The squadron was established at the Tel Nof base (Ekron), next to the flight school.

In Operation Kadesh, the squadron's planes gave the starting signal for war – four of the squadron's planes used their propellers to tear the Egyptian telephone cables in Sinai in order to sever the connection between the Egyptian army deployed in Sinai and its headquarters in Cairo.

The first squadron commander during the Mystère period was Rafi Har-Lev, and his deputies were Ran Packer and Aharon "Yello" Shavit.

During the war, the squadron made 269 operational sorties, 5 of its planes were shot down, two pilots were killed and one was captured.

In November 1967, two formations from the squadron went on a mission to attack Jordanian armor that bombed IDF positions around Beit Shan as part of the Umm Short incident.

David Nebo, the deputy commander of the squadron, was hit, he abandoned and was killed immediately upon reaching the ground.

In 2003, it received F-16 Fighting Falcon models A and B, "Hawk", and renamed it "Defenders of the South".

The closing of the squadron was the end of the operational era of the "Hawk" planes in the Air Force.