A Team of Teams

Almost 2,000 Airmen serving one wing with two groups, 14 squadrons, and 17 wing staff agencies, the 501st serves a community of more than 14,000 personnel spread across seven installations. Additionally, the wing supports mission partners from the NATO Joint Warfare Center, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, NATO Intelligence Fusion Center, Air Force Global Strike Command, and nearly 65 other U.S. military and government agencies throughout the United Kingdom and Norway.

An Evolving Mission

The wing is both postured for today's mission and ready to transform as it executes the European Infrastructure Consolidation initiative to meet tomorrow's demands. In the coming years, operations and responsibilities will shift to more efficiently and effectively array existing force structure within the European theater.

A Strong Partner

The United States and the United Kingdom share a special bond nurtured over decades of commitment to our shared values of peace, security and prosperity. The depth of the U.S. and the U.K. partnership will only grow as together we face the increasingly complex, high-end threats of today and tomorrow.

The 501st Combat Support Wing tracks its lineage back to the 501st Bombardment Group, which was activated June 1, 1944 at Dalhart Army Airfield, Texas. The unit deployed in April of 1945, during World War II, to Guam, where they flew 15 combat missions and airdropped food and supplies to Allied Prisoners of War. O September 15, 1956, the 501st Tactical Missile Wing was established as the first United States Air Force tactical missile wing, then later deactivated on June 18, 1958.

The wing was later reactivated as the 501st Tactical Missile Wing on July 1, 1982 but inactivated on May 31, 1991; three years after the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1988. The wing was later designated as the 501st Combat Support Wing and reactivated on March 22, 2005. The 501st CSW remains the only combat support wing in the USAF, and carries on its storied heritage of generating combat missions across the globe and projecting diplomacy through its seven geographically separated locations across the United Kingdom and Norway.