[The Week] December, the Libyan air force inadvertently exposed a secretive U.S. Wolfhound transport plane on a runway. The passengers -- American commandos -- had arrived in the country for a covert meeting with the Libyan army. "While in Libya, members of a local militia demanded that the U.S. personnel depart," a Pentagon spokesperson told The Guardian after photos of the soldiers spread online. "In an effort to avoid conflict, they did leave, without incident."But the mission was only a glimpse at a fleet of transport planes with far greater reach -- and which stays far busier -- than previously thought. An official history of the U.S. Air Force's 27th Special Operations Wing in 2013 shows these aircraft and their cousins operate well beyond North Africa and the Middle East.
War Is Boring obtained the heavily redacted copy of the history through the Freedom of Information Act.
The historical review describes more than 10,000 secretive missions on five continents that year, including everything from shuttling around commandos to delivering humanitarian aid. All three types of aircraft carried civilian style paint schemes -- generally white with various colored stripes -- and registration codes to help conceal their true identities.
At that time, the wing's 318th Special Operations Squadron was flying a combination of small, single engine PC-12 utility planes and slightly larger twin-engine C-145A Skytruck cargo haulers. The 524th Special Operations Squadron owned all of the flying branch's Wolfhounds -- as it does to this day.
For decades now, the Air Force has flown secretive missions around in the world in unmarked aircraft. Since at least the 1990s, the super secret 427th Special Operations Squadron has maintained a collection of similarly discreet aircraft.