The 480th Intelligence Wing at Langley AFB, Va., earlier this month formally added three intelligence groups as part of the Air Force’s ongoing transformation of its intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance organizations. The wing, which itself earlier this year transferred from the oversight of Air Combat Command to the Air Force ISR Agency at Lackland, AFB, Tex., welcomed the 692nd Intelligence Group, Hickam AFB, Hawaii, the 693rd IG, Ramstein AB, Germany, and the 694th IG, Osan AB, Korea, the service said in a statement. Realignment ceremonies take place between July 15 and 23. The three groups join the two units already under the 480th IW: the 548th IG, Beale AFB, Calif., and the 497th IG at Langley. These changes are intended to align the service’s distributed common ground system as a global ISR weapons system, streamline command chains, and provide a single leadership focal point.
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…