550th Guided Missiles Wing

550th Guided Missiles Wing
B-61 Matador surface-to-surface cruise missile
Active	1949–1950
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force

The 550th Guided Missiles Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Air Proving Ground, stationed at Patrick AFB, Florida. It was inactivated on 30 December 1950.

Established as an expansion of the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group (1st EGMG), the 550th Guided Missiles Wing was a short-lived unit of the Air Proving Ground command at Eglin AFB, Florida. Its mission was the supervision and evaluation of guided missile service tests as opposed to pure experimentation of its predecessor unit.

As part of the 550th GMW, the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Squadron was inactivated; its personnel and equipment reorganized as follows:

The wing also consisted of a Headquarters squadron and a maintenance and supply squadron.

Like its predecessor, the 550th Guided Missiles Wing had detachments in tenant status at Holloman Air Force Base and the Navy's Guided Missile Test Center at Point Mugu. While the Holloman detachment continued to assist the Glenn L. Martin Company with developmental testing of the MX-771 Matador (i.e., it witnessed test firings and reported on the results), the Point Mugu detachment completed its Navy Convair Lark missile training and moved to the Joint Long Range Proving Ground in early January 1950

On 1 July 1950, the 3d Guided Missiles Squadron (GMS) was activated at the Long Range Proving Ground (later Patrick) Air Force Base, on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. Its mission was to support the Aerodynamic missiles being developed by the Long Range Proving Ground Division. The squadron launched three US Navy LARK surface-to-air missiles at Cape Canaveral in October and November 1950.

The 550th Guided Missiles Wing also continued its predecessor's support of the Atomic Energy Commission atomic bomb testing program. However, during the Wing's brief existence, no tests were scheduled.

By January 1950, the Air Proving Ground decided the QB/DB-17 drone mission needed to be separated from the Missile Testing mission. It recommended the establishment of a separate and permanent drone squadron. Drone support personnel from the 2d Guided Missiles Squadron were subsequently transferred to a new unit, the 3201st Air Base Support Squadron, which was placed under the 3201st Air Base Group at Eglin. While the 3201st Air Base Support Squadron remained under the 550th for administrative purposes, its operations were essentially divorced from the 550th's missile activities when the 3200th moved to Auxiliary Field #3. In June 1951, the 3201st ABSS was upgraded to a group level, the 3200th Drone Group.