427th Special Operations Squadron
USAF Special Operations Unit
The 427th Special Operations Squadron is a specialized, covert unit of the United States Air Force. After reporter Andreas Parsch filed a Freedom of Information Act request, the Air Force told him the unit "support[s] training requirements ... for infiltration and exfiltration." That is, it prepares troops for secretly slipping into and out of dangerous territory. The squadron is not listed by the Air Force Historical Research Agency. It is reported by the press to be stationed at Pope Field, North Carolina.
The squadron was originally formed during World War II as the 427th Night Fighter Squadron. Its planned mission to defend United States Army Air Forces bases in the Soviet Union was cancelled when the Soviets did not allow the unit to be based in Ukraine SSR during the Operation Frantic shuttle bombing missions that took place in 1944. It later served in Italy, India, Southern China and Burma as a Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter interceptor squadron.
The squadron was reactivated during the Vietnam War to train Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots in using the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly in counterinsurgency operations. Its most recent activation may involve counterinsurgency and counter-terrorist operations as part of Air Force Special Operations Command.
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This entry incorporates text from “427th Special Operations Squadron” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.