4705th Defense Wing

27th Air Division
Four Corners
Active	1950–1959, 1966-1969
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Command and Control
Part of	Air Defense Command

The 27th Air Division was a USAF numbered air division and the geographic Air Defense Command region controlled by the 27th AD. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command (ADC)'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 (Defense) on September 7, 1950,^[1] the unit was assigned to ADC for most of its existence,^[2] the division's initial air defense area was southern California and later southern Nevada^[3] (and a small portion of Arizona by 1953).^[3]

4705th Defense Wing

The 4705th Defense Wing was a placeholder military organization that absorbed the 1st Fighter-Interceptor Wing personnel and equipment 5 days after the 4705th Defense Wing was organized at Norton AFB^[4] (e.g., the 94th Fighter-Interceptor Squadronat George AFB).^[5] The wing was discontinued and 94th FIS reassigned directly to 27th Air Division, which had reorganized at Norton AFB in February,^[3] one month later.^[6]

In May 1958, the 27th AD directed a hostile intercept of a "declared unknown" aircraft (without proper IFF), 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 SAC B-47 was on an RBS bomb run near the Los Angeles Bomb Plot.)^[7] The 27th AD was designated 1 of 23 NORAD divisions effective June 10, 1958, by NORAD General Order 6.^[7]:7

Rocky Mountain Division

The "27th Air Division (Rocky Mountain)" was to transfer to the midwest with command of 2 NORAD sectors (Reno and Denver Air Defense 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 July 25, 1958, SAGE Geographic Reorganization Plan identified the Super Combat Center/Direction Center (SCC/DC) nuclear bunker for the division was to be at Denver, Colorado (cf. the bunkers later planned for Cheyenne Mountain and in a Cripple Creek mine). The division's general area was west-to-east from the western Nevada state meridian (near the Sierra Escarpment) 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 AFSs (the atomic-powered "SAGE feeder station" in the Black Hills NF became operational in 1962);^[8]:169 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 assembly plant at the Colorado Front Range. The Reno sector was activated February 15, 1959, and the AN/FSQ-7 at Stead AFB^[8]:135 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 deployment of SAGE as a subordinate unit of the 27th AD.^[9] However, the Denver SCC/CC was cancelled on March tbd, 1959; so instead of moving from the Southwest United States to the Zone of Interior (and the 28th Air Division then taking over as the Southwestern Air Division), the 27th Air Division was inactivated on October 1, 1959 (command transferred to the subordinate Los Angeles Air Defense Sector).

Luke AFB

Reactivated in January 1966 at Luke AFB,^[3] the 27th AD 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 Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. The Norton AFB SAGE Direction Center closed in June 1966 (the Luke AFB DC was 1 of 6 still open in 1970).^[8]:47 When the 27th AD was inactivated in 1969,^[3] command of its components transferred to the 26th Air Division (March AFB CA), and a 1987 reorganization placed sites "under the Southwest Air Defense Sector of the 25th Air Division."^[8]

Lineage

• Constituted as the 27 Air Division (Defense)

Activated on 20 September 1950

Inactivated on 1 February 1952^[10]

• Organized on 1 February 1952

Inactivated on 1 October 1959

• Redesignated as the 27th Air Division and activated on 20 January 1966

Organized on 1 April 1966

Inactivated on 19 November 1969.

Assignments^[3]

• Western Air Defense Force (WADF), 20 September 1950 – 1 October 1959
• Air Defense Command, 20 January 1966

Fourth Air Force, 1 April 1966

Tenth Air Force, 15 September 1969 – 19 November 1969.

Stations^[3]

• Norton AFB, CA, 20 September 1950 – 1 October 1959
• Luke AFB, AZ, 1 April 1966 – 19 November 1969.

Components

Sector^[3]

• Los Angeles Air Defense Sector

Norton AFB, CA, 15 February 1959 – 1 October 1959

Wings

• 1st Fighter-Interceptor Wing (attached)^[3]

March AFB, CA 20 September 1950 – 1 February 1952

• 78th Fighter Wing (Air Defense)^[3]

Hamilton AFB, CA, 15 September 1969 – 19 November 1969

• 4705th Defense Wing^[6]

Norton AFB, CA, 1 February 1952 – 1 March 1952

Groups

Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron

• 4758th Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron

Holloman AFB, New Mexico, 15 November 1969 – 19 November 1959

Fighter Squadrons

Radar squadrons

See also

• List of USAF Aerospace Defense Command General Surveillance Radar Stations
• List of United States Air Force aircraft control and warning squadrons

References

• Grant, C.L., The Development of Continental Air Defense to 1 September 1954, (1961), USAF Historical Study No. 126

Vol II

External links