page_title: 135th Airlift Squadron
section_title: Tactical Airlift
hierarchical_section_title: 135th Airlift Squadron / History / Tactical Airlift
caption_attribution_description: English: Airmen from the 702nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron gather for a group photo June 18 at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, before the start of the unit’s deactivation ceremony. SGT. DANIEL J. SCHROEDER / ARMY
context_page_description: The 135th Airlift Squadron was a unit of the United States Air Force, allotted to the Maryland Air National Guard 135th Airlift Group, located at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River, Maryland. The 135th was active as a flying organization from 10 September 1955 to 30 September 2013. After 2013, it remained active but without assigned personnel or aircraft. In 2014, the Maryland Air National Guard requested the unit be reorganized and redesignated as the 135th Intelligence Squadron, and this request was approved by the National Guard Bureau effective 1 May 2016.
context_section_description: In 1977, it was again reorganized, this time as a tactical airlift unit as part of a general program to upgrade Air National Guard units. Was assigned the C-7A Caribou light transport, the aircraft being Vietnam War veterans. In 1980, the unit converted to the C-130B Hercules.  In 1981, it moved across the field to join other Maryland Air National Guard units based on the north side of the field. The military facilities are named Warfield Air National Guard Base. During the early 1990s, the 135th participated in humanitarian relief efforts in Somalia, peacekeeping and humanitarian relief in Bosnia, the U.S. intervention in Haiti and the enforcement of U.N. sanctions against Iraq during the 1990s.
  In mid-1996, the Air Force, in response to budget cuts and changing world situations, began experimenting with Air Expeditionary organizations. The Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) concept was developed that would mix Active-Duty, Reserve and Air National Guard elements into a combined force. Instead of entire permanent units deploying as "Provisional" as in the 1991 Gulf War, Expeditionary units are composed of "aviation packages" from several wings, including active-duty Air Force, the Air Force Reserve Command and the Air National Guard, would be married together to carry out the assigned deployment rotation.
  In 1999, it dedicated its first C-130J, the latest and most advanced version of the venerable transport. The 135th had played a major role in the test and evaluation of the aircraft and its procedures and was the first fully equipped C-130J unit in the U.S. Air Force.
  In February 2000, the 135th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron (135th EAS) was first formed from 135th personnel and aircraft and deployed to Lambaréné Airport, Gabon, for an exercise, "Gabon 2000", with the objective of increasing the capacity of ECCAS states in the field of peacekeeping and conflict prevention and management. This exercise represented a direct application of the French RECAMP-concept (reinforcement of African peacekeeping capacities).
  BRAC 2005 saw the 8 C-130J aircraft of the squadron being transferred to 314th Airlift group, Little Rock Air Force base. In 2011, the first C-27J Spartan light transport was received. The squadron will obtain four of the C-27Js.
  Beginning in July 2011, the 135th AS along with the Ohio Air National Guard 164th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron began rotational deployments for joint operations of the C-27J  from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan as the 702d Expeditionary Airlift Squadron.  The 702d EAS flew the two aircraft on 3,200 missions, moved 1,400 tons of cargo, transported 25,000 passengers and executed 71 airdrops, according to Air Force data.
  In June 2012, operations of the 702d EAS were suspended by the Air Force and returned to the United States. Originally, C-27J aircraft were supposed to remain in theater through 2014, but the Air Force decided to bring all of the aircraft back to the U.S. before the end of July after it submitted its 2013 budget proposal, which recommended terminating the C-27J and retiring the aircraft.
  In 2013, the Air Force divested itself of the C-27J program. An inactivation ceremony was held at Warfield ANGB on 27 September 2013, and the 135th Airlift Squadron was scheduled to officially inactivate on 30 September, but for undetermined reasons, an inactivation request was never processed.
caption: 702d Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, 2012.
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