On 4 January 1955, the Air Force bestowed upon the 9th Wing the honors of the inactive 9th Group, the operational headquarters unit before and during World War II.

Early that month, bombers and crews spanned the continent and the Atlantic Ocean for a 60-day temporary duty assignment to a REFLEX base in England to test the wing's mobility training concept.

In November 1955, the 9th Bomb Wing's B-47Es flew from MHAFB to New Zealand, a distance of 8,300 miles (13,400 km), nonstop with the aid of aerial refueling.

In the decade after World War II, the development of faster aircraft and missiles steadily reduced reaction time.

With the arrival of the missile age, SAC had to be ready to launch its armada of nuclear bombers within 15 minutes for a retaliatory strike.

Nicknamed FRESH APPROACH and designed to ensure a 15-minute response time, the new organization required extensive testing for practicality, mobility, and economy before command leaders were willing to discard the proven structure.

The change made it possible for the Air Force to launch an immediate retaliatory strike in response to nuclear attack on the United States.

For its meritorious service in testing and refining the reorganization, the 9th Bombardment Wing received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award.

On 8 November 1965, SAC and Tactical Air Command completed a transfer agreement assigning Mountain Home to TAC effective 1 January 1966.

On 1 January 1966 the 9th Strategic Aerospace Wing became a tenant unit and was declared non-operational It began final phase‑out at Mountain Home AFB.

This new and advanced aircraft would give SAC a reconnaissance capability that far exceeded any then available in terms of speed, altitude, and increased area coverage.

In December 1964, the Department of Defense announced that the 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing would activate at Beale Air Force Base, California on 1 January 1965 as the parent unit of the SR‑71.

To prepare Beale AFB for its new mission, contractors lengthened the runway, remodeled the former Air Defense Command Semi-Automatic Ground Environment building, and constructed several new facilities, including 337 additional housing units.

Until the end of the war in 1975, the 9th SRW gathered photographic and electronic intelligence data on the Southeast Asian nations involved in the conflict.

Rescuers used SR-71 photos of North Vietnam to plan the 1970 raid on the Son Tay prisoner-of-war camp to free American Prisoners of war.

A few days later, on 13 September, Captain Harold "Buck" Adams, with Major William Machorek as RSO, established another record, flying the 5,465 miles (8,795 km) from London to Los Angeles in three hours, 48 minutes.

The next day, Captain Eldon Joersz, with Major George T. Morgan as RSO, broke the YF-12A's record of 2,070 for the 15–25 kilometer straight course by flying 2,194 mph (3,531 km/h).

The consolidation of the 9th and 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wings provided SAC with the following composite organization: The U-2R, an improved version of the 1955 vintage U-2A, could spend more time "on-station" and cover longer distances without refueling than the SR-71.

The 9th SRW continued to evolve as the Air Force's first TR‑1 U-2 variant arrived at Beale AFB on 1 August 1981 and the first production model was assigned six weeks later.

An Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (7th oak leaf cluster) for 1 July 1981 to 30 June 1982 confirmed the excellence with which the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing performed its expanded mission.

Later, in October 1989, at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the wing flew U-2 photo missions over the San Francisco and Oakland areas after the strong Loma Prieta earthquake.

High maintainability and operating costs and the availability of similar intelligence from other sources convinced Air Force officials the aircraft was no longer vital to the national defense.

U‑2s tracked Iraqi troop and armor buildups, assessed bomb damage, and monitored a massive oil spill in the Persian Gulf.

When the ground war ended and most troops returned home, 9th Wing personnel and the U-2s remained in the region to help the United Nations verify Iraqi compliance with the terms of the cease‑fire agreement.

Carrying U-2 support people and equipment, the tankers allowed the wing to deploy immediately and begin flying reconnaissance missions over the region.

Then, when Serbia began the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanians in Kosovo, NATO responded with the bombing campaign Operation Allied Force.

President Bill Clinton exercised his line-item veto power at the time, however, and eliminated the Congressionally approved $39 million allocated to the SR-71 program in the fiscal year (FY) 1998 budget.

The wing also maintains a high state of readiness in its expeditionary combat support forces for potential deployment in response to theater contingencies.

The Sixteenth Air Force specialises in global intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, electronic warfare and information operations.

On the gold band are four black crosses representing four World War I offensives, Aisne-Marne, Champagne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, and St. Mihiel, in which squadrons later assigned to the 9th Wing fought.