View source for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers

{{short description|Heavy construction units of the United States Air Force}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox military unit
|unit_name= RED HORSE
|image= US Air Force RED HORSE Emblem.png
|caption= RED HORSE emblem
|dates= 1965-present
|country= {{flag|United States}}
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|branch= [[File:Military service mark of the United States Air Force.svg|25px]] [[United States Air Force]]
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|role= [[Combat Engineering]]
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|identification_symbol=[[File:US Air Force Red Horse Red Ball Cap.jpg|150px|center]]
|identification_symbol_label=Red ball cap worn by RED HORSE units with RED HORSE emblem imprinted with the unit's designation on the dozer blade
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[[File:New Horizons construction progress on schedule 140409-F-EE220-055.jpg|thumb|250px|An airman with the 820th RED HORSE Squadron ensures a block is level at a high school construction site in [[Belize]], 2014]]
[[File:US Navy Seabees and US Air Force RED HORSE engineers build a school in Papua New Guinea during Pacific Partnership 150703-N-UQ938-019.jpg|thumb|250px|A RED HORSE airman (left) and a Seabee construct building frames at a primary school as part of a joint military construction team supporting Pacific Partnership 2015]]
[[File:820th Red Horse Squadron Airborne Operations.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=00:00:05|250px|Air Force [[paratrooper]]s with the 820th Red Horse Squadron, Airborne Flight conduct airborne insertion training at [[Nellis Air Force Base]], [[Nevada]], 2012]]
[[File:820th Red Horse Squadron 140623-F-IJ798-116.jpg|thumb|250px|Heavy equipment operators from the 820th RED HORSE Squadron operate vibratory rollers to compact material under the runway at Seguin Auxiliary Airfield, [[Joint Base San Antonio]], [[Texas]], 2014]]
'''Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer''' (RED HORSE) squadrons are the [[United States Air Force]]'s heavy-construction units.  Their combat engineering capabilities are similar to those of the [[U.S. Navy]] [[Seabees]] and [[U.S. Army]] heavy-construction organizations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afcesa.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8760 |title=Factsheets : RED HORSE history |publisher=Afcesa.af.mil |access-date=2011-01-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830210837/http://www.afcesa.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8760 |archive-date=30 August 2010 }}</ref>

==About==
During the [[Vietnam War]], [[Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force|Air Force "Prime BEEF"]] ("PRIMary Base Engineer Emergency Force") teams filled a need for short-term construction capabilities. However, the Air Force needed a stable and longer-term heavy-repair capability. The response was to organize two, 400-man (12 officers and 388 airmen) heavy-repair squadrons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redhorsehistory.com/history.php?article=vietnam |title=REDHORSE and PRIME BEEF History |work=redhorsehistory.com |year=2012 |access-date=17 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426091115/http://www.redhorsehistory.com/history.php?article=vietnam |archive-date=26 April 2012 }}</ref> RED HORSE units activated in 1966 when Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]] asked the Air Force to develop its own combat construction team.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/a/airbornerh.htm |title=Airborne RED HORSE (Combat Engineers) |work=about.com |date=11 April 2011 |access-date=17 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120417085816/http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/a/airbornerh.htm |archive-date=17 April 2012 }}</ref>

RED HORSE squadrons provide the Air Force with a highly mobile civil engineering response force to support contingency and special operations worldwide. Units are self-sufficient, 404-person mobile squadrons, capable of rapid response and independent operations in remote, high-threat environments worldwide. They provide heavy-repair capability and construction support when requirements exceed normal base civil engineer (Prime BEEF) capabilities and where U.S. Army engineer support is not readily available.

RED HORSE units possess personal and crew-served weapons, vehicles, equipment and vehicle maintenance, food service, emergency management (to include [[CBRN defense|CBRN passive defense]] and Counter-[[Weapon of mass destruction|WMD]] operations), comptroller, contracting, supply and medical equipment and personnel.

RED HORSE's major wartime responsibility is to provide a highly mobile, rapidly deployable, civil engineering response force that is self-sufficient to perform heavy damage repair required for recovery of critical Air Force facilities and utility systems, and aircraft launch and recovery. In addition, it accomplishes engineer support for beddown of weapon systems required to initiate and sustain operations in an austere bare-base environment, including remote hostile locations, or locations in a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) -prone environment.{{fact|date=January 2024}}

The primary RED HORSE tasking in peacetime is to train for contingency and wartime operations. It participates regularly in Joint Chiefs of Staff and major command exercises, [[military operations other than war]], and [[civic action program]]s. RED HORSE performs training projects that assist base construction efforts while, at the same time, honing wartime skills.  Air Force RED HORSE units possess special capabilities, such as water-well drilling, explosive demolition, aircraft arresting system installation, quarry operations, concrete mobile operations, material testing, expedient facility erection, and concrete and asphalt paving.{{fact|date=January 2024}}

To support the "Open the Airbase" mission, RED HORSE added an Airborne capability in 2003. With this capability, RED HORSE can rapidly deliver small specialized teams and equipment packages by airdrop or air insertion to conduct expedient airfield repairs. Initially, the only RED HORSE unit to have air-inserted troops was the 823rd RED HORSE, in April 2003 at Baghdad International Airport, however, the 554th established an Airborne capability known as the 554th RHS Assault, Assessment, and Repair Operations (AARO, pronounced "arrow") team to provide an Airborne-inserted rapid airfield seizure and repair capability for the Pacific theater.<ref name="Airborne RED HORSE">{{cite web |url=http://www.redhorseassociation.org/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=1990.0 |title=Print Page - Airborne RED HORSE |access-date=2013-02-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311085612/http://redhorseassociation.org/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=1990.0 |archive-date=2016-03-11 }}</ref>

==Units==
There are four active-duty, 4 [[Air Force Reserve Command]], and five [[Air National Guard]] RED HORSE squadrons:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afcesa.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=19585 |title=Factsheets : United States Air Force RED HORSE Squadrons |work=Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency |year=2012 |access-date=17 June 2012 }}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
*554th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Andersen Air Force Base]], [[Guam]]
*[[819th RED HORSE squadron|819th RED HORSE Squadron]], [[Malmstrom Air Force Base]], [[Montana]]
*820th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Nellis Air Force Base]], [[Nevada]]
*823rd RED HORSE Squadron, [[Hurlburt Field]], [[Florida]]
**Detachment 1, [[Tyndall AFB]], [[Florida]] Also known as the Silver Flag Exercise Site.  The squadron's 84-person cadre provides contingency combat support training to Active Duty, Air Force Reserve Command, Air National Guard, Active Component and Reserve Component Army, Marine Corps, and Navy, and allied nations mission support group personnel. More than 6,000 people are trained each year at the site.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tyndall.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id%3D4888 |title=Factsheets : 823rd RED HORSE Squadron/Detachment 1 |access-date=2014-12-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220051739/http://www.tyndall.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=4888 |archive-date=2014-12-20 }}</ref>

On 26 April 2022, the 823rd RED HORSE Squadron Detachment 1 was inactivated and replaced by the 801st RED HORSE Training Squadron.<ref>{{cite web |title=The first RED HORSE training squadron is up and ready to run |url=https://www.tyndall.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3010610/the-first-red-horse-training-squadron-is-up-and-ready-to-run/ |website=Tyndall Air Force Base |date=26 April 2022 |access-date=26 April 2022}}</ref>

The [[1st Expeditionary RED HORSE Group]] (inactivated) was in the [[USCENTCOM]] area of responsibility (AOR).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.centaf.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123168016 |title=Dirt Boyz: Red Horse Airmen build base up amid desert conditions |first=Stacia |last=Zachary |work=centaf.af.mil |date=16 September 2009 |access-date=17 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224151800/http://www.centaf.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123168016 |archive-date=24 February 2012 }}</ref>  The 557th Expeditionary RED HORSE Squadron is now located in the USCENTCOM AOR, and is part of the 1st Expeditionary Civil Engineering Group that also consists of one Prime BEEF Squadrons and one RED HORSE Squadron.

Air Force Reserve:

*307th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Barksdale Air Force Base]], Louisiana (inactivated Aug 2015)
*555th RED HORSE Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada (classic association with 820th RHS)
*556th RED HORSE Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida (classic association with 823rd RHS)
*560th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Charleston Air Force Base]], South Carolina (active association with 628th Civil Engineer Squadron)
*567th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Seymour Johnson Air Force Base]], North Carolina (active association with 94th Civil Engineer Squadron)
*583rd RED HORSE Squadron, [[Beale Air Force Base]], California (inactivated Sep 2015; re-flagged as 940 CES)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.af.mil/News/story/storyID/123335338/|title = News}}</ref>

Air National Guard:

*200th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Camp Perry]] near [[Port Clinton, Ohio]]
**Detachment, [[Mansfield, Ohio]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2008/07/072308-RED_HORSE.aspx |title=The National Guard - A RED HORSE rises in Ohio |access-date=2013-02-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609063754/http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2008/07/072308-RED_HORSE.aspx |archive-date=2013-06-09 }}</ref>
*201st RED HORSE Squadron, [[Fort Indiantown Gap]], Pennsylvania
**Detachment 1, [[Willow Grove, Pennsylvania]]
*[[202nd RED HORSE Squadron]], [[Camp Blanding]], Florida (combines with the 203d RHF to form a full squadron)
*203rd RED HORSE Squadron, [[Camp Pendleton (Virginia)|Camp Pendleton]], Virginia (combines with the 202nd RHS to form a full squadron)
*210th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Kirtland Air Force Base]], New Mexico under the HQ [[New Mexico Air National Guard]]
*219th RED HORSE Squadron, [[Malmstrom Air Force Base]], Montana (associate unit to the 819th RHS)
*254th RED HORSE Squadron, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam (associate unit to the 554th RHS)
*254th RED HORSE Flight, [[Camp Murray, Washington]]
The Air National Guard squadrons are split units with separate commanders. When mobilized (excluding the 219th and 254th), these units come together as one squadron.

==See also==
*[[Military engineer]]
*[[Military engineering of the United States]]
*[[United States Army]] [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Corps of Engineers]]
*[[United States Navy]] [[Seabees]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130703105353/http://www.rhassn.us/ Red Horse Association]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120212145417/http://www.malmstrom.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=4683 819th RED HORSE Squadron]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090113095916/http://www.afhra.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=13413 560th RED HORSE Squadron]
*[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NXL/is_2_22/ai_n27873070/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1 The role of Air Force civil engineers in counterinsurgency operations]

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[[Category:Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Engineering squadrons of the United States Air Force]]
[[Category:Military engineering of the United States]]