The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

's 315th Cyberspace Operations Squadron is a cyberspace warfare unit located at

Fort George G. Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, th ...

, Maryland. The first predecessor of the unit was the 15th Radio Squadron, which was activated in 1951 and performed

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

missions from locations in Japan and Korea during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. It was inactivated in May 1955 and its mission and assets were transferred to the 6922d Radio Group, Mobile. The 315th's second predecessor was the 6922d Security Group, which was activated at

Clark Air Base Clark Air Base is a Philippine Air Force base in Luzon, located west of Angeles City, and about northwest of Metro Manila. It was previously operated by the U.S. Air Force and, before that, the U.S. Army, from 1903 to 1991. The base cov ...

in the Philippines in April 1970. When the American presence in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

was reduced, the

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

was reduced in size and became the 6922d Security Squadron. This unit was inactivated with the closure of Clark due to the eruption of

Mount Pinatubo Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains in Luzon in the Philippines. Located on the tripoint of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga provinces, most people were unaware of its eruptive history before the pre-eruption volc ...

in 1991. These two units were consolidated as the 315th Intelligence Squadron in 1993.

Mission

The squadron's mission is to hack the hackers.

History

Korean Service

The 15th Radio Squadron, Mobile was organized at

Brooks Air Force Base Brooks Air Force Base was a United States Air Force facility located in San Antonio, Texas, southeast of Downtown San Antonio. In 2002, Brooks Air Force Base was renamed Brooks City-Base when the property was conveyed to the Brooks Developm ...

, Texas for service in the

. In July, the squadron departed Texas for

Ashiya Air Base is a military airdrome of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force . It is located north of Ashiya in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. History Ashiya Airfield was established as a Japanese Army Air Force facility in 1944 and was used primarily as a de ...

, Japan, where it was to operate until inactivated in May 1955. Upon the squadron's arrival in Japan, the former Detachment 3 of the 1st Radio Squadron, Mobile, located at

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest f ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, Korea was transferred to the 15th as Detachment 1, 15th Radio Squadron, Mobile. The squadron mission was to provide tactical intelligence data to the air operations center of Fifth Air Force in Korea, located a short distance from Detachment 3. By 1952, the need for intelligence collection closer to the battle lines than Seoul became evident. The

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force, also referred to as the Chinese Air Force () or the People's Air Force (), is the primary aerial warfare service of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAAF controls most of the PLA's air assets, includi ...

was upgrading their tactical communications from

High Frequency High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the band of radio waves with frequency between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten decameters (ten to one ...

to Very High Frequency systems, which could not be effectively detected at long ranges.Van Nederveen, p. 19

Fifth Air Force The Fifth Air Force (5 AF) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It is the U.S. Air Force's oldest continuously serving Numbered Air Force. The organ ...

began to operate

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for tro ...

aircraft from

Yokota Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and United States Air Force (USAF) base in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. It occupies portions of Akishima, Fussa, Hamura, Mizuho, Musashimurayama, and Tachikawa. The base houses 14,000 pers ...

, Japan. Members of the 15th flew in the back of these airplanes, which patrolled just behind the front lines and off the coast of North Korea, recording data on wire recorders. Recordings were dropped to the unit's Detachment 2, which had been established on Cho Do Island, off the coast of North Korea. This was then transferred to ground controlled intercept controllers of the 608th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron on the island to provide near real time threat information to American

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

. In May 1955, the squadron was inactivated and its mission, personnel and equipment were transferred to the 6922d Radio Group, Mobile at Ashiya. It was kept on the Air Force's books as an inactive unit until June 1983, when it was disbanded.

Clark Air Base

The 6922d Security Group was activated in April 1970 at

in the Philippines. Initially, the group conducted operations through subordinate detachments ranging from Thailand through Japan. With the withdrawal of the United States from Vietnam, operations were substantially reduced, and by 1974 were limited to

direction finding Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a naturall ...

, and the group was reduced to the 6922d Security Squadron. Operations continued through June 1991, when

erupted, covering Clark with volcanic ash. It became apparent that resumption of operations at Clark was neither financially or politically viable, and the squadron began to devote itself to the salvage and removal of equipment, except for a small contingent of linguists. The squadron was inactivated as remaining Air Force assets at Clark were turned over to the Philippine government.

Consolidated unit

The 15th and 6922d squadrons were consolidated in 1993 as the 315th Intelligence Squadron at

, Japan. The squadron was inactivated in 2001, but was again activated as the 315th Information Operations Squadron at

, Maryland, where it has been active under various designations until today.

Lineage

; 15th Radio Squadron Constituted as the 15th Radio Squadron, Mobile on 2 February 1951 : Activated on 9 February 1951 : Inactivated on 8 May 1955 * Disbanded on 15 June 1983 * Reconstituted, and consolidated with the 6922d Electronic Security Squadron on 1 October 1993 ; 315th Cyberspace Operations Squadron * Established as the 6922d Security Group on 1 April 1970 : Redesignated 6922d Security Squadron on 1 July 1974 : Redesignated 6922d Electronic Security Squadron on 1 August 1979 : Inactivated on 15 December 1991 * Consolidated with the 15th Radio Squadron, redesignated 315th Intelligence Squadron and activated on 1 October 1993 : Inactivated on 1 July 2001 * Redesignated 315th Information Operations Squadron on 10 May 2005 : Activated on 16 May 2005 : Redesignated 315th Network Warfare Squadron on 26 July 2007 : Redesignated 315th Cyberspace Operations Squadron on 15 May 2015

Assignments

* United States Air Force Security Service, 9 February 1951 * 6920th Security Group (later, 6920th Security Wing), 16 February 1952 – 8 May 1955 * Pacific Security Region, 1 April 1970 * United States Air Force Security Service (later Electronic Security Command), 31 December 1972 *

Electronic Security, Pacific The United States Air Force's 692nd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group is an intelligence unit located at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, performing operations as part of the Kunia Regional Security Operations Center (KRSOC). Mission The mi ...

(later Pacific Electronic Security Division, 692d Intelligence Wing), 30 September 1980 – 15 December 1991 * 692d Intelligence Group (later 692d Information Operations Group), 1 October 1993 – 1 July 2001 *

318th Information Operations Group The 318th Cyberspace Operations Group is a United States Air Force information operations unit located at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. The group (military aviation unit), group was first activated during World War II as the 8th Photographic ...

, 16 May 2005 *

67th Information Operations Group The 67th Cyberspace Operations Group is a unit of the 67th Cyberspace Wing. Headquartered on Kelly Field Annex's Security Hill, the group (military aviation unit), group is an United States Air Force, Air Force information operations unit. The g ...

(later 67th Network Warfare Group, 67th Cyberspace Operations Group), 12 June 2006 – 18 September 2020 * 867th Cyberspace Operations Group, 18 September 2020 – present

Stations

* Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, 9 February 1951 – 3 July 1951 * Ashiya Air Base, Japan, 26 July 1951 – 8 May 1955 * Clark Air Base,

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

, Philippines, 1 April 1970 – 15 December 1991 * Yokota Air Base, Japan, 1 October 1993 – 1 July 2001 * Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, 16 May 2005 – present

Awards and campaigns

References

; Notes

Bibliography

External links

Department of the Army: Fort George G. Meade, Maryland
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Military units and formations in Maryland Network Warfare