Radar Bomb Scoring#Strategic Air Command

World War II included Army Air Forces Bombardier Schools' scoring of trainee's proficiency at the "West Texas Bombardier Triangle"{{cite web |last=Colwell |first=James L. |title=Midland Army Air Field |url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbm02 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |access-date=2012-06-13 |quote=In August 1943 the AAF Central Bombardier Instructor School was transferred from Carlsbad, New Mexico, to Midland ... the "West Texas Bombardier Triangle" of bases at Big Spring (1942), San Angelo (1942), and Childress (1943), and were instrumental in developing photographic and sonic methods of scoring bomb hits and analyzing bombing proficiency |archive-date=25 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025074711/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbm02 |url-status=live }} and other USAAF ranges (e.g., observers on Range Towers),{{Cite web |url=http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/NAVFAC/DMMHNAV/1027_3b.pdf |title=The Weapons Impact Scoring Set (WISS) is a manned video scoring set which scores the impact of air-to-ground delivered ordnance within a 4,000-ft (1219.2 m) radius of a defined land target under day or night conditions." |access-date=17 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621055502/http://wbdg.org/ccb/NAVFAC/DMMHNAV/1027_3b.pdf |archive-date=21 June 2010 |url-status=dead }} and ground-directed bombing for combat guided by automatic tracking radars was used in the Mediterranean Theatre's Po Valley. On 6 June 1945 "the 206th Army Air Force Base Unit (RBS) (206th AAFBU), was activated at Colorado Springs, Colorado under the command of Colonel Robert W. Burns [with] operational control of the two SCR-584 radar detachments located at Kansas City and Fort Worth Army Airfield (Det B),{{Rp|3199}} and dets were later "established at Denver, Chicago, Omaha, Albuquerque and [{{circa|lk=no|1952}} at] Los Angeles." USAF RBS units were at MacDill AFB in 1947,{{cite web |title=3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group |url=http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/usaf/3903rbs.htm |format=Web Bulletin Board |publisher=KoreanWar.org |access-date=2012-05-20 |archive-date=16 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016173551/http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/usaf/3903rbs.htm |url-status=live }} in Phoenix in 1952,{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7bFaAAAAIBAJ&pg=3334,2743422&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en|title=Prescott Evening Courier – Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=4 December 2021|archive-date=4 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204092002/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7bFaAAAAIBAJ&pg=3334%2C2743422&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en|url-status=live}} and Guam in 1954.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JvpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4651,2717497&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en|title=Spokane Daily Chronicle – Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=4 December 2021|archive-date=4 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204092002/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JvpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4651%2C2717497&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en|url-status=live}}

RBS by Strategic Air Command began with the last of 888 simulated bomb runs against San Diego{{Cite news |last=Herring |first=G. B. (Jr.) |date=19 May 1966 |title=TBD |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/laurel-leader-call/1966-05-19/page-15 |newspaper=Laurel Leader Call |location=Laurel, Mississippi |access-date=2012-07-11 |quote=Radar bomb scoring began in 1946 with 888 bomb releases for the year against a site in the San Diego |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204091938/https://newspaperarchive.com/laurel-leader-call-may-19-1966-p-15/ |url-status=live }} scored in 1946 as well as 2,499 runs scored in 1947. The 1948 increase to 12,084 was the result of a "scathing" Lindbergh review of SAC in the Spring of 1948 (SAC's commanding general was replaced 15 October, and January 1949 simulated raids by Curtis LeMay's "entire command" on Wright-Patt AFB "were appalling").{{Cite news |last=Alexander |first=Sigmund |date=July 2005 |volume=22 |title=Radar Bomb Scoring: RBS Operations |url=http://b-47.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Newsletter-22-Jul-2005.pdf |newspaper=The Stratojet Newsletter |publisher=B-47 Stratojet Association |access-date=2012-07-09 |quote=By 1959, there were 26 [SAC] RBS sites, 21 located in the United States and five outside the country. [with] twelve low level 'Oilburner' training routes. ... Combat Skyspot, directed over 300,000 USAF, Navy, Marine, and RVN re-supply, reconnaissance, and tactical air missions, as well as 75% of all B-52 Arclight strikes. |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055310/http://b-47.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Newsletter-22-Jul-2005.pdf |url-status=live }} On 21 July 1948, the 263rd AAFBU (RBS) had been renamed the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron (SAC),[http://www.mobileradar.org/unit_726_6483.html Units 726-6483] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626023956/http://www.mobileradar.org/unit_726_6483.html |date=26 June 2012 }}. Mobileradar.org. Retrieved on 2013-09-18. and early RBS detachments were designated by letters, e.g., Detachment D at Fort George Wright WA in 1950. Three detachments of the 3903rd RBS deployed for ground directed bombing in Korea{{cite web |url=http://www.1stcombatevaluationgroup.com/GDBInKorea.htm |title=The Tadpoles of Korea |access-date=2012-07-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906031533/http://www.1stcombatevaluationgroup.com/GDBInKorea.htm |archive-date=6 September 2011 }} at "Tactical Air Direction Posts" (colloq. TADPOLE sites).[http://sojapanradargroup.multiply.com/journal?&page_start=160&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal Multiply.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203155436/http://sojapanradargroup.multiply.com/journal?&page_start=160&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal |date=3 February 2016 }}. Sojapanradargroup.multiply.com (31 May 2013). Retrieved on 2013-09-18. (10 August 1954, the 3933rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron was redesignated the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron.){{Citation needed|reason=from 1CEVG wikipage|date=July 2012}} In 1955, RBS bomb runs for the SAC Bombing and Navigation Competition were on Amarillo, Denver, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, and San Antonio[http://www.7bwb-36assn.org/b36genhistpg4.html 7th WING OPERATIONS HISTORY, 1955-1958] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006083920/http://www.7bwb-36assn.org/b36genhistpg4.html |date=6 October 2012 }}. 7bwb-36assn.org. Retrieved on 2013-09-18. (Phoenix also had runs){{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19550502&id=XPpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4206,164978|title=Spokane Daily Chronicle – Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=4 December 2021|archive-date=3 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303040045/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19550502&id=XPpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4206,164978|url-status=live}} and in 1957, SAC installed RBS sites for the competition (named "Operation Longshot"){{Cite magazine |date=1957-10-18 |title=Operation Longshot: Bomber Command Participation in the S.A.C. Competition |url=https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957 – 1525.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Flight |publisher=Flightglobal.com |page=615 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190116150008/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%201525.html |archive-date=2019-01-16 |access-date=2013-09-18}} which had 3 targets: Atlanta, Kansas City, and St. Louis.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zF9QAAAAIBAJ&pg=7362,5208977&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en|title=The Milwaukee Sentinel – Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com}} The {{circa|lk=no|1963}} "Goldwater congressional investigation" investigated working and travel conditions at the Lynchburg, Virginia, detachment, which was a mobile unit that had temporary radar stations at "Blackstone, Staunton and Farmville before [being] shut ... down". {{circa|lk=no|1960}}, Det 3 at Heston Aerodrome, England, moved to the Fairey Aviation Plant at Langley.{{cite web |last=Roush |first=Dick |date=5 May 1001 |title=3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group |url=http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/usaf/3903rbs.htm |format=Web Bulletin Board |publisher=KoreanWar.org |access-date=2012-05-20 |quote=Served ... from October, 1957 to June, 1962. ... Keesler AFB for tech school, then ... at Los Angeles RBS site |archive-date=16 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016173551/http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/usaf/3903rbs.htm |url-status=live }}

By 1960, USAF RBS equipment had been incorporated in US Army Course Directing Centrals for Project Nike (i.e., receivers for telecommunicated tones to indicate the aircraft's bomb release on the Nike radar plotting boards).{{cite book |date=December 1960 |chapter=Chapter 3: Radar Course Directing Central |chapter-url=http://ed-thelen.org/TM9-1440-250-10-2-Dec1960-3a.pdf |title=Nike-Hercules and Improved Nike-Hercules Air Defense Guided Missile System |url=http://ed-thelen.org/TM9-1440-250-10-1.html |publisher=United States Army |page=18 |access-date=2012-05-20 |archive-date=10 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610050039/http://ed-thelen.org/TM9-1440-250-10-1.html |url-status=live }} Nike RBS of SAC/ADCOM bombers used USAF personnel on temporary duty to calculate the simulated bomb run score from the track by a Nike missile crew/radar (e.g., at the Chicago-Gary Defense Area).[http://www.det6.com/contact2.htm Contact Information] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128191812/http://www.det6.com/contact2.htm |date=28 January 2012 }}. Det6.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-18. In 1961, Nike units "scored 1,890 practice bomb runs" and in 1962 the NIKE site at Maitland/Lake Park in Milwaukee was RBSing.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=szoaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6078,3449013&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en|title=The Milwaukee Journal – Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com}} Four Navy Radar Bomb Scoring Units during the Cold War included those near Spokane, Washington, and at the Pachino Radar Bomb Scoring Range near Naples, Italy. After the 10th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron's RBS Express train had been used in 1961 near the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant,{{Cite news |date=14 December 1961 |title=Hawthorne "Bombed" Daily |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/nevada-state-journal/1961-12-14/page-14 |newspaper=Nevada State Journal |access-date=2012-06-20}} SAC's Hawthorne Bomb Plot in nearby Babbitt also scored bomb runs of US Navy aircraft (e.g., out of Naval Air Station Fallon).

On 1 August 1961, SAC's 1st Radar Bomb Scoring Group at Carswell AFB merged with the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group to form the 1st Combat Evaluation Group at Barksdale AFB. Manual RBS "bomb scoring projector" computation of "the bomb problem"{{Cite news |title=Combat Evaluation Group Regulation (CEVGR) 50–6 |publisher=1CEVG }} with scale, protractor,{{Cite news |title=Pen Moves on Tracing Paper and Charts Course of Bomber |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=szoaAAAAIBAJ&dq=bomb-scoring&pg=7559%2C3448802 |newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal |access-date=2012-07-09 |quote=from...Ironwood...A1C...Johnson...and A2C...Passmore... Using scale and protractor...computed the [impact] point}} (description of Milwaukee bomb run tracked by Nike IFC M-20) E6B computer, and bombing tables" was replaced with computerized bomb trajectory integration by the 1965 Reeves AN/MSQ-77 Bomb Directing Central developed for Vietnam War Combat Skyspot bombing. The Bayshore Bomb Plot in Michigan (formerly located in Ironwood, Michigan) was destroyed by a television fire on 26 December 1967,[http://www.reocities.com/Pentagon/quarters/3996/Bayshore.html Bayshore Bomb Plot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222030738/http://www.reocities.com/Pentagon/quarters/3996/Bayshore.html |date=22 February 2014 }}. Reocities.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-18. and in 1969, the Combat Skyspot Trophy was first "awarded annually to the most outstanding [RBS] detachment in the 1st Combat Evaluation Group".{{Cite news |date=22 March 1985 |title=Ashland group awarded Combat Skyspot trophy |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19850322&id=d9E8AAAAIBAJ&pg=3876,3023381 |newspaper=Bangor Daily News |access-date=2012-07-08 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204091917/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19850322&id=d9E8AAAAIBAJ&pg=3876%2C3023381 |url-status=live }}

At least 1 of the SAC RBS sites was operating until mid-1994 when Wilder Radar Bomb Scoring Site closed after the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.{{Cite news |date=29 May 1993 |title=Closure plan saddens radar base chief |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FF1WAAAAIBAJ&pg=5501,6230827&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |access-date=2012-07-10}} In 2005, USAF RBS records were designated for destruction "10 years after inactivation of site".{{cite web|url=http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120702-029.pdf |access-date=27 September 2012|title=Radar Bomb Scoring: RBS Operations}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

The Northrop T-38C was upgraded to have no-drop bomb scoring capability in 2007{{cite web |url=http://www.sheppard.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120424-057.pdf |title=History of the 80th Flying Training Wing Sheppard AFB, Texas |access-date=2012-09-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809084412/http://www.sheppard.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120424-057.pdf |archive-date=9 August 2012 }} by estimating the impact from the onboard GPS-calculated position of release,[https://www.af.mil/News/story/id/123066758/ Last two T-38s get avionics upgrade]. Archive.is. Retrieved on 2013-09-18. and the United States Marine Corps had no-drop bomb scoring at Yuma Proving Ground in 2010.[http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcasyuma/Pages/20100819system.aspx ]{{dead link|date=September 2013}} At least 1 Strategic Air Command RBS site continues as an electronic warfare range—the Belle Fourche Electronic Scoring Site in Powder River Military Operations Area with Infrared Enhance Targets and Unmanned Threat Emitters (the site's call sign remains "Belle Fourche Bomb Plot").{{Cite web |date=8 May 2012 |title=Range Planning and Operations |url=http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/shared/media/epubs/AFI13-212_ACCSUP_ELLSWORTHAFB_ADD_A.pdf |access-date=2012-05-17 }}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

• Bomb Scoring Centrals: SCR-584+RC294, AN/MSQ-1 (AN/MPS-9+OA-132), AN/MSQ-1A (ANMPS-19+OA-626), AN/MSQ-2 (−9+[http://home.rmci.net/cbburke/charlie's/Charliesmilitarymemories.html OA-215)], AN/MSQ-35, AN/MSQ-39, AN/MSQ-77, AN/TPS-43, AN/TSQ-35, AN/TSQ-81, AN/TSQ-96
• Simulators: AN/MPQ-T3 (AAA), AN/MPS-T1, AN/MST-T1, AN/VPQ-1 (TRTG)
• Jammers: AN/MLQ-T4, AN/TLQ-11

• Ironwood, Michigan

{{Reflist |refs=

{{Cite report |author=author tbd |date=9 November 1983 |title=Historical Summary: Radar Bomb Scoring, 1945–1983 |url=http://www.mobileradar.org/Documents/hist_sum_rad_bom_scrg.pdf |format=MobileRadar.org transcription |publisher=Office of History, 1st Combat Evaluation Group |access-date=2012-05-21 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055433/http://www.mobileradar.org/Documents/hist_sum_rad_bom_scrg.pdf |url-status=live }}

{{cite AV media |title=The RBS Express SFP1324 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr6JAkt1jmI |publisher=1365th Photo Sq |access-date=2012-05-17 |quote=idea ... born in 1960 ... USAX 35764 ^5:50 ... USAX 35704^6:10 ... [grain silo near siding]^6:57 }}

{{cite news |title=Combat Evaluation Group – A place for CEVG'ers and Range Rats to Meet }}

• {{cite web |last=McAfee |first=Emerson R |date=20 December 2002 |title=Re: [Combat Evaluation Group] Re: RBS Express |url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/combatevaluationgroup/message/4249 |quote=from Montreal to Lynchburg in 1962. Then on to Richmond in 1963 when we moved. He was in charge in Lynchburg when we had the Goldwater congressional investigation when the wives wrote their congressmen about the deplorable conditions we were forced to endure for about 6 months. ... Col Urban arrived one morning and fired the commander on the spot and sent Hill on a 30-day leave. Capt (at the time) Seitzberg was called in from Laurel to be the new commander and straighten out the problems. [which were:] We arrived and (I'm talking about the single guys) found a rooming house where we could temporarily find a place to sleep. I guess the married folks used motels and started looking for houses to rent or buy. Mother Hill had us riding the old Blue Goose military buses from {{sic|Lychburg}} to Blackstone (Camp Pickett) in our dress blues and carrying our fatigues to work in. This was a trip of 85 miles one way. It took close to 2 hours each way and we only had two shifts, 8 to 8 and vice-versa. That was 7 days a week. If you add that up it came out to 12 hours work and 4 hours travel which only leaves 8 hours. Plus you had to drive from the restaurant where we met to catch the bus, to where you lived. Pretty hard to get 8 hours sleep if you wanted to eat a meal. Plus we had those wonderful trenches for doing our business at the site. That was until they brought in the porta-pottys with the electric incinerators in them. You had to be careful not to turn the switch on while you were still sitting. And of course you can imagine what the smell was like when you hit the switch. ... After Goldwater we went to contracted A/C buses with crappers in the rear, 4 crews, never more than 8-hour duty days, a different crapper at work, and the whole situation got much improved with the change in command. |access-date=15 January 2017 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204091937/https://www.yahoo.com/ |url-status=dead }}
  • {{cite news |author=johnd584 |date=22 January 2002 |title=Message 3202 |quote=I joined Det. B, 263rd AAFBU (RBS) in Sept '47 which was located at Ft. Worth AAfld.}}
  • {{cite web |last=MacDonald |first=Ray |date=4 December 2004 |title=Sites Not Found |url=https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22A+new+Site+Aerial+Photo+File+uploaded.%22 |format=newsgroup posting |publisher=Yahoo 1CEVG group |access-date=2012-07-16 |quote=A new Site Aerial Photo File uploaded. |archive-date=5 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705052427/https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22A+new+Site+Aerial+Photo+File+uploaded.%22 |url-status=live }}
  • {{cite news |last=McAfee |first=Emerson R |title=tbd |quote=train. ... Several of us ... volunteered to go to Lake City in 1964 ... And we had all kinds of volunteers for Mayfield, KY}}
  • {{cite news |last=Withers |first=Daniel A |date=17 February 2005 |title=Message 13073 |quote=Closing Deeth (literally), we relocated to the New Mexico garden spot of Vaughn.}}
  • {{cite news |last=McAfee |first=Emerson R |date=6 August 2005 |title=Re: [Combat Evaluation Group] Greetings! |quote=I was at Det. 8 Richmond from Jun 63 – Apr 72. I also made trips to Browns IL but we were the ones who moved it from Mauk GA to Browns so I was only at Browns for about a week}}

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  Category:Cold War military history of the United States

  Category:Electronic warfare

  Category:Strategic Air Command