The General ElectricAN/TPQ-1O Course Directing Central was a light-weight, two-unit, helicopter transportable, ground based bombing system developed for use by the United States Marine Corps to provide highly accurate, day/night all weather close air support. This self-contained system was designed to guide an aircraft, equipped with the proper control equipment, to a release point for accurate all-weather delivery of ordnance and supplies to a preselected target. The AN/TPQ-10 and its operators were known as an ‘’Air Support Radar Team’’ (ASRT) and were employed by the Marine Air Support Squadrons within the Aviation Combat Element.
The system was originally fielded in the early 1960s to replace the MPQ-14 Course Directing Central radar which was first utilized during the Korean War. The AN/TPQ-10 saw extensive use during the Vietnam War supporting Marine Forces in the I Corps Tactical Zone from 1965 through 1971, most famously to great effect during the Battle of Khe Sanh in early 1968.[1] It remained a mainstay of Marine Corps close air support tactics until it was phased out of the inventory in the early 1990s after the Gulf War. Improved avionics in military aircraft and the emerging use of satellite based navigation systems had quickly made the AN/TPQ-10 redundant and obsolete.
Development & Production of Radar Controlled Bombing Equipment
The Marine Corps experimented with radar controlled bombing as early as December 1944 when an SCR-584 radar from the 8th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion on Kauai was utilized to direct simulated bombing missions with SB2C and SBD dive bombers. Early results from these tests were positive.[2] The Marine Corps tried again in combat in May 1945 when poor weather during the Battle of Okinawa led Marines to attempt new methods of striking targets from the air. Landing Force Air Support Control Unit III (LFASCU III), working in support of the United States 10th Army attempted to direct bombing runs in the vicinity of Shuri Castle utilizing an SCR-584 that was co-located with them for the original purpose of directing night fighters. These early attempts proved unsuccessful however the seeds of ground based radar control of close air support were planted.
While testing continued on the east coast, Major Marion Dalby, led a team of 14 Marines comprising the Marine Corps Liaison Unit of the Naval Air Missile Test Center at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California were tasked to utilize an SCR-584 radar to direct KGW-1 Loon Missiles being fired from submarines. They were testing emerging amphibious concepts such as command guiding submarine fired missiles against mapped beach fortifications in support of Marines after they had come ashore during an amphibious assault. Because Loon Missiles were so hard to come by during training, the Marines devised a plan to where more easily available aircraft would replicate the missile's controlled phase of flight and a bomb carried on the plane would replicate the missile's free fall stage of flight. To do this, they designed a small computer that could be carried ashore from a ship and a device that allowed the automatic pilot in an F4U Corsair to accept radio commands from the ground based control system as if it were coming from the plane itself. The computer system told the pilot where to fly and when to drop the bomb. It was during this testing that Major Dalby and his Marines realized that the technology that they developed would have a much more practical application guiding close air support aircraft onto targets. Follow on testing and development of the new computer system in concert with naval engineers at NAS Point Magu and switching the radar to an SCR-784 (amphibious, trailer-mounted version of the SCR-584) had it ready for operational testing.
In April 1950, Dalby and his team travelled to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California to put on a demonstration of their new radar directed bombing device for senior Marine Corps leadership. The tests were very successful and among those that witnessed the first demonstration were then Colonel Victor H. “Brute” Krulak. Years later, Krulak devoted an entire chapter in his book ‘’First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps’’ to the development of this radar by Dalby and his team. This new system would be designated as the AN\TPQ-2 Close Air Support System and would be ready for deployment to Korea in July 1951.
The AN/MPQ-14 controlled close air support sorties in Korea from August 1951 until the cessation of hostilities in July 1953. The 1st Marine Air Support Radar Team (1st MASRT), nicknamed "Devastate Charlie", was attached to Marine Tactical Air Control Squadron 2 (MTACS-2) and operated in support of the 1st Marine Division.
In light of the advancement in the development of equipment, the Marine Corps wanted to improve the accuracy and increase the mobility of the AN/MPQ-14A. A contract was signed with General Electric to develop a system similar in function to the AN/MPQ-14A but having longer range, multiple target capability, greater versatility, better transportability, and weighing less.[5] The AN/TPQ-10 was the system developed under this contract. The AN/TPQ-10 was produced by General Electric's Heavy Military Electronics Department in Syracuse, New York.
During the Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968, ASRT B from MASS-2 controlled more than 5,000 air strikes. The ASRT was critical to the successful defense of the base.
The AN/TPQ-10 was utilized for additional mission sets as the Vietnam War progressed. They provided course direction for aircraft that were resupplying forward positions via aerial resupply. In emergency situations they also provided Ground-controlled approach services at airfields when Air Traffic Control'sprecision approach radars were not available.
The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted in the Khe Sanh area of northwestern Quảng Trị Province, Republic of Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. The main US forces defending Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB) were two regiments of the United States Marine Corps supported by elements from the United States Army and the United States Air Force (USAF), as well as a small number of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops. These were pitted against two to three divisional-size elements of the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN).
The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off range and altitude capability for a much smaller size and weight. Its low-level performance was greatly improved over Nike through the adoption of new radars and a continuous wave semi-active radar homing guidance system. It entered service with the US Army in 1959.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is an X-band electronically steered pulse-Doppler 3D radar system used to alert and cue Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces. It is currently produced by Raytheon Missiles & Defense.
The Direct Air Support Center (DASC) is the principal United States Marine Corps aviation command and control system and the air control agency responsible for the direction of air operations directly supporting ground forces. It functions in a decentralized mode of operation, but is directly supervised by the Marine Tactical Air Command Center (TACC) or the Navy Tactical Air Control Center (NTACC). During amphibious or expeditionary operations, the DASC is normally the first Marine Air Command and Control System (MACCS) agency ashore and is usually categorized as the Ground Combat Element's (GCE's) senior Fire Support Coordination Center (FSCC). The DASC's parent unit is the Marine Air Support Squadron (MASS) of the Marine Air Control Group (MACG).
Marine Air Support Squadron 3 (MASS-3), is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control unit that provides the Direct Air Support Center (DASC) for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. They are based out of the 32 Area on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California and fall under the command of Marine Air Control Group 38 and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
The SCR-584 was an automatic-tracking microwave radar developed by the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II. It was one of the most advanced ground-based radars of its era, and became one of the primary gun laying radars used worldwide well into the 1950s. A trailer-mounted mobile version was the SCR-784.
Marine Air Support Squadron 2 (MASS-2), is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control unit that provides the Direct Air Support Center (DASC) for the III Marine Expeditionary Force. It is the oldest and most decorated aviation command and control unit in the Marine Corps.
Marine Air Control Squadron 1 (MACS-1) is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control squadron. The squadron provides aerial surveillance, air traffic control, ground-controlled intercept, and aviation data-link connectivity for the I Marine Expeditionary Force. It was the first air warning squadron commissioned as part of the Marine Corps' new air warning program and is the second oldest aviation command and control unit in the Marine Corps. The squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and falls under Marine Air Control Group 38 and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Marine Air Control Squadron 4 (MACS-4) is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control squadron that provides aerial surveillance, Ground-controlled interception, and air traffic control for the III Marine Expeditionary Force. Originally formed in World War II, the squadron's most notable combat operations occurred during the Vietnam War when it was the first unit to ever use the Marine Tactical Data System. They are currently based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and fall under the command of Marine Air Control Group 18 and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.
Ground-directed bombing (GDB) is a military tactic for airstrikes by ground-attack aircraft, strategic bombers, and other equipped air vehicles under command guidance from aviation ground support equipment and/or ground personnel. Often used in poor weather and at night, the tactic was superseded by an airborne computer predicting unguided bomb impact from data provided by precision avionics Equipment for radar GDB generally included a combination ground radar/computer/communication system and aircraft avionics for processing radioed commands.
Operation Niagara was a U.S. Seventh Air Force close air support campaign carried out from January through March 1968, during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to serve as an aerial umbrella for the defense of the U.S. Marine Corps Khe Sanh Combat Base on the Khe Sanh Plateau, in western Quang Tri Province of the Republic of Vietnam. The base was under siege by an estimated three-divisional force of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN).
Lee L. Davenport was an American physicist. He was a member of the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II, responsible for the development and deployment of the SCR-584 radar system.
The AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) is the United States Marine Corps next-generation Air Surveillance/Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (ATC) Radar. The mobile active electronically scanned array radar system is currently being developed by Northrop Grumman and was expected to reach initial operating capability in August 2016.
Combat Skyspot was the ground-directed bombing (GDB) operation of the Vietnam War by the United States Air Force using Bomb Directing Centrals and by the United States Marine Corps using Course Directing Centrals. Combat Skyspot's command guidance of B-52s and tactical fighters and bombers—"chiefly flown by F-100's"—at night and poor weather was used for aerial bombing of strategic, close air support, interdiction, and other targets. Using a combination radar/computer/communications system at operating location in Southeast Asia, a typical bombing mission had an air command post turn over control of the mission to the radar station, and the station provided bomb run corrections and designated when to release bombs.
The AN/MPQ-2 Close Cooperation Control Unit was a truck-mounted pautomatic tracking radar/computer/communication system for aircraft command guidance, e.g., missile tracking, and for Radar Bomb Scoring. It was introduced shortly after the end of World War II. For ground directed bombing (GDB), an operator would manually plot a target on the "Blind Bombing Plotting Sheet", then use the manual "E6B computer and bombing tables" to plot the release point for striking the target, after which a radar operator used the AN/MPQ-2 to acquire a track of the bomber near an initial point during which allowed ground control of the bomb run to the release point.
The Western Electric M-33 Antiaircraft Fire Control System was an X-Band "Gunfire Control Radar", for aiming antiaircraft artillery by computer control. Developed for mobility via 3 trailers, the "M-33 system could compute, for the 90-mm. and 120-mm. guns, firing data for targets with speeds up to 1,000 mph", and for targets at 120,000 yards had similar gun laying accuracy as "SCR-584 type radars" at 70,000 yards. The system included a telescopic "target selector" on a tripod near the guns for additional measurement of aircraft "azimuth and elevation data [to] be transmitted to the computer and utilized as gun directing data."
The AN/TPQ-2 Close Air Support System was a post-World War II radar/computer/communications system for automatically tracking an aircraft and guiding it to a predetermined bomb release point. The system was the predecessor of the General Electric AN/MPQ-14 Course Directing Central deployed to the Korean War for ground-directed bombing.
The Reeves AN/MSQ-1 Close Support Control Set produced by Reeves Instrument Corporation was a trailer-mounted combination radar/computer/communication developed under a Rome Air Development Center program office for Cold War command guidance of manned aircraft Developed for Korean War ground-directed bombing, one detachment of the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron bombed itself with an MSQ-1 because it mistakenly used procedures for the earlier SCR-584/OA-294 system The MSQ-1 was subsequently used for nuclear testing during Operation Teapot, and for aircraft tests such as for "MSQ-1 controlled pinpoint photography" in 1954.
The M9 Gun Director was an electronic director developed by Bell Labs during World War II. This computer continuously calculated trigonometric firing solutions for anti-aircraft weapons against enemy aircraft. When cued by the SCR-584 centimetric gun-laying radar and used in concert with anti-aircraft guns firing shells with proximity fuzes, it helped form the most effective anti-aircraft weapon system utilized by the Allies during the war.
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