AN-MPQ-14
Encyclopedia
The radar
designated
AN/MPQ-14 is a system used for Ground Directed Bombing
(GDB), where a plane is remotely piloted from the ground with radar assistance, up to and including the point of bomb release. It was the first guided weapon system used by the U.S. Marine Corps
, and introduced the ability to deliver ordnance in close air support
missions in poor visibility conditions.. Initially developed as a training substitute for a guided, submarine
-launched weapon, its creators realized it had potential as a night/all-weather bomb delivery system. It saw service in the Korean War
, and its successor, the AN/TPQ-10, was used in Vietnam
.
missile test center
at Point Mugu, California. There, engineers renamed it "the Loon" and set to work to modify it to operate from a submarine. In the spring of 1948, four officers and eleven enlisted men, selected for high intelligence, prior technical training and combat experience in aviation and artillery, were ordered to report to Point Mugu for "on-the-job-training in guided missile
s". Though not formally assigned to a unit, the men were organized into the unofficial "Marine Guided Missile Unit" by the senior Marine, Cpt. Marion Cranford Dalby, a fighter pilot ("through a combination of personal charm and threat of court martial", he says).
Dalby, MSgt. William L. Holtz and MSgt Floyd A. Dickover, were brought into the Loon project by Cmdr. Grayson Merrill, who envisioned advance teams of Marines, landed by submarine, providing terminal guidance from greater proximity to the target. Since there were too few Loons to regularly test-fire and it was too difficult to arrange for a submarine and other logistical preparations, the Marines got only two test-firings with their improvised equipment. As a result, MSgt. Clark. D Hayden concocted a device that would simulate the Loon – in the controlled part of flight, the Loon would be simulated by a fighter whose automatic pilot received radio commands as the Loon would. Ground radar tracked the plane, an improvised computer generated control instructions for the plane to maneuver and signaled the pilot to drop the bomb at the right time. The system worked effectively and had an accuracy measured in yards, not miles as with the Loon.
Inspiration struck when Dalby and Cpt. Samuel A. Dressin, simultaneously hit upon the idea of using the system as a weapon in its own right – a radar-guided bomb sight for night or bad weather. They redesigned the system to be hardier for battlefield usage, moving from the initial SCR-584 radar
to the SCR-784
, developed for Army antiaircraft
artillery
.
The system was demonstrated at MCB Pendelton
in 1950 to a group of ground and air Marines. In the brief, Cpt. Dalby claimed a CEP
of 150 yards for a weapon dropped from 18,000 feet, with complete guidance from the ground. The demonstration was successful and won supporters in the Marine Corps. Dalby had the unfortunate experience of letting a brigadier general examine the equipment, spurring the comment that "rain would short out this maze of wires in nothing flat". Dalby later declared he would "never let a general behind the scenes again until I have it packaged up like a box of candy."
The system was designated AN/MPQ-14, and with the aid of Lt. Col. Homer G. Hutchinson, the project received support from Washington
, including two Corsair night-fighter aircraft and pilots for training. Dalby described Hutchinson, an aviator, as an officer who "really knew his way around the whole Washington jungle... Without Hutchinson's help, the whole MPQ-15 project would probably have died".
The setup was ready to see combat in July 1951, and Colonel Victor H. Krulak
, then chief of staff of the 1st Marine Division, urged its immediate deployment. Krulak had been one of the Marines to witness its first demonstration at Pendelton in 1950. The commander of the 1st Marine Air Wing placed it with the 1st Marine Division near the 38th Parallel. It won many fans on both the ground and air sides. The 1st MAW's Corsair night-fighter squadron, VMF-513, were especially enamored with the device as it allowed them to fly at 15,000–20,000 feet, above anti-aircraft fire, rather than low in the valleys to try to use flares to locate targets. Though initially only cleared for use within a mile of friendly forces, by summer 1952 the Marines had obtained permission from the Fifth Air Force to use it in a CAS
role.
In Vietnam, its successor, the AN/TPQ-10 was used with great success, especially at Khe Sanh
, where poor weather made conventional CAS methods unreliable. The AN/TPQ-10 had a 50 yard CEP
and could handle up to 105 missions a day. The commander of the Khe Sanh defense, Col. David M. Lownds, said "Anything but the highest praise would not have been enough."
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
designated
Joint Electronics Type Designation System
The Joint Electronics Type Designation System , which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Department during World War II for assigning an unclassified designator to...
AN/MPQ-14 is a system used for Ground Directed Bombing
Ground Directed Bombing
Ground Directed Bombing is a type of attack mission performed by ground attack aircraft. Aircraft are remotely guided from the ground with the assistance of a height and direction-finding radar. In mature versions of the system, bomb release is controlled from the ground for precision...
(GDB), where a plane is remotely piloted from the ground with radar assistance, up to and including the point of bomb release. It was the first guided weapon system used by the U.S. Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, and introduced the ability to deliver ordnance in close air support
Close air support
In military tactics, close air support is defined as air action by fixed or rotary winged aircraft against hostile targets that are close to friendly forces, and which requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of these forces.The determining factor for CAS is...
missions in poor visibility conditions.. Initially developed as a training substitute for a guided, submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
-launched weapon, its creators realized it had potential as a night/all-weather bomb delivery system. It saw service in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, and its successor, the AN/TPQ-10, was used in Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
History
Toward the end of World War II, about 800 German V-1 radio-guided pilotless planes were captured. A few models were sent to the NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
missile test center
Pacific Missile Test Center
Pacific Missile Test Center is the former name of the current Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division. The name of the center was the Naval Air Missile Test Center prior to PMTC. It is located at Naval Base Ventura County/Naval Air Station Point Mugu in Ventura County, California...
at Point Mugu, California. There, engineers renamed it "the Loon" and set to work to modify it to operate from a submarine. In the spring of 1948, four officers and eleven enlisted men, selected for high intelligence, prior technical training and combat experience in aviation and artillery, were ordered to report to Point Mugu for "on-the-job-training in guided missile
Guided Missile
Guided Missile is a London based independent record label set up by Paul Kearney in 1994.Guided Missile has always focused on 'the underground', preferring to put out a steady flow of releases and developing the numerous GM events around London and beyond....
s". Though not formally assigned to a unit, the men were organized into the unofficial "Marine Guided Missile Unit" by the senior Marine, Cpt. Marion Cranford Dalby, a fighter pilot ("through a combination of personal charm and threat of court martial", he says).
Dalby, MSgt. William L. Holtz and MSgt Floyd A. Dickover, were brought into the Loon project by Cmdr. Grayson Merrill, who envisioned advance teams of Marines, landed by submarine, providing terminal guidance from greater proximity to the target. Since there were too few Loons to regularly test-fire and it was too difficult to arrange for a submarine and other logistical preparations, the Marines got only two test-firings with their improvised equipment. As a result, MSgt. Clark. D Hayden concocted a device that would simulate the Loon – in the controlled part of flight, the Loon would be simulated by a fighter whose automatic pilot received radio commands as the Loon would. Ground radar tracked the plane, an improvised computer generated control instructions for the plane to maneuver and signaled the pilot to drop the bomb at the right time. The system worked effectively and had an accuracy measured in yards, not miles as with the Loon.
Inspiration struck when Dalby and Cpt. Samuel A. Dressin, simultaneously hit upon the idea of using the system as a weapon in its own right – a radar-guided bomb sight for night or bad weather. They redesigned the system to be hardier for battlefield usage, moving from the initial SCR-584 radar
SCR-584 radar
The SCR-584 was a microwave radar developed by the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II. It replaced the earlier and much more complex SCR-268 as the US Army's primary anti-aircraft gun laying system as quickly as they could be produced...
to the SCR-784
SCR-784
The SCR-784 was a fire control radar set used by the U.S. Army designed to be an amphibious version of the SCR-584, and mounted on a searchlight trailer called a K-84.- Statistics :Frequency: 2,800 MHzPulse Width: 0.8 µsecondsPulse Repetition Rate: 1707 pps...
, developed for Army antiaircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
.
The system was demonstrated at MCB Pendelton
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and serves as its prime amphibious training base...
in 1950 to a group of ground and air Marines. In the brief, Cpt. Dalby claimed a CEP
Circular error probable
In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision...
of 150 yards for a weapon dropped from 18,000 feet, with complete guidance from the ground. The demonstration was successful and won supporters in the Marine Corps. Dalby had the unfortunate experience of letting a brigadier general examine the equipment, spurring the comment that "rain would short out this maze of wires in nothing flat". Dalby later declared he would "never let a general behind the scenes again until I have it packaged up like a box of candy."
The system was designated AN/MPQ-14, and with the aid of Lt. Col. Homer G. Hutchinson, the project received support from Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, including two Corsair night-fighter aircraft and pilots for training. Dalby described Hutchinson, an aviator, as an officer who "really knew his way around the whole Washington jungle... Without Hutchinson's help, the whole MPQ-15 project would probably have died".
The setup was ready to see combat in July 1951, and Colonel Victor H. Krulak
Victor H. Krulak
Victor H. Krulak was a decorated United States Marine Corps officer who saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He was born in Denver, Colorado to Jewish parents...
, then chief of staff of the 1st Marine Division, urged its immediate deployment. Krulak had been one of the Marines to witness its first demonstration at Pendelton in 1950. The commander of the 1st Marine Air Wing placed it with the 1st Marine Division near the 38th Parallel. It won many fans on both the ground and air sides. The 1st MAW's Corsair night-fighter squadron, VMF-513, were especially enamored with the device as it allowed them to fly at 15,000–20,000 feet, above anti-aircraft fire, rather than low in the valleys to try to use flares to locate targets. Though initially only cleared for use within a mile of friendly forces, by summer 1952 the Marines had obtained permission from the Fifth Air Force to use it in a CAS
Close air support
In military tactics, close air support is defined as air action by fixed or rotary winged aircraft against hostile targets that are close to friendly forces, and which requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of these forces.The determining factor for CAS is...
role.
In Vietnam, its successor, the AN/TPQ-10 was used with great success, especially at Khe Sanh
Khe Sanh
Khe Sanh is the district capital of Hướng Hoá District, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, located 63 km west of Đông Hà.Khe Sanh Combat Base was a United States Marine Corps outpost in South Vietnam used during the Vietnam War. The airstrip was built in September 1962...
, where poor weather made conventional CAS methods unreliable. The AN/TPQ-10 had a 50 yard CEP
Circular error probable
In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision...
and could handle up to 105 missions a day. The commander of the Khe Sanh defense, Col. David M. Lownds, said "Anything but the highest praise would not have been enough."