The 609th
Information Warfare Squadron was formed in late 1995 under the auspices of
Air Combat Command,
USAF. It has since been disbanded, (official closure date summer 2000).
The IWS was part of the Ninth Air Force*, which is also the command unit for USCENTAF (United States Central Command Air Forces), which has responsibility for SWA. The IWS was located at Shaw AFB, SC.
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Much of the squadron's time was oriented around Computer Network Defense (CND)for the bases reporting to the Ninth Air Force and the bases in SWA reporting to CENTCOM. The intrusion detection system (IDS) used for this mission was a Wheelgroup NetRanger with StorageTek BorderGuard 2000.
In addition to CND, the unit also performed:
The mission of the IWS was later transferred to the 609th Information Warfare Flight, an AIA unit, while the global CND mission was transferred to USSPACECOM at Peterson AFB, CO.
*In Air Force naming nomenclature, a squadron numbered 6xx is a direct reporting unit to the unit designated by the xx. In this case, the squadron did not report to a wing, but was part of the Ninth Air Force's headquarters staff. Similarly, the 682nd ASUS worked for the 82nd Airborne