72nd Test and Evaluation Squadron

72d Test and Evaluation Squadron
Philippine Presidential Unit Citation
72d Test and Evaluation Squadron Philippine Presidential Unit Citation
Insignia
72d Test and Evaluation Squadron emblem (approved 14 February 1924)

Squadron photo of the 72d Reconnaissance Squadron, 1948

The 72d Test and Evaluation Squadron is part of the

B-2 Spirit

aircraft.

Mission

The B-2 weapon system, which costs $44.6 billion, is tested and evaluated operationally by the squadron. The squadron assesses the B-2 weapons system's capability to meet all significant requirements and reports weapon system capabilities.

The unit provides experienced operations, maintenance, engineering, and analysis personnel who plan and conduct ground and flight tests, and analyze, evaluate, and report on the effectiveness and suitability of B-2 logistics support, tactics and survivability, foreign military exploitation, weapons and mission planning. The squadron reports results and conclusions to support DoD acquisition, deployment and employment decisions.^[2]

History

World War I

The squadron was formed in Texas in early 1918. After a period of training and organization, it departed from New York in the late summer of 1918, arriving in France on 4 September. It stayed two weeks at the Air Service Replacement Concentration Barracks,

Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome where it worked for the 1st Air Depot as "Advance Section, Serv. of Supply Air Park Squadron". It remained in France after the armistice until June 1919, arriving back in New York and subsequently demobilized in July.^[1]

Interwar years

Reorganized in 1923 as a reconnaissance squadron, assigned to

72d Bombardment Squadrons dropped twenty 600-pound bombs around the volcano to divert molten lava away from the town.^[1]

World War II

When the Navy moved its Pacific Fleet from

Pearl Harbor Attack, remaining in Hawaii until September 1942 re-equipping.^[1]

Deployed to the

Clark Field, 1947 although most personnel had already returned to the United States.^[1]

Strategic reconnaissance

Reactivated at

Boeing RB-29 Superfortresses of the 72d conducted numerous photographic reconnaissance and ELINT missions over the Soviet Arctic and Far East. Equipped with cameras that enabled then to remain in international airspace, whilst photographing targets deep inside Soviet territory, the aircraft searched for evidence of Soviet military activity, but unsurprisingly, found little going on in the inhospitable Arctic wastes but nobody knew what was happening further inland. To investigate activity deeper inside the Soviet Union, some RB-29s were stripped of all unnecessary equipment, allowing them to increase their operating ceiling, and began overflying Soviet territory.^[3]

President

MiG-15 was the only fighter with sufficient performance to reach these high-flying aircraft and none of the new fighters were then stationed in Siberia.^[3]

The most significant of these missions included one on 3 September 1949 which identified the first evidence of a successful explosion of a Soviet nuclear weapon in the

Semipalatinsk test site in Eastern Kazakhstan on 29 August 1949.^[3]

Strategic bombardment

Moved to the Continental United States in 1951, being re-equipped with Very Long Range

Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, California. The aircraft were equipped with four J47 jet engines and with fourteen K-17C, K-22A, K-38, and K-40 cameras. It also received some advanced electronics. Its normal crew was 22, which included 5 gunners to man the 16 M-24A-1 20-mm cannon. Conducted global strategic reconnaissance until 1955, conducting ELINT and Ferret missions along the east Asian coastline. Gradually shifting to bombardment training mission beginning in 1954 as the 72d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, on 1 October 1955.^[3]

Flew B-36Js heavy bombers until their phaseout in 1958, being reassigned to the

441st Bombardment Squadron.^[1]

Reactivated as a B-52H heavy bomb squadron at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota in late 1994, but inactivated on 1 July 1996.

Test and evaluation

Reactivated as a

B-2 Spirit stealth bomber evaluation squadron in 1998.^[1]

Lineage

72d Aero Squadron

Organized as the 72d Aero Squadron on 18 February 1918

Demobilized on 11 July 1919

Reconstituted and consolidated with the 72d Bombardment Squadron' as the 72d Bombardment Squadron on 8 April 1924 [1]^[4]

72d Test and Evaluation Squadron

Constituted as the 72d Bombardment Squadron on 6 February 1923
Activated on 1 May 1923

Consolidated with the 72d Aero Squadron on 8 April 1924^[4]

Redesignated 72d Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 6 December 1939

Redesignated 72d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 20 November 1940

Redesignated 72d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 6 March 1944

Redesignated 72d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 30 April 1946

Inactivated on 10 March 1947

Redesignated 72d Reconnaissance Squadron, Very Long Range, Photographic on 16 September 1947

Activated on 13 October 1947

Redesignated 72d Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Photographic on 23 February 1949

Redesignated 72d Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Heavy on 14 November 1950

Redesignated 72d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 1 October 1955

Discontinued, and inactivated on 1 February 1963

Redesignated 72d Bomb Squadron on 30 November 1994

Activated on 1 December 1994

Inactivated on 1 July 1996

Redesignated 72d Test and Evaluation Squadron on 1 November 1998

Activated on 20 November 1998^[1]

Assignments

Unknown, 18 February–September 1918
1st Air Depot, September 1918 – June 1919
Unknown, June-11 July 1919
5th Composite Group
, 1 May 1923
5th Composite Group
after 24 June 1932)
5th Bombardment Group (later 5th Reconnaissance Group), 12 October 1938 – 10 March 1947
Alaskan Air Command, 13 October 1947
311th Air Division, 1 April 1949
5th Strategic Reconnaissance Group, 28 June 1949 (attached to 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing after 10 February 1951)
5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (later 5th Bombardment Wing), 16 June 1952
4134th Strategic Wing, 1 July 1958 – 1 February 1963
5th Operations Group, 1 December 1994 – 1 July 1996
53d Test and Evaluation Group, 20 November 1998^[1]

753rd Test and Evaluation Group, 1 October 2021 – present [5]

Stations

Waco, Texas, 18 February 1918
Rich Field, Texas, 23 February 1918
Garden City, New York, 16 July-13 August 1918
St. Maixent Replacement Barracks , France, 4 September 1918
Delouze Aerodrome, France, 20 September 1918
Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome
, France, 30 September 1918 – June 1919

Detachment at: Behonne Aerodrome, France, 4 October-1 December 1918 (Advance Air Park)

Mitchel Field
, New York, c. 29 June-11 July 1919
Luke Field
, Hawaii, 1 May 1923
Hickam Field
, Hawaii, 4 January 1939
Bellows Field
, Hawaii, 11 December 1941 – 18 September 1942
Pallikulo Bay Airfield, Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides
, 24 September 1942

Operated from: Henderson Field (Guadalcanal), Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, 4 October 1942 – 8 August 1943; 7 October-15 November 1943; 13 December 1943 – 27 January 1944

Munda Airfield, New Georgia
, Solomon Islands, 9 January 1944

Momote Airfield, Los Negros
, Admiralty Islands, 15 April 1944

Wakde Airfield, Netherlands East Indies, c. 19 August 1944
Schouten Islands
, 27 September 1944
Wama Airfield, Morotai
, Netherlands East Indies, 24 October 1944

Samar

, Philippines, 20 March 1945

Clark Field, Luzon
, Philippines, December 1945-10 March 1947

Ladd Army Airfield, Alaska, 13 October 1947
Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, 28 June 1949
Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base (later Travis Air Force Base), California, 9 November 1949

Deployed at:

RAF Sculthorpe

, England, 31 May −15 November 1950

Deployed at: Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, 14 January-12 April 1955

Mather Air Force Base, California, 1 July 1958 – 1 February 1963
Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, 1 December 1994 – 1 July 1996
Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, 20 November 1998 – present^[1]

Aircraft

DH-4
(1923–1929)
NBS-1
(1923–1929)
LB-5
(1927–1929)
Keystone B-4 (1929–1936)
Keystone B-5 (1929–1936)
LB-6
(1929–1936)
B-12 (1936–1938)
B-18 Bolo
(1938–1942)

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (1941, 1942–1943)
Consolidated B-24 Liberator (1943–1945)
Boeing B-29 Superfortress (1947–1951)
Boeing F-13 (RB-29) Superfortress (1947–1948)
Convair RB-36 Peacemaker (1951–1958)
Convair B-36 Peacemaker (1955–1958)
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (1958–1963, 1994–1996)
B-2 Spirit (1998–present)^[1]

Operations

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Warnock, A. Timothy (20 December 2007). "Factsheet 72 Test and Evaluation Squadron (ACC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
^ "53d Test and Evaluation Group" (PDF). 53d Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Wack, Fred J. The Secret Explorers: Saga of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons. N.p., 1990
^ ^a ^b Clay, p. 1424
^ Bray, Capt Savannah (1 October 2021). "53d Test Management Group now the 753d Test and Evaluation Group". 53rd Wing public Affairs. Retrieved 5 April 2022.

Bibliography

Clay, Steven E. (2011). US Army Order of Battle 1919–1941 (PDF). Vol. 3 The Services: Air Service, Engineers, and Special Troops 1919-1941. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press.
OCLC 637712205
.

Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.
OCLC 72556
.

External links

http://www.footnote.com/image/#19955883 Archived 14 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
http://www.footnote.com/image/#19067086 Archived 14 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
http://www.footnote.com/image/#21599334 Archived 14 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine 1st air depot

[72TESfacts-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Warnock, A. Timothy (20 December 2007). "Factsheet 72 Test and Evaluation Squadron (ACC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2016.

[2] "53d Test and Evaluation Group" (PDF). 53d Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2017.

[kb1-3] Wack, Fred J. The Secret Explorers: Saga of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons. N.p., 1990

[Clay-4] Clay, p. 1424

[5] Bray, Capt Savannah (1 October 2021). "53d Test Management Group now the 753d Test and Evaluation Group". 53rd Wing public Affairs. Retrieved 5 April 2022.

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