22d Air Defense Missile Squadron


The 22d Air Defense Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 20th Air Division of Aerospace Defense Command, stationed near Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, where it was inactivated on 31 October 1972. The squadron was activated in 1959 and equipped with BOMARC missiles for the air defense of the area near its base.

History

The squadron was activated at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia on 1 September 1959 as the 22d Air Defense Missile Squadron and stood alert during the Cold War, equipped with IM-99 BOMARC surface to air antiaircraft missiles. The squadron was tied into the Washington Semi-Automatic Ground Environment direction center which used analog computers to process information from ground radars, picket ships and airborne aircraft to accelerate the display of tracking data at the direction center to quickly direct the missile battery to engage hostile aircraft. The 22d was inactivated on 31 October 1972.
The BOMARC missile site was located west-northwest of Langley at. Although geographically separated from the base, it received administrative and logistical support from Langley.

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