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During Operation Arc Light from 1965 to 1973, the United States Air Force deployed B-52 Stratofortresses from bases in the U.S. Territory of Guam to provide battlefield air interdiction during the Vietnam War. This included strikes at enemy bases, supply routes, and behind the lines troop concentrations, as well as occasionally providing close air support directly to ground combat operations in Vietnam.
Keesler Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Biloxi, a city along the Gulf Coast in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The base is named in honor of aviator 2d Lt Samuel Reeves Keesler Jr., a Mississippi native killed in France during the First World War. The base is home of Headquarters, Second Air Force and the 81st Training Wing of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC).
Rome Laboratory is the US "Air Force 'superlab' for command, control, and communications" research and development and is responsible for planning and executing the USAF science and technology program.
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 Often used in poor weather and at night, the tactic was superseded by an airborne computer predicting unguided bomb impact from data provided by precision avionics Equipment for radar GDB generally included a combination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.
The 1st Combat Evaluation Group was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) unit. It was formed on 1 August 1961 to merge the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group for SAC aircrew evaluation with the 1st Radar Bomb Scoring Group that had originated from the 263rd Army Air Force Base Unit which transferred from 15th AF to directly under Strategic Air Command c. 1946. The 1CEVG formed after SAC switched to low-level tactics to counter Soviet surface-to-air missiles and SAC had "developed a Radar Bomb Scoring field kit for use in NIKE Systems" in early 1960 for scoring SAC training missions against US Hercules SAM sites. The 1CEVG headquarters included an Office of History and a "standardization and evaluation school" for command examiners.
Matagorda Island Air Force Base is a closed military airfield on the north end of Matagorda Island, northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas. It was closed by the United States Air Force in 1975.
The Reeves AN/MSQ-77 Bomb Directing Central, Radar was a United States Air Force automatic tracking radar/computer system for command guidance of aircraft. It was often used during Vietnam War bomb runs at nighttime and during bad weather. Developed from the Reeves AN/MSQ-35, the AN/MSQ-77 reversed the process of Radar Bomb Scoring by continually estimating the bomb impact point before bomb release with a vacuum tube ballistic computer. Unlike "Course Directing Centrals" which guided aircraft to a predetermined release point, the AN/MSQ-77 algorithm continuously predicted bomb impact points during the radar track while the AN/MSQ-77's control commands adjusted the aircraft course. A close air support regulation prohibited AN/MSQ-77 Combat Skyspot bombing within 1,000 yd (910 m) of friendly forces unless authorized by a Forward Air Controller, and "on several occasions" strikes were as close as 273 yd (250 m).
Radar Bomb Scoring is a combat aviation ground support operation used to evaluate Cold War aircrews' effectiveness with simulated unguided bomb drops near radar stations of the United States Navy, the USAF Strategic Air Command, and Army Project Nike units. USAF RBS used various ground radar, computers, and other electronic equipment such as jammers to disrupt operations of the bomber's radar navigator, AAA/SAM simulators to require countermeasures from the bomber, and Radar Bomb Scoring Centrals for estimating accuracy of simulated bombings. Scores for accuracy and electronic warfare effectiveness were transmitted from radar sites such as those at Strategic Range Training Complexes.
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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.
Reeves Instrument Corporation (RICO) was a Cold War manufacturer of computer and radar systems for the United States. The corporation was the Project Cyclone laboratory operator for simulation of guided missiles, and RICO developed several Strategic Air Command combination (radar/computer/communications) systems.
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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.
Matador Automatic Radar Control (MARC) was a command guidance system for the Martin MGM-1 Matador ground launched cruise missile that used combination radar/computer/communication centrals for ground-directed bombing. As for the earlier ground central used with the X-10 aircraft,* MARC had an "Air Link" from the ground for control and an airborne AN/APW-11A radar transponder on the missile for ranging. A series of "MSQ sites". each with a mobile AN/MSQ-1A central in 3 vans had an automatic tracking radar to geolocate the Matador up to ~600 nmi. MARC provided command guidance during the "mid-course phase" after Matador/MARC contact was established following the missile launch off the Zero Length Launcher and until an MSQ transmitted the dive ("dump") command to start the flight path toward the target. Originating in the Caltech/Martin "ZEL Project" and developed as part of weapon system "Project MX 771" at the "Air Force Missile Test Center, Cocoa, Florida"; MARC had accuracy at "crossover into enemy territory" of ~500 ft (150 m) and—at an AN/MSQ-1A range of 165 nautical miles —a CEP of 2,700 ft (820 m).
The Statesboro Bomb Scoring Site was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) Radar Bomb Scoring AUTOTRACK radar station. It was Formerly Used Defense Site I04GA0575. Detachment 3 of the 10th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron had begun "Statesboro Bomb Plot" operations by June 1963.
Hawthorne Bomb Plot is a Formerly Used Defense Site that had a Strategic Air Command (SAC) AUTOTRACK radar station during the Cold War. Operations began at a temporary RBS train site for RBS Express #2 was at the Hawthorne area in December 1961, and the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron subsequently established the fixed military installation for Radar Bomb Scoring in Babbitt, Nevada, the military housing community near the local Navy/Army depot.
The 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group was a military evaluation unit under direct command of Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters for scoring simulated bomb runs using automatic tracking radar stations. Initially an Army Air Forces Base Unit (AAFBU) and then a squadron, the 3903rd RBS Group was personnel, assets, and detachments were redesignated the 1st Radar Bomb Scoring Group and then the 1CEVG Radar Bomb Scoring Division when the RBS Group merged with the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group in 1961, the year RBS Express trains began to be used for low-altitude Boeing B-52 Stratofortress operations..
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.
References
- ↑ Leyva, Ken. "TSQ-96 J-band Mono Pulse" (anecdote webpage). TestVector.com. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
- ↑ http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-gurney/29/877/9b0 [ self-published source ]
- ↑ Jost, Alan C. (2007). ConOps:The Cryptex to Operational System Mission Success (PDF) (Report). Raytheon. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-05. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
- ↑ "Various".
- ↑ "NKP had both an AN/MSQ-81 and an AN/TSQ-96." "OL-23 was the TSQ-96 system while OL-27 was the TSQ-81"
- ↑ "Charliesmilitarymemories".