A group of visitors stood on the 3rd SOPS operations floor as 1st Lt. Jen Phifer, NATO IV and Skynet 4 Chief of Engineering and satellite vehicle operator, and Airman 1st Class Jose Bernal, satellite system operator, conducted the last support of the communications satellites.

After the data was entered into the computer, Lt. Col. Keith Hinson, 3rd SOPS Commander, sent the last command to the British operators on the other end of the phone.

"Thank you very much for your support," he said. "Hawk is out for the final time."

The United States assumed hot back-up control of the communications satellites in 1990 when the British needed help operating the system.

"When the chips were down, we knew who to turn to," said British Royal Navy Commander Daniel Ferris, Military International Business Manager.

"In the greatest act of trust one nation can bestow upon another, the United Kingdom leadership handed out NATO [and] Skynet engineers and satellite vehicle operators the keys to their constellation and said, 'it's all yours. Keep the business end pointing at the big blue rock and we'll see you in a month. Cheers,' " said Colonel Hinson.

And that they did; the squadron kept the business end of the satellites pointing toward Earth as they took on the NATO and Skynet hot back-up responsibilities. Although the 3rd SOPS had the responsibilities for four years, the partnership grew between the two countries during a 14-year period. The British visited their U.S. counterparts five different times.

To allow the British to conduct maintenance on their facilities as well as critical installations of databases and computers, they would shut down their operations in Royal Air Force Station Oakhanger, England. During their shut-down time periods, U.S. allies would conduct all satellite communications. The last one was called Oakout 2003.

During the 23-day period of Oakout 2003, 3rd SOPS increased their operations tempo by 640 percent. They sent more than 10,100 satellite operations commands with 4,200 satellite supports. They experienced 15 satellite anomalies with zero errors. They were successful in conducting operations from three different operations centers and achieved a 99.9 percent success rate.

"I am continually impressed by the innovation and skill with which these coalition operators have piloted seven international satellites," said Colonel Hinson. "The constellation today is far more capable and far more complex than the one 15 years ago, but our coalition team makes the command and control look easy."

While the U.S. role has ended, multi-national satellite communications will continue to be provided by the efforts of the British allies.

As 3rd SOPS says goodbye to one mission, they now prepare for the next generation of space communications weapon systems, the Wideband Gapfiller System. WGS is a high-capacity satellite communications system designed to support the warfighter with newer and far greater capabilities than those provided by current systems, yet it is compatible with existing control systems and terminals.

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