• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

• DELANEY AND WARD Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years William P. Delaney and William W. Ward I This article provides an overview of the first fifty years of radar development at Lincoln Laboratory. It begins by reviewing early Laboratory efforts in North American air defense, which quickly branched into efforts in missile defense and space surveillance as the Soviet Union developed missiles and launched satellites into space. In the 1970s, two other radar-intensive activities began at the Laboratory: a program in tactical surveillance arose out of the challenges of the Vietnam War, and a program in air traffic control responded to the need to modernize systems for control of civilian aircraft. Research in advanced air defense also returned to the Laboratory with the advent of the modern cruise missile. This article summarizes these major Laboratory radar programs in a synoptic fashion, which can serve the reader as a road map to the ensuing fourteen articles, each of which provides a more in-depth view of the Laboratory’s radar developments. - Laboratory directly involve radar development, tech- ogy has been involved in radar development nology, or experimentation. Tsince 1940, when the security challenges of World War II inspired the development of working Fifty Years of Radar Development military radars based on ideas and crude experiments The cartoon “tree” of Figure 1 is a simple graphic way of earlier decades. The MIT Radiation Laboratory to convey a macroscopic view of radar developments was a focal point for much of the Allied development at Lincoln Laboratory. The roots of the tree represent of microwave radar, and astounding progress was the pioneering work performed at the Radiation made during the Radiation Laboratory era, which Laboratory during World War II. The branches of the spanned 1940 to 1945 [1, 2]. The Radiation Labora- tree are the major radar program areas that have tory ceased operations in 1945, but many of the tal- evolved at Lincoln Laboratory over time. Lincoln ented researchers who worked on radar development Laboratory’s initial charter was to support the devel- remained in the New England area. opment of a North American air-defense system The threat of attack on the United States by long- called SAGE, for Semi-Automatic Ground Environ- range Soviet bombers carrying nuclear weapons led to ment. The SAGE system used ground-based radars, the formation of Lincoln Laboratory (originally sea-based radars on ocean platforms called Texas Tow- Project Lincoln) in 1951. From its start, the Labora- ers, and airborne radars to detect enemy aircraft. tory was heavily involved in radar development [3], Digital communication links conveyed this informa- and that involvement has continued to the present. tion to command centers, where the first large real- Typically, fifty percent of today’s programs at the time digital processors—novelties at that time— VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2, 2000 LINCOLN LABORATORY JOURNAL 147 • DELANEY AND WARD Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years tracked the radar targets and guided fighter-intercep- development of the modern cruise missile and the re- tors to engage the intruding aircraft. Although Lin- newed air-defense concerns it caused. coln Laboratory’s primary responsibility was to invent Figure 2 puts more of the “twigs and leaves” on the the needed command-and-control processes by using tree of Figure 1. The dates are approximate and the the newly emerging technology of digital computers, numerous abbreviations are explained throughout many developments in radar technology were also this issue. By no means did Lincoln Laboratory have needed to provide the “clean” data demanded by the sole responsibility for every project depicted in Figure computer. 2. This was an era of significant collaboration among The tree of radar development shown in Figure 1 industry, government, and laboratory researchers, quickly branched in the late 1950s to include missile and we acknowledge the contributions of a great defense, and then branched again to include space number of organizations. For example, industry was surveillance, fields driven by the Soviet Union’s rapid the main performer in radar systems such as development of ballistic missiles and satellites. The BMEWS, Cobra Dane, and Cobra Judy. Lincoln Vietnam conflict of the late 1960s occasioned further Laboratory played a significant but supporting role in branching into radar technology for tactical battle- these projects. Also, much of the Laboratory’s contri- field applications. This activity was followed in the bution to radar was not in the development of spe- early 1970s by the branching into air traffic control cific radars but in the development of advanced radar with the advent of a major program for the Federal techniques, associated technology, and the under- Aviation Administration. The last major branch in standing of radar phenomenology. These topics are the tree occurred in the late 1970s in response to the the focus of many of the articles in this special issue. 2000 1990 1980 Air Defense Tactical Air Traffic 1970 Surveillance Control Space 1960 Surveillance Missile Defense Air Defense 1950 MIT Lincoln Laboratory MIT Radiation Laboratory 1940 FIGURE 1. A conceptual radar “tree,” illustrating the five main areas of radar activity at Lincoln Laboratory. Research in radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II provided the foundation for early Lincoln Laboratory work on an air-defense system called SAGE, or Semi-Automatic Ground Environment. Over time, this work branched into areas of missile defense and air defense, which then branched further into additional programs in space surveillance, air traf- fic control, and tactical surveillance. 148 LINCOLN LABORATORY JOURNAL VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2, 2000 • DELANEY AND WARD Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years Space Missile Air Tactical Air Traffic Surveillance Defense/Offense Defense Surveillance Control 2000 AEGIS Upgrades Discoverer II Image Exploitation ECM Test Bed ASR-9 9-PAC X-band SAR ROSA ROSA MINIRAD ASR-9 WSP Cobra Gemini Mountaintop Rail SAR GBR-P Wake Vortex LIDAR LCE Radar FOPEN Space Debris THAAD Radar ITWS 1990 Characterization Bandwidth Expansion Seeker Test Bed Flashlight Navy UHF Radar HAX Ground-Based Radar F-15, F-16 Tests SAR PRM/TATCA Firepond Laser (Pulsed) Space Based Radar UAV/AMTI AN/FPS-85 Modified Cobra Judy ASDE/ASTA L-X Radar Airborne Laser VHF Radar Weather Radar ALTAIR Deep Space Cobra Judy I-Hawk Tests AGSR ASR-9 Millimeter Wave Phase-One Radar AN/TPS-5X 1980 TCAS Phase-Zero Radar Haystack LRIR (WB) Cobra Dane MASR Air Defense Moving-Target HOWLS UHF Steerable Kwajalein Laser (Cruise Missiles) Detector SATCIT UHF Demo BCAS Firepond Laser (CW) Millstone Deep Space Camp Sentinel MLS Haystack Deep Space (NB) ALCOR Geodar DABS/Mode S 1970 UHF Incoherent Scatter ALTAIR Tactical Air Traffic Surveillance El Campo Control L-band Pirinclik Millstone Haystack TRADEX AMRAD 1960 Millimeter Lunar ARIS Project Mercury Wallops Island Boston Hill RSR Space BMEWS High-Altitude Nuclear Tests Surveillance Trinidad Prince Albert Jug Handle Hill Missile Defense Porcupine Chipmunk Sentinel UHF Millstone AEW/AMTI Turkey Radar (AN/FPS-17) Ground Wave Missile Detection Air Defense Flutter Radar (Fluttar) DEW-Line Radar SAGE Cape Cod System MIT Lincoln Laboratory 1950 Air Defense 1945 MIT Radiation Laboratory 1940 FIGURE 2. The expanded radar “tree.” Lincoln Laboratory had varying degrees of involvement in the nearly one hundred radar activities illustrated here. In most instances, the Laboratory was the principal developer. In some instances, U.S. industry was the lead developer, and the Laboratory played a supporting role. VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2, 2000 LINCOLN LABORATORY JOURNAL 149 • DELANEY AND WARD Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years tral computer (the AN/FSQ-7), and improved dis- Air Defense—The First Years play and control consoles for the human operators The story of the development of SAGE and its early who were an integral part of the SAGE system. Figure experimental model, the Cape Cod System, has been 3 shows operations at a SAGE Direction Center at told in detail elsewhere [4–6]. The first major Lincoln Lincoln Laboratory. The AN/FSQ-7 computer had a Laboratory effort in air defense, the Cape Cod Sys- processing rate of about 100,000 instructions per sec- tem, was designed to integrate a surveillance net con- ond, which is much less processing power than sisting of large search radars, height-finding radars, today’s least expensive laptops—talk about efficient and gap-filler radars with a central digital computer software! (called Whirlwind) by using telephone lines for data The first radar development needed to make transfer. The computer accepted target data from the SAGE work was to improve the performance of mov- radars and created tracks showing the positions and ing-target-indicator circuitry, which separates the movements of the enemy aircraft. The computer then echoes of the fast-moving objects of interest, namely, formulated a response and sent messages to the airplanes in flight, from echoes of slow-moving ob- fighter aircraft so that they could intercept the target jects such as waves on the ocean and birds, and non- aircraft. moving objects such as buildings and mountains. The The first version of the Cape Cod System was fully second radar development came from an urgent need operational in September 1953, and it demonstrated to strengthen the ability of radars to extract informa- that air battles could be managed with such a system. tion despite radio-frequency interference and jam- The next step was the augmentation of the Cape Cod ming. Both of these developments profited from the System to form the Experimental SAGE Subsector, enlarged understanding of communication theory, of which covered more of New England.

Load more

  20

Copy Link