AN/MSQ-1
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The AN/MSQ-1 Close Support Control Set, produced by Reeves Instrument Corporation, was a trailer-mounted combination radar/computer/communication system for command guidance of manned aircraft.[1] It was developed under a Rome Air Development Center program office (MPS-9 radar & OA-215). The system directed aircraft equipped with AN/APS-11A or AN/APW-11 avionics (e.g. B-26 Marauder bombers) and was used during the Korean War for ground-directed bombing. The MSQ-1 was subsequently used for nuclear testing during Operation Teapot, and for aircraft tests such as controlled pinpoint photography using the RB-57A Canberra in 1954.[2]
The set originally had a Reeves Instrument Corporation direct current analog computer. It was later modified to use an alternating current computer for the Matador Automatic Radar Control (MARC) to guide MGM-1 Matadors and other unmanned aerial vehicles. The MSQ-1 was considered for guidance of the XQ-5 target drone in 1957.[3]
US Air Force MSQ-1A units were carried aboard the USS Tarawa (CV-40) and the USS Neosho (AO-143) to track Lockheed X-17s launched during the Operation Argus nuclear tests.
Radar stations
[edit]In addition to the Tadpole radar stations of the Korean War, a downrange AN/MSQ-1 for the Atlantic Missile Range had been at Florida's Jupiter Missile Guidance Annex in 1952,[4] and an MSQ-1 radar station on the United States Gulf Coast for the RB-57A tests.
References
[edit]- ^ "Close Support Control Set - TM-11-487C-10445", TPub, p. 437, December 15, 1964, retrieved May 27, 2025,
Close Support Control Set AN/MSQ-1 is mounted in trailers. Radar Set AN/MPS-9 is mounted in Trailer K-78; Console OA-132/MSQ-1 is installed in Trailer V-38/HSQ-1.
- ^ Maj Gen Patrick W. Timberlake (May 23, 2000) [September 14, 1954]. Interim Report on the Operational Suitability Test of the RB-57A Aircraft (PDF) (Interim Report). Eglin AFB, Florida: HQ Air Proving Ground Command. p. 24. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
- ^ LMSD-1 Radar Command Guidance System (Abstract), Lockheed Aircraft Corp, 1957, retrieved 2013-04-02 – via Google Books,
A study was initiated in April 1955 to determine the most practicable command guidance system for the XQ-5 Target developmental flight-test program. Three such systems were considered: the system then in use on the X-7A Ramjet Test Vehicle; the system being developed under the X-7A contract using the (AN/APW-11) coding compatible with the MSQ-1 Command Guidance Station; and the Sperry Microwave Command Guidance System. From the initial studies it was determined that the system used on the X-7A Vehicle was the only one that could be made available in time for incorporation into the first three experimental targets.
- ^ Cleary, Mark C, "MATADOR and the Era of Winged Missiles", FAS Space Policy Project, retrieved May 27, 2025
See Also
[edit]
- List of radars
- List of military electronics of the United States
- Joint Electronics Type Designation System – Unclassified designation system for United States military electronic equipment