Overview
The USAF Warfare Center manages advanced pilot training and integrates many of the Air Force's test and evaluation requirements. It was established in 1966 as the USAF Tactical Fighter Weapons Center which concentrated on the development of forces and weapons systems that were specifically geared to tactical air operations in conventional (non-nuclear) war and contingencies. It continued to perform this mission for nearly thirty years, undergoing several name changes in the 1990s. In 1991, the center became the USAF Fighter Weapons Center, and then the USAF Weapons and Tactics Center in 1992.
The USAF Warfare Center uses the lands and airspace of the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) – which occupies about three million acres (12,000 km2) of land, the largest such range in the United States, and another five-million-acre (20,000 km2) military operating area which is shared with civilian aircraft. The center also uses Eglin AFB, FL, range, which adds even greater depth to the center's capabilities, providing over water and additional electronic expertise to the center.
The USAF Warfare Center oversees operations of the 57th Wing, the NTTR, and the 99th Air Base Wings at Nellis AFB, Nevada; the 53d Wing (with Geographically Separated Units at Tyndall AFB, Florida and Holloman AFB, New Mexico) and 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida; and the 505th Command and Control Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
History
By the mid-1960s, USAF aircraft and aircrew losses in the Vietnam War had convinced Tactical Air Command (TAC) of the need to improve technical and operational skills for the widening conflict. TAC established the Tactical Fighter Weapons Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada in 1966 for the expressed purpose of improving fighter operations and tactics. Nellis AFB had been referred to as the "Home of the Fighter Pilot" since the Korean War period of the early 1950s, and had a long history of conducting postgraduate fighter training and operational testing and evaluation of fighter weapons systems. Additionally, the Nellis Range, largest in the free world, readily complemented the new center's mission.
Lineage
- Established as the USAF Tactical Fighter Weapons Center in 1966
- Redesignated: USAF Fighter Weapons Center in 1991
- Redesignated: USAF Weapons and Tactics Center in 1992
- Redesignated: USAF Warfare Center in 2005.
Units assigned
Operational units assigned to the USAFWC have been:
Wing
- 4545th Fighter Warfare Wing, 1966 – 22 August 1969
- 57th Fighter Weapons Wing (later 57th Tactical Training Wing, 57th Fighter Wing, 57th Wing), 22 August 1969 – present
- 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing - ?? - present
Groups
- 57th Fighter, 1 November 1991 – present
- 57th Test, 1 November 1991 – 1 October 1996
- 4440th Tactical Fighter Training (Red Flag)
- Attached 1 October 1979 – 28 February 1980
- Assigned 1 March 1980 – 1 November 1991
- 4443d Tactical Training: 26 January 1990 – 1 November 1991
Squadrons
- 64th Fighter Weapons (later, 64th Tactical Fighter Training Aggressor; 64th Aggressor): 15 October 1972 – 5 October 1990.
- 65th Fighter Weapons (later, 65th Tactical Fighter Training Aggressor; 65th Aggressor): 15 October 1969 – 7 April 1989.
- 66th Fighter Weapons: 15 October 1969 – 30 December 1981
- 414th Fighter Weapons: 15 October 1969 – 30 December 1981
- 422d Fighter Weapons (later, 422d Test and Evaluation): 15 October 1969 – 1 November 1991
- 431st Fighter Weapons (later, 431st Test and Evaluation): 1 October 1980 – 1 November 1991
- 433d Fighter Weapons: 1 October 1976 – 30 December 1981
- 4460th Helicopter: 1 November 1983 – 1 June 1985
- 4477th Test and Evaluation Flight (later, 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron): 1 April 1977 – 15 July 1990
- USAF Air Demonstration Squadron: 15 February 1974 – present
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