It was officially activated on 27 July 2009 as part of the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) program,[2] which purchased and operates three C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft that fly under the national markings of Hungary.

The Heavy Airlift Wing is currently commanded by a Colonel from the Swedish Air Force, and is composed of up to 155 military personnel from the 12 participating states; Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United States.

The SAC members have requested missions in order to meet their obligations to employ/deploy/redeploy forces and equipment in support of national, UN, EU, NATO obligations, exercises, training and humanitarian relief, including the International Security Assistance Force 2009–2014, and the Resolute Support Mission, 2015–2021 in Afghanistan.

The wing has also conducted missions to provide logistical support to the investigation of the 2014 Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash in Ukraine.

[3] The SAC sets requirements and the NAM PO executes those requirements by sourcing the majority of the technical, logistic, and training support to the C-17 fleet from the United States and its military and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programs, including C-17 maintenance which are contracted with Boeing.