by DAVID AXE

Never mind stealth bomber outfits and units remotely operating multi-million-dollar spy drones from secure desert outposts. Arguably the most secretive flying squadron in the whole U.S. Air Force owns a bunch of small Cessnas and medium-size transports that look pretty much exactly like civilian aircraft.

But the 427th Special Operations Squadron’s mission is anything but mundane. After reporter Andreas Parsch filed a Freedom of Information Act request, the Air Force told him the unit “support[s] training requirements … for infiltration and exfiltration.” That is, it prepares troops for secretly slipping into and out of dangerous territory.

Additional information is scarce, but we can reasonably assert that the North Carolina-based 427th also hauls American commandos in and out of conflict zones and helps hunt insurgents in Latin America. Moreover, the 427th “operates special worldwide crisis response aircraft for the State Department and the CIA,” reporters Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady wrote in their book The Command.

The 427th is all about “discreet missions,” according to Ambinder and Grady. So its roughly 11 aircraft are discreet, too, and apparently include single-engine Cessna Caravans and a Pilatus PC-6 plus a twin-engine CASA Aviocar and Airbus CN235s. None of the planes would look out of place at some developing-world airport.