| Unit Name: | 557th Weather Wing |
| Dates: | 13 April 1943 – present |
| Role: | Weather observation, reporting and analysis |
| Command Structure: | Air Combat Command |
| Garrison: | Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska |
| Motto: | la|Coelum Ad Proelium Elige|Choose the Weather for Battle[1] |
| Decorations: | Air Force Organizational Excellence Award |
| Commander1: | Col. Bradley J. Stebbins[2] |
| Identification Symbol Label: | 557th Weather Wing emblem[3] |
The 557th Weather Wing is a United States Air Force formation and its lead military meteorology center. It reports environmental situational awareness worldwide to the Air Force, the United States Army, joint warfighters, Unified Combatant Commands, the national intelligence community, and the Secretary of Defense. It is headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, in Bellevue, Nebraska.
The wing and subordinate weather squadrons collect, analyze, and generate a comprehensive weather database of forecast, climatological, and space weather products.
The wing's task is to provide weather information to American military forces anytime. It has over 1,800 active-duty, reserve, civilian and contract personnel and is headquartered on Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, with a $175 million annual budget. Weather forecasts are produced using numerical weather prediction software, such as the Weather Research and Forecasting model and the Unified Model.[3] [4] [5]
The 557th Weather Wing is organized into a headquarters element consisting of staff agencies, two groups, three directorates, and five solar observatories.
The 1st Weather Group, with headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, aligns stateside weather operations with the Air Force war-fighting initiative overseeing Operational Weather Squadrons. Each of the squadrons produces forecasts for a specified area of the United States. The 15th Operational Weather Squadron, at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, handles the Northern and Northeast United States; 25th Operational Weather Squadron, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, handles the Western United States; and 26th Operational Weather Squadron, at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, handles the Southern United States. The squadrons also train enlisted and officers.
The 2nd Weather Group, with headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, delivers terrestrial, space and climatological global weather information to Joint combatants, Department of Defense (DoD) decision-makers, national agencies, and allied nations for the planning and execution of missions across the complete spectrum of military operations through the operation, sustainment and maintenance of Air Force Weather's US$277 million strategic center computer complex, production network, and applications. The group is composed of the 2nd Weather Squadron, 2nd Systems Operations Squadron, the 2nd Weather Support Squadron, the 16th Weather Squadron, the 2nd Combat Weather Systems Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida, and the 14th Weather Squadron in Asheville, North Carolina. It also includes four solar observatories staffed by detachments of the 2nd Weather Squadron: Det. 1, Learmonth, Australia; Det. 2, Sagamore Hill, Massachusetts; Det. 4, Holloman AFB, New Mexico; and Det. 5, Palehua, Hawaii.
The Operations, Training and Evaluation Directorate (A3) delivers technical training for the career field, oversees the development of career field training plans and computer-based tutorials on new equipment, is constructing the first formal AFWWS Technical Training Program, and coordinates standardization and evaluation visits of wing units.
The Communications Directorate (A6) provides overall direction for the development of doctrine, policies and procedures, as well as professional, technical, and managerial expertise, for communication and information systems, information assurance, and information management for wing. They also provide communication and information policy, guidance, management, operations, software development, and maintenance of communications and computer systems and services to satisfy the centralized weather support requirements of the DoD and other government agencies. Directs the planning, programming, budgeting, acquisition, and life cycle management for all standard weather systems and computer processing equipment.
The Strategic Plans, Requirements and Programs Directorate (A5/A8) directs the planning, programming, budgeting, acquisition, and life cycle management for all standard weather systems and computer processing equipment. Equipping the weather force is mainly a function of the A8 directorate. They coordinate capabilities development conducted by three separate production centers and integrate them into a single Air Force Weather Weapon System.
The Lt. Gen. Thomas Samuel Moorman Building, valued at US$26.7 million, is the headquarters for the 557th Wing, with 188000-2NaN-2. The three-story building, designed to support 1,100 people, and was scheduled to become fully operational by 2011 as the staff moved in increments.
Unless otherwise indicated, units are based at Offut AFB, Nebraska, and subordinate units are at the same location as their commanding group.[6] [7]
2nd Weather Group
The 557th Weather Wing can trace its heritage to the organization of the Meteorological Service of the United States Army Signal Corps, which was established during World War I. By 1937, the Army was supplementing the weather services of the United States Weather Bureau by operating thirty weather stations of its own in the United States and six more overseas. Because most of the Army stations were operated for the benefit of the Air Corps, on 1 July 1937, the Secretary of War transferred responsibility for Army weather services to the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps.[4] This responsibility was given to the Weather Section, Office Chief of Air Corps, which was replaced by the Weather Section, Training & Operations Div, Air Corps on 20 June 41; the Director of Weather, Directorate of Technical Services, Operations Staff, Army Air Forces on 9 Mar 42; the Weather Unit, Assistant Chief Air Staff, Operations Commitments & Requirements (renamed the Weather Division, Assistant Chief Air Staff, Operations Commitments & Requirements on 9 March 1942.
Within the United States, the 1st, 2d, and 3d Weather Squadrons were organized. Each handled a region that was congruent with the area of responsibility of one of the three wings assigned to General Headquarters Air Force.[8]
On 24 July 1942, supervision of Army weather activities within the United States was centralized in the Army Air Forces Weather Service, headed by the Director of Weather on the Air Staff. However, in 1943 the AAF reorganized to move as many operations out of Washington, D.C., as possible, and responsibility for the AAF Weather Service was transferred to Flight Control Command, which organized and activated the Weather Wing, Flight Control Command to manage this responsibility. This wing is the direct organizational ancestor of the 557th Weather Wing. By 3 May 1943, Flight Control Command had moved the headquarters of the Weather Wing to Asheville, North Carolina. Although responsibility for the AAF Weather Service was returned to the Air Staff in July, the wing remained in North Carolina. Although the AAF Weather Wing commanded weather activities in the United States, it had no authority over those in overseas theaters of operations. It influenced those units, however, by establishing procedures and standards for them to follow and by defining weather equipment requirements for the Signal Corps and operationally testing the equipment.[3] [9]
In July 1945, after the defeat of Germany, but while the war with Japan was still in progress, the AAF Weather Service and the AAF Weather Wing were combined and the wing was redesignated AAF Weather Service. This reorganization followed the successful examples of Air Transport Command (ATC) and Army Airways Communications System, concentrating responsibility in a single service with operational control of units providing the service. Action transferred overseas weather units to the command of the new service.[10] On 7 January 1946, the service moved to Langley Field, Virginia.[3]
In early 1946, the AAF determined to place its technical services under the command of ATC. On 13 March 1946, AAF Weather Service was redesignated Air Weather Service and along with Air Communications Service, Air Rescue Service. and Air Pictorial Service, assigned to ATC Soon afterwards it moved to Gravelly Point, Virginia, where it was collocated with ATC headquarters.[3]
During the war, the AAF had developed weather reconnaissance units for scouting and route weather observation and reporting, but these units remained under the command of theater commanders or ATC.[11] Once Air Weather Service became part of ATC, the time was ripe to place a weather reconnaissance unit under its command. In July 1946, it established the Air Weather Group (Provisional) at Morrison Field, Florida. In October, this group was taken out of provisional status and became the 308th Reconnaissance Group, Weather.
With the formation of the United States Air Force in 1947, Air Weather Service assumed the responsibility of worldwide weather reporting and forecasting for both the Air Force and the Army. In 1948, Air Weather Service moved to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, and was assigned to the newly activated Military Air Transport Service, which was later redesignated Military Airlift Command. Air Weather Service moved to Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, in 1958, where it remained for nearly four decades.
Air Force Weather, organized as the Air Weather Service from 1947 to 1993, continued to provide environmental awareness for both the Air Force and the Army. By 1991, Air Weather Service had divested itself of its major field structure and the bulk of Air Force Weather was realigned under the direct administration of the supported commands.
Air Force Weather Agency and its predecessors have been essentially instrumental in protecting life and property at home as well. Since World War II, Air Force weather personnel have provided hurricane reconnaissance. In 1948, two Air Force weather officers issued the first tornado warning. Air Force Weather participated in the nation's development's severe storm forecasting centers.
With its early adoption of emerging computing and communications technologies, Air Force Weather was at the fore of the Space Age. In the 1960s, Air Force Weather began assimilating weather data collected from meteorological satellites. Air Force Weather, as the single agent for all the DoD, began solar observations and forecasting.
Air Force Weather endorsed the Information Revolution early in the 1980s with tools that provided state-of-the art computing at the lowest echelons to gather, process, and disseminate weather data. In concert with Air Force communicators, Air Force Weather constructed communications networks that enabled weather information to be disseminated around the world in moments. Today, the Air Force Weather Agency, through its Weather Product Management and Distribution System at Offutt AFB, employs the internet to rapidly disseminate weather data around the globe.
Working with the other national agencies, Air Force Weather has been instrumental in the development of modern meteorological technologies, such as the deployment of NEXRAD, the Next Generation Radar, in the 1990s. Air Force Weather continues to refine and develop forecasting models relevant for modern military operations.
In April 1991, the Office of the Director of Weather was created on the Air Staff to provide policy and guidance for Air Force Weather.
The Air Force designated Air Weather Service a field operating agency and reassigned it to Headquarters United States Air Force in 1993. On 15 Oct. 1997, Air Weather Service was redesignated the Air Force Weather Agency and moved to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
On 27 March 2015, the Air Force Weather Agency was redesignated as the 557th Weather Wing and was aligned under the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command, Twelfth Air Force.
On 29 October 2019, the 557th Weather Wing was transferred to the USAF Air Combat Command's Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber).
Redesignated Army Air Forces Weather Wing on 6 July 1943
Redesignated Army Air Forces Weather Service on 1 July 1945
Redesignated Air Weather Service on 13 March 1946
Redesignated Air Force Weather Agency on 15 October 1997
Redesignated 557th Weather Wing 27 March 2015[1]