It was first activated in the expansion of the United States military forces prior to World War II as the 15th Pursuit Squadron.

It was redesignated the 15th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and served in the air defense of the United States from 1953 until inactivated in 1964, flying a series of more capable interceptor aircraft.

In 1967, it was redesignated the 15th Tactical Fighter Squadron and served for a year training McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II pilots, mainly for the Vietnam War.

Redesignated the 15th Test Flight, the unit was reactivated in 2016 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

In 1957 it began re-equipping with the F-86L, an improved version of the F-86D which incorporated the Semi Automatic Ground Environment, or SAGE computer-controlled direction system for intercepts.

The service of the F-86L destined to be quite brief, since by the time the last F-86L conversion was delivered, the type was already being phased out in favor of supersonic interceptors.

In the early 1960s, the Air Force implemented Project Clearwater, an initiative to withdraw Convair F-102 Delta Daggers from overseas bases in order to reduce "gold flow" (negative foreign currency transactions).