The 325th Fighter Wing was established on 10 May 1948 and activated on 9 June 1948. It conducted air defense of the U.S. west coast, 1948–1952 and 1956–1968. Beginning in spring 1949, the 325th conducted the All Weather Combat Crew Training School. During 1950, the wing also controlled a troop carrier squadron and from May 1950 to June 1951, provided training for elements of a troop carrier wing. On 6 February 1952 the Wing was inactivated and replaced by the
4704th Air Defense Wing, which assumed most of its operational role, while the
567th Air Base Group assumed its host base functions. An Air Defense Command program to reactivate historic units named "Project Arrow" resulted in the reactivation of the 325th Fighter Group (Air Defense) on 18 August 1955. The 325th group assumed the mission, personnel and equipment of the
567th Air Defense Group. The 325th served as the "host" unit at
McChord Air Force Base until October 1956. From February to July 1968, the wing operated an air defense detachment at
Osan Air Base, South Korea. The 325th was again inactivated in late 1968. The 325th Fighter Wing was activated on 18 October 1956 and was assigned the 325th group as a subordinate unit controlling its operational squadrons. On 22 October 1962, before President
John F. Kennedy told Americans that missiles were in place in Cuba, the wing dispersed a portion of its force, equipped with nuclear tipped missiles to
Paine Air Force Base at the start of the
Cuban Missile Crisis. These planes returned to McChord after the crisis. On 15 March 1963 two Soviet bombers overflew Alaska and
Alaskan Air Command F-102s were unable to intercept them. The response to this intrusion was to deploy ten F-106s from the wing to Alaska in what was called Operation White Shoes. However, maintaining these aircraft for an extended period of time put a strain on the wing's combat readiness back at McChord, and eventually a detachment of maintenance personnel was established to maintain the planes in Alaska. The wing got relief from this commitment while it was upgrading its F-106s from the
1st Fighter Wing, which relieved it from March to June 1964. Operation White Shoes terminated in 1965 and the unit's planes returned home. The wing was reactivated at
Tyndall Air Force Base in 1981 as the
325th Fighter Weapons Wing, providing the
Air Defense Weapons Center with operational and technical advice on air defense and tactics from 1981 to 1983. It also provided test and evaluation new air defense equipment, including use of the PQM-102 and QF-100, former operational aircraft modified to function as unmanned drones known as Full Scale Aerial Targets (FSAT). This FSAT mission would later transfer to what is now the
53rd Weapons Evaluation Group (53 WEG) of the
53rd Wing (53 WG).
F-15 Eagle In October 1983, the wing was renamed the
325th Tactical Training Wing and assumed a new mission of conducting qualification training of F-15 tactical aircrews. Beginning in 1983 it deployed T-33 and later, F-15 aircraft to USAF,
Air National Guard,
Marine Corps, and
Navy air units to provide
electronic countermeasures and dissimilar air combat training (DACT) and to increase aircrew combat proficiency. The wing also performed continental air defense alert duties from 1988 to 1990, intercepting unidentified aircraft, assisting the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration in anti-
smuggling efforts, and augmenting similarly tasked fighter units in the
Louisiana Air National Guard and
Florida Air National Guard. It became the host wing at Tyndall Air Force Base in September 1991 and was renamed the
325th Fighter Wing the following month.
F-22 Raptor In 1998, the 325th divested the F-15A/B Formal Training Unit mission, transferring it to the
173d Fighter Wing (173 FW) of the
Oregon Air National Guard. In 2003, the 325th added the 43d Fighter Squadron to conduct F-22 training in addition to the F-15C/D training mission. Until 2010, the 325 FW conducted both F-15C/D and F-22A training when the 173 FW fully assumed the F-15C/D FTU role for both the Regular Air Force and the Air National Guard. The 325th has conducted the Air Force's basic course and transition training for the F-22A since 2003, training pilots from the Regular Air Force, the
Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) and the
Air National Guard (ANG) in the aircraft. In October 2012, the wing was reassigned from
Air Education and Training Command (AETC) to
Air Combat Command (ACC), since it had added a combat coded F-22 squadron by reactivating the
95th Fighter Squadron (95 FS), formerly an F-15C squadron at Tyndall, in addition to its F-22 and T-38 training units. The 95 FS and other elements of the wing completed their first six-month long combat deployment with the Raptor in May 2015. In the wake of the devastating damage to Tyndall AFB by
Hurricane Michael in late 2018, F-22 and T-38 flight training operations were shifted to the former Strike Fighter Squadron 101 (
VFA-101) F-35C training facility recently vacated by the
U.S. Navy at
Eglin AFB, Florida. Concurrently, the combat-coded F-22A aircraft of the 95 FS were redistributed to other F-22 units in Virginia, Hawaii and Alaska and the squadron placed in cadre status.
F-35 Lightning II Following over two years of speculation, the Air Force announced in 2021 that 325th is set to be equipped with the
F-35A Lightning II, the USAF's newest combat fighter. The wing will host three F-35 squadrons, altogether making up 72 aircraft. The first tranche of F-35A aircraft are expected to begin arriving at Tyndall in September or October 2023. In August 2023, the 95th Fighter Generation Squadron recovered the first four 325 FW assigned aircraft. ==Lineage==