Aircraft Warning Corps
{{Short description|WW2-era U.S. Army Air Forces unit for air defense}}
{{Distinguish|Aircraft Warning Service{{!}}Aircraft Warning Service, the civilian arm of the Ground Observer Corps}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
File:AIRCRAFT WARNING CORPS (WWII).jpg.jpg
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.
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,{{r|Schaffel}} 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),{{r|Schaffel}} and Oahu's Opana Mobile Radar Station had 1 of 6 SCR-270s.{{r|Schaffel}}
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).{{r|RadarVets}} 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).{{fact|date=February 2024}}
Phaseout
The USAAF inactivated the aircraft warning network in April 1944.{{r|VolumeI}}{{rp|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).{{cite book |last=Arnold |first=Henry H.--Foreword |date=June 1944|edition=Special Edition for AAF Organizations |orig-year=May 1944 |title=AAF: The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces |location=New York |publisher=Pocket Books |quote=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.}}{{rp|97}}
By 1946, post-war considerations were for '"development of radar equipment for detecting and countering missiles of the German A-4 type"{{Citation |date=27 Dec 1946 |title=subj: Development of Radar Equipment for Detecting and Countering Missiles of the German A-4 type |location=USAFHRC microfilm}} (cited by Schaffel, p. 314) (part of Signal Corps' Project 414A contracted to Bell Laboratories in 1945),{{r|VolumeI}}{{rp|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"{{Cite report|title=A Brief History of Keesler AFB and the 81st Training Wing |url=http://www.keesler.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090203-089.pdf |volume=AFD-090203-089 |access-date=2013-07-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904055045/http://www.keesler.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090203-089.pdf |archive-date=2012-09-04 }} (originally at Scott Field, then Morrison Field from February to 1 Jun 42).{{Cite report |last=Futrell |first=Robert F. |publisher=Air Historical Office |date=July 1947 |title=Development of AAF Base Facilities in the United States: 1939-1945 |volume=ARS-69: US Air Force Historical Study No 69 (Copy No. 2) |quote=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) In 1948, the CONUS "five-station radar net"{{r|ADC9}} included the Twin Lights established in June 1948 and Montauk's "Air Warning Station #3 on 5 July 1948{{cite web |url=http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/MontaukAFSLINYHist.html |title=Montauk AFS History |website=www.radomes.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020718083650/http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/MontaukAFSLINYHist.html |archive-date=2002-07-18}}
References
{{Reflist |refs=
{{Cite book |author=Air Defense Command |author-link=Air Defense Command |title=Organization and Responsibility for Air Defense, March 1946–September 1955 |publisher=CONAD |number=ADC Historical Study No. 9}} (cited by Volume I, p. 132)
{{Cite report |last=Schaffel |first=Kenneth |year=1991 |title=Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheEmergingShield |format=45MB pdf |work=General Histories |publisher=Office of Air Force History |isbn=0-912799-60-9 |access-date=2011-09-26 |url-access=registration }}
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Category:Ground-based air defence observation corps
Category:Branches of the United States Army
Category:Military units and formations of the United States Army Air Forces
Category:1941 establishments in the United States
Category:Military units and formations established in 1941
Category:Agencies of the United States government during World War II