44th Missile Wing
| 44th Missile Wing | |
|---|---|
LGM-30F Minuteman II test launch at Vandenberg AFB, California | |
| Active | 1950–1960; 1962–1994 |
| Country | United States} |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Type | Wing |
| Role | Intercontinental ballistic missile |
| Motto | Aggressor Beware |
| Decorations | Air Force Outstanding Unit Award |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Howell M. Estes II |
| Insignia | |
| 44th Missile Wing emblem | |
| Patch with 44th Bombardment Wing emblem | |
The 44th Missile Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Twentieth Air Force, at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, where it was inactivated on 4 July 1994.
For over 40 years the 44th was a front-line Strategic Air Command wing, initially as a Boeing B-47 Stratojet medium bomber unit in the 1950s. With the phaseout of the B-47, the wing became a LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile unit in the 1960s, being inactivated in 1994 as part of the drawdown of U.S. strategic forces after the end of the Cold War.