page_title: 7499th Support Group
section_title: 7575th Operations Group
hierarchical_section_title: 7499th Support Group / History / 7575th Operations Group
caption_attribution_description: English: Lockheed C-130E-LM Hercules 62-1828 Aircraft fitted with various sensors and used during early 1980s by 7405th Operations Sqdn as spyplane operating from Frankfurt/Rhein-Main AB, West Germany. To AMARC as CF0188 May 15, 1998.
context_page_description: The 7499th Support Group is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the United States Air Forces in Europe, being stationed at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, West Germany. It was inactivated on 30 June 1974. Its mission was resumed by the 7575th Operations Group, which operated from Rhein-Main Air Base, West Germany from 1 July 1977 until its inactivation on 31 March 1991.
context_section_description: In late December 1975, the 7405th flew its last EC-97G mission from Wiesbaden Air Base when the USAF turned the base over to the  United States Army and moved its operations to Rhein-Main AB. There, redesignated as the 7405th Operations Squadron, it acquired three heavily modified C-130E Hercules, airlifters in name only. By this time, technology improvements were such that each aircraft could carry a variety of sensors with advanced capabilities. Thus, if one sensor type detected a new and unusual activity, the aircrew could almost instantly bring other sensors to bear on it. This ability provided lucrative intelligence time and time again.
  On 1 July 1977, the squadron was assigned to the newly organized 7575th Operations Group at Rhein-Main AB.  Along with the 7575th OG, the 7580th Operations Squadron was activated on 1 July 1977 at Rhein-Main AB. The 7580th OS was a non-flying squadron staffed with C-130 Electronic Warfare Officers (EWOs) and aircraft maintenance personnel.
  In 1977, when the 7575th Operations Group was formed at Rhein-Main AB, HQ USAFE realigned the 7th Special Operations Squadron under its control, until March 1983, when the 7th SOS transferred from USAFE to Military Airlift Command (MAC).  The 7th SOS operated four MC-130E Combat Talon Is (64-0523, 64–0555, 64–0561 and 64-0566).  Although even today very little is known about this special unit, the mere fact that the USAF information service always answers 'no comment' to any questions about its role is sufficient to allow the tentative conclusion that clandestine operations are involved, with the squadron performing undisclosed missions under the direction of the DCS Operations of HQ USAFE.
  The 7th SOS's MC-130Es were spotted in every corner of Europe. These sightings were perhaps connected with NATO marine unit exercises with which the 7th SOS is also involved. One of the most bizarre sightings dates from January 1976 when a traveller from West Berlin saw a low-flying C-130 over the Transitstrasse, the transit route, near Magdeburg in the German Democratic Republic. Flying at an estimated fifty meters over the motorway, the Hercules disappeared northwards at great speed. It was certainly an MC-130E from the 7th SOS but what it was doing in the DDR is not so certain. Granted it was flying perfectly legally in the air corridor at the time of the sighting, the fact that it was a black MC-130E from the 7th SOS does make one a trifle suspicious.
  The 7405th's corridor/Control Zone collection missions, with their pivot at Tempelhof Central Airport, continued through the 1980s. Then came the 1989 collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the fall of the Berlin Wall; the 1990 German reunification, and the phase-out of Soviet armed forces from Eastern Europe. The 7405th helped monitor this until shortly before Germany was reunified.  On 29 September 1990, the last C-130 collection mission was flown; then, on 3 October, the Berlin Air Corridors and Control Zone officially disappeared. From 1946 to 1990 the "Berlin for Lunch Bunch" had flown over 10,000 missions to West Berlin.  Now it had flown its last, Germany and the city of Berlin were again unified, and the 7405th Operations Squadron faded into military aviation and intelligence history.  Its mission was completed.
  The 7405th Operations Squadron was inactivated on 1 January 1991; the 7575th Operations Group and 7580th Operations Squadron were inactivated on 31 March 1991.
caption: Lockheed C-130E-LM Hercules 62-1828. The Aircraft fitted with various sensors and used by the 7405th Operations Sqdn as spyplane operating from Frankfurt/Rhein-Main AB, West Germany. 1828 is shown landing at Tempelhof Central Airport, West Berlin, on 14 April 1981. Note the fake MAC markings (the 7405th was subordinate to USAFE), probably designed to enable these C-130Es to blend in at the 7405th's Rhein-Main base.
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