The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center is the Air Force's Center of excellence for Expeditionary Agile Combat Support, advanced Rapid Global Mobility training, and education in Expeditionary Operations. The USAF Expeditionary Center provides direct oversight of the Global Air Mobility Support System, Joint Base installation support, world-wide contingency response, and builds partnership capacity mission sets within the global mobility enterprise. Located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., the center provides administrative control for five wings and two groups within Air Mobility Command, to include the 87th Air Base Wing and the 621st Contingency Response Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst; the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing at Ramstein AB, Germany; the 628th Air Base Wing at Joint Base Charleston, S.C.; the 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group at Pope Field, N.C.; and 627th Air Base Group at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
The Expeditionary Operations School at the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center offers 92 in-residence courses and 19 web-based training courses, graduating more than 40,000 students annually. Courses include the Air Force Phoenix Raven Training, Advanced Study of Air Mobility, Aerial Port Operations Course and more.
Both the 87th Air Base Wing and the 628th Air Base Wing are Air Force lead organizations on joint bases that host AMC flying units, along with other Department of Defense partners. The 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group and 627th Air Base Group enjoy unique partnerships with the U.S. Army.
The 515th and 521st AMOWs, along with the 621st CRW, are responsible for en route and combat support, contingency response and building partnership capacity mission sets around the globe.
The Expeditionary Center traces its lineage back to Scott AFB, Ill. when it was constituted there as the Military Airlift Command Airlift Operations School on July 5, 1978. It was later renamed as the USAF Air Mobility School during the major USAF reorganization that occurred on June 1, 1992. It later gained establishment status at Scott AFB and became Headquarters, USAF Air Mobility School on July 15, 1993.
On October 1, 1994, the unit was renamed and then relocated to Fort Dix, N.J. and opened as the Air Mobility Warfare Center. There, the center operated the Phoenix Ace Combat Readiness Exercise and Evaluation Course, Mobile Air Tactics School, Force Support and Readiness Course, Maintenance Training Qualification Program Course, Air Transport Manager Course, Director of Mobility Forces Course, Environmental Control Unit Course, Intermediate Wartime Contingencies Course, Cargo Operations and Systems Course, Passenger Operations and Systems Course, Command and Control Information Processing Systems Course.
The center, which was officially renamed the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center on March 4, 2007, is the Air Force's leader in Rapid Global Mobility and expeditionary Agile Combat Support training, and on January 7, 2011, the center expanded in scope, taking added responsibility for evolving AMC mission sets.
Today the Expeditionary Center is a national level acceleration force, capable of projecting hard and soft power at any time by delivering "Airpower...from the ground up!"