AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

OPERATION ALLIED FORCE
31st Expeditionary Wing

The 7490th Provisional Wing (PW) activated at Aviano Air Base, Italy, June 30, 1995, bringing the various aircraft and personnel deployed in support of Operation Deny Flight and as of Dec. 21, 1995, Operation Decisive Edge under a single chain of command.
The 7490th was changed to the 4190th Provisional Wing January 1,1996.
The provisional wing is administratively separate from the 31st Fighter Wing with its own budget and NATO chain of command.
The 31st FW Commander, Brig. Gen. Charles F. Wald; and the 31st Operations Group Commander, Col. Philip J. Frazee, are dual-hatted as wing commander and operations group commander of the 4190th PW.
With the creation of the "composite" wing, all Decisive Edge aircraft now fall under a single umbrella at Aviano.
Previously, the Combined Air Operation Center (CAOC) in Vicenza, Italy, would call each deployed squadron individually to assign missions. Now the CAOC has a single point of contact for all the aircraft at Aviano. The provisional wing, has a 24-hour wing operations cell in the command post and the intelligence areas that act as the command and control element for all Decisive Edge operations at Aviano AB. Of the F16s assigned to the 31st FW, only the 12 supporting the operation at any given time will fall under the 4190th PW. The rest remain part of the 31st FW. (update July 1997)

In the picture: a Lockheed-Martin F-16CJ Night Falcon of the USAF 20th Fighter Wing , one of the units assigned to the 31st Expeditionary Wing of Aviano for operation Allied Force.

(Aeromedia, May 1999)

Aviano Air Base
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Operation Allied Force