Active 1953–present | Country United States | |
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Branch United States Air Force Role Cyberspace Research and Development Size 1388 military and civilians Part of Twenty Fourth Air Force | ||
The United States Air Force's 688th Cyberspace Wing is an information operations unit located at Joint Base San Antonio (Lackland), Texas.
Contents
Mission
The wing delivers information operations and engineering infrastructure for air, space, and cyberspace military operations. It supports national, joint and Air Force operations. The wing is assigned two groups.
Subordinate units
The 318th Cyberspace Operations Group, located at Lackland, explores new cyberspace technologies to engineer next-generation weapons capabilities for operational commands. It has a test squadron for operational test and evaluation, a tactics squadron to optimize information operation tactics, techniques and procedures for weapon systems and a formal training unit to arm the Air Force's cyber units.
The 38th Cyberspace Engineering Installation Group, located at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the Air Force's engineering and installation group for cyberspace. Its engineering squadron provides cyberspace systems engineers to every numbered air force, major command, and air force base worldwide and forms special mission teams for operational engineering problems. The group also has another engineering and installation squadron with specialized engineering flight for unique communications services, a specialized cyber contracting squadron and a cyberspace readiness squadron for long-haul communication, Scope Edge teams and maintenance of Air Force communications.
History
In July 1953, United States Air Force Security Service organized the 6901st and 6902d Special Communications Centers at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. One month later, these two organizations were replaced by the Air Force Special Communications Center, located on the other side of San Antonio, Texas at Kelly Air Force Base. The center became the Air Force Electronic Warfare Center in July 1975.
Air Force successes in exploiting enemy information systems during Operation Desert Storm led to the realization that the strategies and tactics of command and control warfare could be expanded to the entire information spectrum and be implemented as information warfare. In response, the center was redesignated the Air Force Information Operations Center on 10 September 1993, combining technical skill sets from the existing center with the Air Force Cryptologic Support Center's Securities Directorate and intelligence capabilities from the former Air Force Intelligence Command.
In May 2007, after 54 years of being aligned with United States Air Force Security Service and its successors, the center became part of Air Combat Command and was reassigned to Eighth Air Force. This assignment did not last long, for in August 2009 the center was redesignated the 688th Information Operations Wing and was assigned to Twenty-Fourth Air Force of Air Force Space Command.
The Air Force Information Operations Center became the 688th Information Operations Wing on 18 August 2009 as planned by the initial Air Force Cyber Command plan of 2007 and 2008.
Today the wing has a staff of nearly 1,400 civil and military personnel, and based in the same location as United States Strategic Command's Joint Information Operations Warfare Center. It is currently commanded by Colonel Michelle Hayworth and is subordinate to Twenty-Fourth Air Force.