20th Intelligence Squadron
The 20th Intelligence Squadron is a United States Air Force unit, assigned to the National Air Intelligence Center, stationed at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
Mission
The mission of the 20th is to provide prompt, precise intelligence enabling warfighters to safely engage and achieve global objectives. The 20th processes and analyzes raw electronic intelligence data, and prepares both operational and technical electronic intelligence reports and studies. The 20th is organized into three flights:- The Target Material Flight produces precise coordinated measurements and mission-support materials for Air Force bomber, fighter and other airborne platforms engaged in exercise, training or actual combat operations.
- The Combat Applications Flight activities entail providing direct application support for specified combat customers. This includes an AIA node for operational dissemination of near-real time imagery to Air Force and Department of Defense users worldwide. The Combat Applications Flight is also Air Combat Command’s point of contact for premission survivability and threat assessments, target analysis, weaponeering support and post-mission combat assessments for the Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile program.
- The Operations Flight provides the day-to-day operating support to the other flights within the 20th. These activities are dispersed though branches who perform the activities of planning, requirements management, systems maintenance, logistics support and resource management.
History
World War II
The squadron was originally formed as the 20th Photographic Mapping Squadron in mid-1942. In these early years, the unit worked under several different names and was stationed in the Pacific Theater as an element of Fifth Air Force. The units operated a variety of photographic reconnaissance aircraft in the South Pacific, engaging in combat reconnaissance. It moved to Japan in 1945, carrying out postwar reconnaissance and mapping of the Japanese Home Islands and Korean Peninsula as part of the War Department's Post Hostilities Mapping Project. It was inactivated June 1946Reserve and Korean War
The squadron was activated in the reserve in 1947 as the 20th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, a long range reconnaissance squadron. It was called to active duty during the Korean War at the start of May 1951. Its personnel were used as fillers for other United States Air Force units and it was inactivated two weeks later.Cold War
The squadron was reactivated in the regular Air Force as the 20th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in 1954 under the 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Group as a Lockheed RF-80A Shooting Star reconnaissance training squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It upgraded to Republic RF-84F Thunderflashes in 1955. The squadron transferred to operational missions in 1959 with reassignment to the 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing and re-equipped with McDonnell RF-101 Voodoos. The unit deployed to Florida in 1962 during Cuban Missile Crisis and flew tactical reconnaissance flights over Cuba during the Crisis. It returned to Shaw in late 1962. The squadron deployed to Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam, 1963–1965 flying tactical reconnaissance in Southeast Asia. It was inactivated in 1967.Intelligence operations
The squadron was reactivated and designated the 20th Air Intelligence Squadron under the newly formed Air Combat Command in 1992, at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. A year later, it was redesignated as the 20th Intelligence Squadron.Lineage
- Constituted as the 20th Photographic Mapping Squadron on 14 July 1942
- Redesignated 20th Reconnaissance Squadron, Night Photographic on 11 March 1947
- Redesignated 20th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Photographic–Jet on 14 January 1954
- Redesignated 20th Air Intelligence Squadron on 1 June 1992
Assignments
- 4th Photographic Group, 23 July 1942
- 6th Photographic Group, 5 December 1943
- 91st Reconnaissance Wing, 10 November 1945
- V Bomber Command, 1 December 1945
- 314th Composite Wing, 31 May 1946 – 20 June 1946
- 66th Reconnaissance Group, 25 July 1947
- Tenth Air Force, 27 June 1949
- 311th Air Division, 21 July 1949
- Second Air Force, 1 November 1949 – 16 May 1951
- 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 18 March 1954
- 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 8 February 1958
- 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 18 May 1959
- 2d Air Division, 12 November 1965
- 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 18 February 1966
- 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 18 September 1966 – 1 November 1967
- 480th Air Intelligence Group, 12 June 1992
- Air Combat Command Targeting and Intelligence Group, 2 June 2008
- Air Force Targeting Center, 7 December 2009
- 363d Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group, 17 February 2015 – present
Stations
- Colorado Springs Army Air Base, Colorado, 23 July 1942 – 7 September 1943
- Sydney, Australia, 10 October 1943
- Archerfield Airport, Brisbane, Australia, 23 November 1943
- Port Moresby Airfield Complex, New Guinea, 10 December 1943
- Nadzab Airfield Complex, New Guinea, 14 February 1944
- Mokmer Airfield, Biak, 3 September 1944
- Dulag Airfield, Leyte, 15 November 1944
- Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines, 17 May 1945
- Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 4 August 1945
- Yokota Airfield, Japan, 27 October 1945 – 20 June 1946
- Newark Army Air Base, New Jersey, 25 July 1947
- Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas, 21 July 1949
- Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, 10 October 1949 – 16 May 1951
- Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, 18 March 1954 – 12 November 1965
- Tan Son Nhut Airport, South Vietnam, 12 November 1965
- Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, 1 April 1966 – 1 November 1967
- Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, 12 June 1992 – present
Aircraft
- North American B-25 Mitchell, 1942
- Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1943
- Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 1943–1946
- Consolidated F-7 Liberator, 1943–1946
- Lockheed RF-80 Shooting Star, 1954–1955
- Republic RF-84 Thunderflash, 1955–1958
- McDonnell RF-101 Voodoo, 1957–1967