In 1942, the squadron began to replace its F-2s with longer range aircraft, including Lockheed A-29 Hudson, and for a brief period some Douglas F-3 Havocs. Its use of these aircraft included deployments in 1942 and 1943 to perform mapping missions in South America in support of the 1st Group's global mission. In January 1944, the squadron moved to Peterson Field, Colorado, where it joined 1st Group headquarters, which had moved there the previous month. In Colorado, the squadron converted to even longer range Liberators, flying both the F-7 reconnaissance and B-24 heavy bomber versions of the plane. From June through September 1944, the squadron flew long range missions over the Japanese Kuril Islands in the North Pacific. Along with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress raid on Yawata's Imperial Iron and Steel Works the same month, these were some of the first flights over Japan since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.