486th Flight Test Squadron

The 486th Flight Test Squadron is a secretive unit, with a somewhat misleading designation, assigned to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and which is associated with United States Department of State Foreign Emergency Support Team activities. The squadron motto is "Non semper ea sunt quae videntur" which translates as "Not always what they seem". It was apparently assigned to the 227th Special Operations Flight, later redesignated the 150th Special Operations Squadron, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, but is currently assigned to the 46th Test Wing at Eglin, and operates a pair of Boeing C-32B or Boeing 757-23A aircraft, on stand-by alert for special operations and intelligence missions world-wide. Official documents make it clear that operations fall under the aegis of Air Force Special Operations Command.

The 486th Flight Test Squadron was activated by 1995. One former employee describes it as a "classified unit" and "a selectively manned, one-of-a-kind unit." Very little is officially acknowledged about the classified missions of the 486th FLTS, which is, in fact, not a test unit at all, but a quick-reaction transportation operation utilized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Domestic Emergency Support Team, and the Foreign Emergency Support Team to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide. The aircraft may also be utilized in conjunction with the Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency. The P-1 Line Item Nomenclature on page 4-24 of the unclassified USAF Aircraft Procurement FY 2001 Amended Budget Request, Volume 1, dated February 2000, identifies these airframes as C-32B FEST/DEST Aircraft, and cites total procurement cost for one in FY 2000 as $73.000 million and $71.963 million for the second in FY 2002 for a total procurement cost $144.963 million.

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