It serves as a training unit for countries using the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Naval Air Station (NAS) Keflavík, strategically located on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) base in the southwest corner of Iceland.

The group trains pilots from other nations on Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft under the Foreign Military Sales program.

[1][9] It converted to Douglas A-24 Banshee dive bombers in August 1942 and was reassigned to Fourth Air Force in California, taking part in training maneuvers at the Desert Training Center with Army ground units programmed for the Operation Torch landings in North Africa.

[1] The 85th returned to Third Air Force in Louisiana and re-equipped with North American A-36 Apache attack aircraft in early 1943, moving briefly to Kentucky for maneuvers.

[1] The group then moved to Georgia with Curtiss P-40 Warhawk single-engine fighter aircraft in early 1944 as a Replacement Training Unit (RTU) for fighter-bomber pilots.

[13] This reorganization occurred because the AAF found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving less well adapted to the mission.

[15] Fighters assigned to the unit routinely intercepted Soviet Union aircraft flying in the Iceland area.

[15] It assumed the operational management of fighter and tanker aircraft deployed to Iceland to protect the nation's airspace.

Detachment 1 had been established in 2023, when Ebbing was selected as the site for Foreign Military Sales associated training on the F-35 Lightning II and F-16 Fighting Falcon.