page_title: 378th Air Expeditionary Wing
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: 378th Air Expeditionary Wing / History
caption_attribution_description: English: F-15C fighter jets from the 44th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, fly in formation with F-15SA Royal Saudi Air Force jets from 6th Squadron, King Khalid Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during an integrated sortie flight over Saudi airspace, 25 June 2020. The integrated sorties allow U.S. and RSAF pilots to famiiliaraize with communications and mission planning procedures. It also allows them to maintain readiness for longer mission capabilities.
context_page_description: The 378th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Forces Central Command unit assigned to Air Combat Command. As a provisional unit, it may be activated or inactivated at any time.
  The 378th Bombardment Group was an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. Its last assignment was with the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command at Langley Field, Virginia, where it was stationed from October to December 1942. The group participated in the Antisubmarine Campaign along the Atlantic coast of the United States until it was inactivated, when the Antisubmarine Command assigned all its squadrons directly to the command's two antisubmarine wings.
  The current 378th AEW is garrisoned in Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. The Wing operates McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagles.
context_section_description: The group was activated at Langley Field, Virginia on 18 October 1942 with the 520th, 521st, and 523d Bombardment Squadrons assigned.  Although designated a medium bombardment unit, it was equipped with Douglas O-46 and North American O-47 single-engine observation aircraft.
  The group conducted its operations along the southeastern coast of the United States.  Only the 523d Squadron was located with the group's headquarters at Langley. The 520th Squadron operated from Jacksonville Municipal Airport, Florida, while the 521st was stationed at Charleston Army Air Field, South Carolina.
  In late November, Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command began a series of organizational actions to more nearly align it with United States Navy headquarters engaged in the antisubmarine campaign.  On 20 November, the 522d Bombardment Squadron at Lantana Airport, Florida was assigned to the group, At the same time, the group's 520th Squadron was attached directly to the new 25th Antisubmarine Wing, which had been established to manage Army Air Forces antisubmarine units in the area of the Navy's Eastern Sea Frontier.  The group's squadrons were redesignated as antisubmarine squadrons,  Finally, in December, after less than two months of operation, the group was inactivated and its component squadrons were reassigned to the 25th Antisubmarine Wing.
  On 17 December 2019, in response to increasing tensions with Iran, the unit was reactivated as the 378th Air Expeditionary Wing at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. The newly reactivated wing received its first combat aircraft shortly thereafter, when F-15E Strike Eagles from the  494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron arrived in early January 2020. The 494th would be replaced by F-16s from the Triple Nickel 555th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron in late February 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the originally planned March redeployment to Aviano Air Base was rescheduled to 20 April 2020.
  In addition to hosting the 494th EFS and 555th EFS for traditional CENTCOM deployments, the 378th AEW has also conducted "Agile Combat Employment" exercises with F-35A Lightning II, E-8C JSTARS and E-3 AWACS. The intent of these exercises (which are considerably shorter than a normal deployment) was to demostrate the Wing's ability to rapidy increase its number and variety of combat aircraft in the event tensions in the region were to escalate.
  On 16 May 2020, the Department of Defense confirmed that an undisclosed F-15C Eagle squadron, and USMC AV-8B Harriers from VMA-214 had replaced the Triple Nickel.  The USAF eventually revealed that the F-15C's belonged to the 44th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron.
  Harriers assigned to VMA-214 ended their deployment to Prince Sultan on 21 July 2020.
caption: USAF F-15C's from the 44th EFS fly in formation with Royal Saudi Air Force F-15SA's on 25 June 2020
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