337th Aeronautical Systems Group

rdf:langString 337th Aeronautical Systems Group

rdf:langString center|60px

rdf:langString 337th Aeronautical Systems Group

rdf:langString AF OUA

rdf:langString Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

rdf:langString Iraqi Air Force Cessna 172 Skyhawks at Kirkuk Air Base

rdf:langString Systems Development

rdf:langString The 337th Aeronautical Systems Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the Aeronautical Systems Center of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where it was inactivated in 2008. The group was first activated in 1942 at Morris Field, North Carolina as the 337th Fighter Group. During World War II it acted as a Replacement Training Unit for fighter pilots. The group was disbanded in 1944 in a major reorganization of Army Air Forces training units. The 337th was activated again in 1955, when it replaced the 503d Air Defense Group at Portland International Airport as part of Air Defense Command (ADC)'s Project Arrow, which was designed to revive fighter units that had served during World War II and replace ADC's post-war units. It provided air defense for the Pacific northwest until it was inactivated in 1966, earning two Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards. The commander at Portland had been Lt. Col. George W. White, who had previously been with the 503d Air Defense Group, and who died during his command at 43 years of age, in August 1957. In January 2005 the Training Aircraft Systems Group was activated as part of the Air Force Materiel Command Transformation, which replaced traditional procurement offices with wings, groups and squadrons. In May 2006 the two groups were consolidated and the consolidated unit named the 337th Aeronautical Systems Group. In 2008, the unit was inactivated and its squadrons reassigned to the 877th Aeronautical Systems Group.