Aircraft Warning Corps

The Aircraft Warning Corps (AWC) was a World War II United States Army Air Force organization for Continental United States air defense. The corps' information centers networked an area's "Army Radar Stations" which communicated radar tracks by telephone, and the information centers also integrated visual reports processed by Ground Observer Corps filter centers. The AWC notified air defense command posts of the First Air Force, Second Air Force, Third Air Force, and Fourth Air Force. These command posts would deploy interceptors which used command guidance to achieve ground-controlled interception.

Not to be confused with Aircraft Warning Service, the civilian arm of the Ground Observer Corps.
Aircraft Warning Corps insignia

Background and deployment

United States electronic attack warning began with the 1929 Air Corps "experimenting with a rudimentary early-warning network at Aberdeen Proving Ground" in Maryland,[1] a 1939 networking demonstration at Twin Lights station (New Jersey), and 2 SCR-270 radar stations during the August 1940 "Watertown maneuvers" (New York). When "Pearl Harbor was attacked, [there were 8 CONUS] early-warning stations" (Maine, New Jersey, and 6 in California),[1] and Oahu's Opana Mobile Radar Station had 1 of 6 SCR-270s.[1]

CONUS Army Radar Station deployments after Pearl Harbor were primarily for anti-aircraft coastal defence, e.g., L-1 at Oceanside, California, B-30 at Lompoc, California, and J-23 at Tillamook Head (Seaside, Oregon).[2] California's B-78 Mount Tamalpais Radar Station, subsequently became a Cold War station of the Lashup, Permanent, SAGE, and JSS radar networks. Aircraft Warning Battalions included: 551st at tbd, 555th at tbd, 558th, and 599th (Drew Field, Tampa: 30 March 1944).

Phaseout

The USAAF inactivated the aircraft warning network in April 1944.[3]: 38  By June 1944 AWC volunteers "assigned to filter centers serve[d] on the same days that ground observers are on duty" (information centers continued processing radar information 24 hours a day, e.g., plotting radar tracks).[4]: 97 

By 1946, post-war considerations were for '"development of radar equipment for detecting and countering missiles of the German A-4 type"[5] (part of Signal Corps' Project 414A contracted to Bell Laboratories in 1945),[3]: 207  and by 1947 March Field had one of the remaining World War II AC&W radar stations. The AAF announced in late May 1947 plans to move "its Radar School from Boca Raton, Florida, to Keesler [which] officially opened on 14 November 1947"[6] (originally at Scott Field, then Morrison Field from February to 1 Jun 42).[7] In 1948, the CONUS "five-station radar net"[8] included the Twin Lights established in June 1948 and Montauk's "Air Warning Station #3 on July 5, 1948[9]

References
  1. Schaffel, Kenneth (1991). Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960 (45MB pdf). General Histories (Report). Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-60-9. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
  2. "Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos".
  3. History of Strategic and Ballistic Missile Defense, 1945-1955: Volume I (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013. Stations were undermanned, personnel lacked training, and repair and maintenance were difficult. This stop-gap system later would be replaced by a 75-station, permanent net authorized by Congress and approved by the President in 1949 … To be closer to ConAC, ARAACOM moved to Mitchel AFB, New York on 1 November 1950.
  4. Arnold, Henry H.--Foreword (June 1944) [May 1944]. AAF: The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces (Special Edition for AAF Organizations ed.). New York: Pocket Books. Aircraft Warning Corps—The Aircraft Warning Corps includes all those volunteers in filter and information centers of our continental fighter commands who are on the receiving end of the ground observers' reports. At its peak this corps numbered more than 25,000. Like the GOC, the Aircraft Warning Corps is now also on an alert status; those assigned to filter centers serve on the same days that ground observers are on duty. Information centers, however, differ in this respect: radar information comes in to them 24 hours a day; continuous operation is demanded of that portion of the AWC required to plot radar information.
  5. subj: Development of Radar Equipment for Detecting and Countering Missiles of the German A-4 type, USAFHRC microfilm, Dec 27, 1946{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (cited by Schaffel, p. 314)
  6. A Brief History of Keesler AFB and the 81st Training Wing (PDF) (Report). Vol. AFD-090203-089. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
  7. Futrell, Robert F. (July 1947). Development of AAF Base Facilities in the United States: 1939-1945 (Report). Vol. ARS-69: US Air Force Historical Study No 69 (Copy No. 2). Air Historical Office. The radar school, moved from Scott to Morrison Field in February 1942, was transferred to occupy a leased club at Boca Raton, Fla, in May 1942. Additional cantonment housing and an airfield were subsequently built for this school.132 (p. 113)
  8. Air Defense Command. Organization and Responsibility for Air Defense, March 1946–September 1955. CONAD. (cited by Volume I, p. 132)
  9. "Montauk AFS History". www.radomes.org. Archived from the original on 2002-07-18.
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