The 606th Air Control Squadron deployed to six locations in Southwest Asia to provide command and control of aircraft in the fight against ISIS as well as continued operations in Afghanistan. The squadron departed Spangdahlem AB, Germany, in early April and will remain in Southwest Asia for the next several months to control the 480th Fighter Squadron, the NATO E-3 AWACS, and other visiting aircraft for both Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, according to a Spangdahlem release. The squadron, which is made up of personnel in about 21 Air Force specialties, is slated to leave Spangdahlem and relocate to Aviano AB, Italy, as part of the European Infrastructure Consolidation, and then deploy again in 2017, 606th ACS Commander Lt. Col. Aaron Gibney said in the release.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.