480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing


The 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing is headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

Mission

The 480th ISR Wing leads Air Force globally networked ISR operations. The wing operates and maintains the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System, also known as the AN/GSQ-272 "Sentinel" weapon system, conducting imagery, cryptologic, and measurement and signatures intelligence activities. The unit processes twenty terabytes of data each day.
The 480th ISR Wing employs more than 6,000 civilian and military personnel, and operates and manages over $5 billion of intelligence resources.

480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group

Based at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Conducts real-time tactical and national intelligence collection, exploitation, analysis and reporting operations. The Group provides cryptologic products and services to war fighters and decision makers operating in, or concerned with, the CENTCOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM and SOCOM areas of responsibility. The Group also conducts Air Force National Tactical Integration and Tactics Analysis Studies Element missions for the 609th Air and Space Operations Center and is the Air Force component of the National Security Agency-Central Security Service-Georgia. The Group consists of the 3rd Intelligence Squadron, the 31st Intelligence Squadron, and the 451st Intelligence Squadron; all located at Fort Gordon.

[497th [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group]]

Based at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. Delivers real-time high-confidence intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products and services to Joint and Coalition forces and other designated government agencies. The Group consists of four active duty Squadrons: the 27th, 30th, and 45th Intelligence Squadrons and 10th Intelligence Support Squadron, one Air National Guard unit, the 192nd Intelligence Squadron, and a new classic Air Reserve unit, the 718th Intelligence Squadron, stood up to support the total force integration of the Wing and combat ISR operations.

[548th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group]

Delivers real-time high-confidence intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products and services to Joint and Coalition forces and other designated government agencies. The Group also processes, exploits and disseminates broad area, synoptic, high-resolution imagery collected by the U-2 Optical Bar Camera for combatant commanders and war fighting forces worldwide.
The following Air National Guard squadrons are operationally gained by the group when federalized.
Based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Processes, exploits and disseminates ISR data collected by U-2, Predator, and Global Hawk aircraft. The Group also is the Air Force component of the National Security Agency-Central Security Service-Hawaii and provides AF National Tactical Integration to 613th Air and Space Operations Center. The Air National Guard's 201st Intelligence Squadron is operationally gained by the group when federalized.

[693d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group]

Based at Ramstein AB, Germany. Conducts multi-intelligence airborne ISR operations for the European, African and Central Command areas of responsibility. The Group also conducts Air Force National Tactical Integration and Tactics Analysis Studies Element missions for the 603rd Air and Space Operations Center and operates Eagle Vision 1, a deployable commercial satellite imagery ground station

[694th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group]

Based at Osan Air Base, South Korea. Processes, exploits and disseminates intelligence data from reconnaissance aircraft, conducting ISR operations during armistice, crisis and wartime to meet Component, Combatant Commander and national requirements. The Group also conducts Air Force National Tactical Integration, Tactics Analysis Studies Element and real-time threat warning missions for the 607th Air and Space Operations Center and conducts reporting of intelligence through global networks serving the intelligence community. The Air National Guard's 117th Intelligence Squadron and 161st Intelligence Squadron are operationally gained by the group when federalized.

Component units

Unless otherwise indicated, units are based at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, and subordinate units are located at the same location as their commanding group.
Wing Staff
480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group
  • 3rd Intelligence Squadron
  • 31st Intelligence Squadron
  • 451st Intelligence Squadron
497th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group
548th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group
692nd Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group
693rd Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group
694th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group
The wing traces its history back to 1943 when it was formed as the 480th Antisubmarine Group. In 1951, it became the 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing, and it inactivated in 1953. The wing was officially redesignated the 480th Intelligence Wing and reactivated 1 December 2003. It was organized under Eighth Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, and Air Combat Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. Air Force officials announced 14 January 2008, the transfer of the 480th Intelligence Wing from 8th AF to the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency.

480th Antisubmarine Group

The group was formed on 19 June 1943, at Port Lyautey, French Morocco in North Africa, as one of the units of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command during World War II. The group came from squadrons at RAF St Eval, England who deployed to Port Lyautey as the 2037th Antisubmarine Wing the previous March after training with RAF Coastal Command in aerial anti-submarine warfare techniques..
The anti-submarine group's mission was to shore up scanty Allied antisubmarine defenses in the Atlantic approaches to the Straits of Gibraltar. U-boats had very recently sunk four ships in an Allied convoy about a hundred miles off the coast of Portugal. Over the long term, the Allies wanted to increase air antisubmarine patrols and convoy coverage to protect their preparations for the impending Tunisian offensive and the subsequent invasion of Sicily.
Using modified B-24 Liberator bombers equipped with RADAR, external fuel tanks and other antisubmarine equipment, the group's 1st and 2d Antisubmarine Squadrons joined two United States Navy PBY Catalina squadrons patrolling the Atlantic Ocean north and west from Morocco. The two squadrons were assigned to the Northwest African Coastal Air Force for administration and placed under the operational control of the United States Navy Fleet Air Wing 15, which answered to the commander of the Moroccan Sea Frontier.
The AAF squadrons flew their first mission on 19 March 1943 despite shortages of spare parts, equipment, and maintenance personnel. Ordinarily, three B-24s flew daily on operational missions, covering an area as far south as 30°N, as far north as Cape Finisterre, Spain, and as far west as a thousand nautical miles from Port Lyautey. Much of the time, the Liberators flew convoy coverage for ships sailing from or approaching the Straits of Gibraltar. Its antisubmarine activity reached a peak in July 1943 when enemy U-boats concentrated off the coast of Portugal to intercept convoys bound for the Mediterranean. The group destroyed and damaged several submarines during the month which aided in protecting supply lines to forces involved in the campaign for Sicily. At the time, the group was under the command of Colonel Jack Roberts and assigned to the Northwest African Coastal Air Force under the command of Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Lloyd, but they operated under the control of USN FAW-15 at Port Lyautey, French Morocco, now Kenitra, Morocco.
The group also covered convoys and engaged numerous Luftwaffe aircraft in combat. In September, part of the group deployed to Protville Tunisia located between Tunis, on the east coast and Bizerte, on the north coast about thirty-five miles northwest of Tunis. For the first fourteen days, the 1st Squadron operated under the Northwest African Coastal Air Force. On 4 September, the B-24s began searching for enemy submarines and shipping between Sicily and Naples. the squadron covered this area twenty-four hours a day until the landing of the United States Fifth Army at Salerno, Italy, on 9 September, when it extended antisubmarine patrols to cover the sea west of Sardinia and Corsica. One B-24 destroyed three German flying boats northwest of Sardinia. In addition to the antisubmarine patrols, the 1st Squadron flew escort for several Allied convoys and covered the escape of Italian naval vessels from Genoa and Spezia to Malta following Italy's surrender.
After returning to Port Lyautey on 18 September, the 1st Squadron operated in the Moroccan Sea Frontier until it moved to Langley Field Virginia in November. That return to the United States marked the final stage in the Air Force's withdrawal from its antisubmarine mission. The 480th was disbanded on 29 January 1944.
The 480th Antisubmarine Group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation in 1944 for its actions from 10 November 1942 to 28 October 1943 that contributed to the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic.