The 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing at Langley AFB, Va., in early June inactivated three of its detachments and, in their place, activated three intelligence support squadrons. The new units are the 792nd ISS at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, 693rd ISS at Ramstein AB, Germany, and the 694th ISS at Osan AB, South Korea. They provide communication, computer, maintenance, and logistics support to the Air Force’s distributed common ground system, a network of worldwide hubs that processes, analyzes, and disseminates imagery and signals intelligence products to warfighters. The squadrons’ activation standardizes DCGS operations under the wing, Langley officials said. This move is part of the broader, continuing transformation of the Air Force’s intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance enterprise. (Langley report by Marge McGlinn) (For more on DCGS and the ISR transformation, see ISR Revolution from the June issue of Air Force Magazine.)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…