Nicknamed the Night Stalkers and called Task Force Brown within the JSOC,[2] the 160th SOAR(A) is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

After a series of skills test qualifications, experience, leadership, and oral review boards lasting up to three years, the Night Stalker is designated Fully Mission Qualified (FMQ).

The OH-6 Cayuses, aircraft that had vanished from the division's regular inventory after Vietnam, were hidden on base in an ammunition holding area still known as the "SHOC Pad", for "Special Helicopter Operations Company".

[citation needed]) Originally created as Task Force 160 when the 101st Airborne Division was commanded by Jack V. Mackmull from June 1980 to August 1981.

In April 1988, two CH-47 Chinooks, a U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy, and 75 maintenance personnel and crew flew to White Sands AFB, New Mexico to rehearse the mission.

At midnight on 11 June 1988, two MH-47s flew 490 miles at night without outside navigational aids to the target location, the Ouadi Doum Airfield in northern Chad.

Five of the eighteen men killed (not counting a nineteenth post-operation casualty) in the Battle of Mogadishu were members of the Night Stalkers team, who were lost along with the two Black Hawks.

The pilots of the Chinooks, flying in zero-visibility conditions, were refueled in flight three times during the 11-hour mission, establishing a new world record for combat rotorcraft.

A second MH-47E, callsign Razor 01, responded to the shoot down with a Quick Reaction Force; it was damaged by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and crash-landed.

As the sites were eliminated the first heliborne SOF teams launched from H-5 airbase in Jordan, including vehicle-mounted patrols from the British and Australian special forces, who were transported by the MH-47Es of the 160th SOAR.

On 26 March, the 160th SOAR took part in the Objective Beaver mission, a raid by DEVGRU on a complex known as al Qadisiyah Research Centre that was suspected to have stocks of chemical and biological weapons.

Two MH-60K Black Hawks carrying a parajumper medical team and two MH-60L DAPs of the 160th SOAR responded and engaged the Iraqis, which allowed the Delta operators to move their two casualties to an emergency HLZ.

[21] On the evening of 13 December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces in Operation Red Dawn, he was exfiltrated by a MH-6 Little Bird from the 160th SOAR and he was taken into custody at Baghdad International Airport.

In Afghanistan in 2005: Eight Night Stalkers (four from HHC and four from Bravo company of 3rd Battalion[23]) were killed along with eight Navy SEALs on a rescue mission for Marcus Luttrell, after their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by an RPG (rocket propelled grenade).

[24] On 14 May 2006, helicopters from the 160th SOAR brought operators from Delta Force's B Squadron to Yusufiyah, Iraq, to fight al-Qaeda fighters in several buildings.

[25][26] In July 2006, a pair of MH-47Es from 160th SOAR attempted to insert a combined strike element of DEVGRU, Rangers, and Afghan commandos in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, to attack a compound.

The Ranger commander and an attached 2nd Commando Regiment operator organised an all-round defence while the other MH-47E held back the advancing insurgents until its miniguns ran out of ammunition.

[29] On 24 April 2008, Company D, 3rd Battalion, 160th SOAR was inactivated at a ceremony conducted at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, as part of a regimental transformation plan.

On 19 August 2009, four Night Stalkers from D Company, 1st Battalion, 160th SOAR lost their lives in a MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crash in Leadville, Colorado, during mountain and environmental training.

[31] On 9 September 2009 in Afghanistan, Night Stalkers inserted the British SBS and SFSG into Kunduz Province to rescue Times journalist Stephen Farrell after he and his Afghan interpreter were captured by the Taliban.

On 19 September 2009 in Somalia, the Night Stalkers took part in Operation Celestial Balance, whose target was a senior terrorist leader connected to al-Qaeda affiliated organizations.

AH-6Ms strafed the two-vehicle convoy, killing the leader along with three other al-Shabaab terrorists, then carried out an overwatch while DEVGRU cleared the vehicles and recovered the body.

[32] On 22 October 2009, a 3rd Battalion helicopter crashed into the USNS Arctic during a joint training exercise involving fast roping about 20 miles off Fort Story, Virginia.

[35] The operation involved flying covertly into Abbottabad, Pakistan in a pair of MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, specially modified for stealth and piloted by the 160th SOAR, to take a team of Navy SEALs directly to bin Laden's compound.

[42] The Washington Post reported that 160th SOAR took part in the Yakla raid in Yemen on 29 January 2017, distinguishing itself when its helicopters flew repeatedly into heavy enemy fire to support U.S. Navy SEALs pinned down on the ground.

[44] On 20 August 2018, CW3 Taylor Galvin died from injuries resulting from an MH-60M crash while conducting a partnered counter-terrorism mission in support of the Operation Inherent Resolve.