The squadron performs field testing for Air Force Special Operations Command, evaluating aircraft, equipment, and tactics in realistic battlespace environments to provide decision-makers with accurate, timely, and complete assessments of mission capability.

From concept development to system fielding, the unit's mission improves the survivability and combat capability of special operations forces worldwide.

In late 1943, it began training for overseas deployment and entered combat in the European Theater of Operations in 1944, participating in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany.

The squadron evaluates aircraft, equipment and tactics in realistic battlespace environments to provide decision makers accurate, timely and complete assessments of mission capability.

From concept development to system fielding, the unit's mission improves the survivability and combat capability of special operations forces worldwide.

[3][5] After the Pearl Harbor attack the squadron began antisubmarine patrols off the Northeast coast of the United States, but soon became part of Western Defense Command and moved to Pendleton Field, Oregon.

[5][8] The squadron helped to prepare for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, by bombing airfields in France and Germany, and supported the June landings by attacking coastal defenses and communications.

It supported ground forces at Saint-Lô in late July and struck V-1 flying bomb launch sites, gun emplacements, and supply lines throughout the summer of 1944.

Targets included marshaling yards in Ludwigshafen, Hamm, Osnabrück, and Darmstadt; oil centers in Bielefeld, Merseburg, Hamburg, and Misburg; factories in Berlin, Dalteln, and Hanover; and airfields in Münster, Neumünster, and Frankfurt.

[8] After V-E Day the squadron flew missions carrying food to flooded areas of the Netherlands and transported prisoners of war from German camps to Allied centers.

It provided AFSOC with the centralized expertise for development and operational testing of new systems and tactics, proposed changes in doctrine, and recommended new requirements.

On 1 April 1994, it was inactivated and its assets, personnel, and equipment were "reflagged" as the 18th Flight Test Squadron, also a direct reporting unit to AFSOC.