the division included the Salt Lake City military installations west of the Rockies and planned Titan missile launch complexes and an Air Force Plant at the Colorado Front Range. The Reno sector was activated 15 February 1959 and the AN/FSQ-7 at Stead Air Force Base was replaced by Backup Interceptor Control at Fallon Naval Air Station by 1970.
In February 1959, the Los Angeles [Air Defense Sector] was activated during the deployment of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment#Deployment as a subordinate unit of the 27th AD. However, the Denver SCC/CC was cancelled in March 1959; so instead of moving from the Southwest United States to the interior, the 27th Air Division was inactivated on 1 October 1959.

Luke AFB

Reactivated in January 1966 at Luke Air Force Base, the 27th Air Division consolidation the Los Angeles and Phoenix Air Defense Sectors, and the division assumed the additional designation of 27th NORAD Region after activation of the NORAD Combat Operations Center at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado. The Norton SAGE Direction Center closed in June 1966. When the 27th AD was inactivated in 1969, its mission, personnel and operations center at Luke were transferred to the 26th Air Division.

Lineage

  • Constituted as the 27 Air Division in September 1950
  • Organized on 1 February 1952
  • Redesignated as the 27th Air Division and activated on 20 January 1966
Assignments
Stations
Sector
Wings
Groups
Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron
List of [United States Air Force Aerospace Defense Command Interceptor Squadrons|Fighter Squadrons]
Radar squadrons