page_title: 363rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing
section_title: 363d Reconnaissance Wing
hierarchical_section_title: 363rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing / History / 363d Reconnaissance Wing
caption_attribution_description: English: RF-4C Serial 67-0436 of the 16th TRS - Shaw Air Force Base SC.
context_page_description: The 363d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing is a United States Air Force unit. The group is assigned to the United States Air Force Sixteenth Air Force, stationed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
  The mission of the wing is content-dominant multi-intelligence analysis and targeting for five distinct mission sets: Air Defenses, Counter-Space, Counter-ISR, Theater Ballistic Missile/Cruise Missile Threat, and Air Threat
  In a ceremony on 11 July 2011, the group was inactivated and replaced by the AFCENT Air Warfare Center. On 13 February 2015, the 363 FTG was redesignated as the 363d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing. The wing activated on 17 February 2015.
context_section_description: The 363d Reconnaissance Wing was activated on 15 August 1947 when the Army Air Forces introduced the experimental wing base organization which established a single wing on each base.  It was stationed at Langley Field, Virginia in December 1947 by the newly established USAF.  It was redesignated the 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing on 27 August 1948. President Truman's reduced 1949 defense budget required reductions in the number of groups in the Air Force to 48 and the unit was inactivated on 26 April 1949. Once North Korea invaded South Korea, this constraint was removed and the group was again activated on 1 September 1950 at Langley.
  Due to the pressing needs of Far East Air Forces in Japan the 162nd TRS, flying RB-26s, and the photo-processing 363rd Reconnaissance Technical Squadron (RTS) were reassigned from Langley to Itazuke Air Base Japan for Korean War service and began operations in August 1950 as part of the 543d Tactical Support Group.
  On 1 April 1951, the 363d TRW was transferred to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. The 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing would remain at Shaw, under various designations, for the next 43 years. The wing's mission was to fly photographic, electronic and electronic intelligence missions to support air and ground operations by American or Allied ground forces through its operational component, the 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group. In addition, the 363d provided combat crew training for reconnaissance aircrews.
  In July 1954, the wing began to receive Martin RB-57A Canberra aircraft and achieved initial operational capability before the month was over.  These were the first operational RB-57As in the Air Force, although the 345th Bombardment Wing had received a handful earlier to conduct transition training for its crews.
  In January 1956, the wing's 9th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron was the first in the Air Force to receive jet powered Douglas RB-66B Destroyers.  The RB-66B was the first operational model of the B-66.  Although initially, the RB-66B had a limited all weather capability, its arrival permitted the retirement of the obsolescent RB-26s and the early retirement of the problem-ridden RB-57As.  Deliveries of the RB-66Bs permitted the activation of two additional squadrons in the wing's 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group, the 41st and 43d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons.
  In 1958, the 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group was inactivated, and its components were assigned directly to the Wing.
  In September 1957, the RF-101C began deliveries to Shaw. The C model combined the strengthened structure of the F-101C with the camera installation of the RF-101A. In addition, the RF-101C differed from the RF-101A in being able to accommodate a centerline nuclear weapon, so that it could carry out a secondary nuclear strike mission if ever called upon to do so.  The RF-101Cs served for a brief time alongside the RF-101A, but quickly replaced them by May 1958.
  In the autumn of 1962, the pilots of the 363d played a major part in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Utilizing their RF-101s for low-altitude photo-reconnaissance missions, they helped identify and track activities at Cuban missile sites, airfields, and port facilities.  In awarding the wing the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its achievements, President John F. Kennedy said, "You gentlemen have contributed as much to the security of the United States as any group of men in our history."
  The last USAF RF-101C was phased out of the 31st TRTS, a replacement training unit at Shaw AFB, on 16 February 1971 and turned over to the Air National Guard.
  In 1956, the RB-66 Destroyer was assigned to the 363d TRW.  They replaced the obsolescent RB-26 Invader. The USAF RB-66 force in the continental United States was concentrated at Shaw, with the first RB-66C arriving on 1 February 1956, and the aircraft would continue to operate from Shaw until its retirement in 1974.
  Twelve RB-66Cs initially flew with the 9th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (TRS), and then later with various training squadrons including the 4417th Combat Crew Traini
caption: McDonnell RF-4C-34-MC Phantom II Serial No. 67-0436 of the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in October 1986. [note 3]
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