116th Air Control Wing Deploys to Libya

 The Georgia Air National Guard 116th Air Control Wing, which is out of Robins Air Force Base, left this week to help stabilize the turmoil in Libya.

The unit will support Operation Odyssey Dawn by enforcing the no fly zone in Libya. The 116th operates the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft – or Joint STARS. It is used primarily to track enemy ground targets preparing for combat or moving across a battlefield.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Grabowski, the unit has been continuously on mission for more than 3,400 days. He says, “There’s been a Joint-STARS continuously in the air over Afghanistan, Iraq, and now we are supporting Libya for almost 8 years.”

Grabowski could not release the number of airman deployed, the location of the unit, or how long the 116th Air Control Wing will be deployed.