The 461st Air Control Wing was activated at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, Oct. 1, 2011, by Maj. Gen. Stephen Hoog, Ninth Air Force commander, with Col. L. Dean Worley Jr., the first 461st ACW commander, at its helm. The activation occurred during the busiest time in the E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System aircraft’s 21-year history.

By this time, the men and women of Team JSTARS, which also included the Georgia Air National Guard’s 116th ACW and Army’s 138th Military Intelligence Company, had amassed over 72,000 combat hours in 10 consecutive years of deployments to Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn. Operation Unified Protector was ongoing while new home station missions were being flown for U.S. Northern and Southern Commands.

On Dec. 17, 2011, the 461st ACW flew its last JSTARS mission for Operation New Dawn by providing overwatch for the last convoy mission leaving Iraq to Kuwait. During its return to the skies over Iraq in June 2014, the E-8C JSTARS became the first manned U.S. Air Force aircraft over Iraq since 2011, supporting the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On Sept. 21, 2012, the 461st ACW was awarded its first Meritorious Unit Award for the period between Oct. 1, 2010, to March 31, 2012.

On Oct. 1, 2014, the 53rd Combat Communications Squadron was assigned to the 461st Operations Group and subsequently redesignated as the 53rd Air Traffic Control Squadron on May 1, 2015, providing the wing with the deployable air traffic control and landing systems mission. 

The 461st ACW continued to provide superior command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, to special reconnaissance operations, as well as Operations Inherent Resolve and Freedom’s Sentinel. On Sept. 30, 2019, the 7th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron at Al Udeid Air Base achieved a major milestone by reaching over 113,000 combat hours flying the E-8C JSTARS supporting coalition operations throughout the Persian Gulf region.

On Oct. 22, 2021, the deputy secretary of defense certified that the Air Force identified a new capability, with sufficient capacity, to replace the current fleet of 16 E-8C JSTARS. Additionally, the president’s fiscal year 2022 budget included force structure changes to promote the Air Force’s future design. Those force structure changes included an initial divestiture of four E-8C aircraft in FY 2022.

On Dec. 6, 2021, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Chief of Staff of the Air Force, signed a memorandum providing guidance for the E-8C JSTARS divestment. That memorandum documented the Air Force’s intent to fully divest its fleet of 16 E-8C JSTARS by the end of FY 2024. The first JSTARS aircraft, 92-3289, was retired into the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, Feb. 10, 2022.

Over the next year and a half, the 461st ACW underwent major changes, inactivating four units, activating two new units, redesignating one unit, and realigning a group to under their wing, all while continuing the divestment of the E-8C JSTARS aircraft. One of those aircraft, tail number 00-2000, was transferred to the Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB for display.

The new units standing up within the 461st ACW were both Battle Management Control Squadrons – the 728th BMCS at Robins AFB in 2023, and the 932nd BMCS at Beale AFB, California, in 2025. These battle management control squadrons leverage increasing speed and bandwidth of modern digital communication technologies that would allow the support of operations around the world from both Beale and Robins AFB, utilizing Department of the Air Force Battle Network capabilities such as the Air Battle Management System, Common Mission Control center, Joint Cyber Command and Control, Command and Control of the Information Environment, and Common Tactical Edge Network. This technology assists the squadrons in performing 24/7 real-time radar surveillance along with airspace deconfliction, air-refueling positioning and tactical reconnaissance.

While those units stood up, the 53rd Air Traffic Control Squadron underwent a redesignation as the 53rd Combat Air Operations Squadron, June 23, 2023. This redesignation showed the squadron’s move to providing expeditionary airfield operations.

In September 2024, the 5th Combat Communications Group realigned under the 461st ACW, making the wing the Air Force’s first C3 – command, control and communications – active-duty wing.

With the reorganization of the 461st Air Control Wing, they are now responsible for organizing, training and equipping a cohesive C3 unit of action. Their current mission is to prepare and deploy war-winning battle management, expeditionary communications and combat airfield operations for air components, as Air Combat Command’s only contingency-focused C3 wing.

Since its activation in late 2011, the 461st ACW has earned seven Meritorious Unit Awards, four U.S. Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards, and one Air and Space Outstanding Unit Award providing combatant commanders in the Pacific, Middle East, Europe, and Southern Counter-Drug Operations with the E-8C JSTARS command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, and the deployable air traffic control and landing systems prior to 2021.

Editor’s note: The 461st ACW’s mission began during World War II and was originally known as the 461st Bombardment Group. They were the strategic bombing campaign against German infrastructure as part of 15th Air Force. Their mission changed over the years and was deactivated on March 25, 1968, then was reactivated here at Robins AFB on Oct. 1, 2011.