May marks the 83rd anniversary of the first successful demonstration of radar by the Signal Corps Laboratories. Today, radar is an essential aspect of the military’s defense, and had been integrated into the everyday lives of the public. On May 26, 1937 the Signal Corps demonstrated its still crude radar, the future SCR-268, for Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring; Brig. Gen. Henry H. (Hap) Arnold, assistant chief of the Air Corps; and other government officials at Fort Monmouth.
The top-secret device, developed at the Signal Corps Laboratories using a combined method of heat and radio pulse-echo detection, successfully picked up an incoming bomber in the dark. Arnold, responding favorably, urged the Signal Corps to develop a long-range version for use as an early warning device. With this high-level support, the Signal Corps received the funds it needed to continue its development program. The funding allowed definite projects for the development of a searchlight control and gun-laying detector, a surface vessel detector, and a long-range aircraft detector and a tracker for directing pursuit planes.
The Army’s radar research dates back to World War I, when Maj. William Blair, who then headed the Signal Corps’ Meteorological Section in the American Expeditionary Forces, conducted experiments in sound ranging for the purpose of locating approaching enemy aircraft by the noise of their engines. In 1937, Col. Blair, then director of the Signal Corps Laboratories, successfully demonstrated the technology to the Secretary of War, and was later awarded the patent for radar, titled “Object Locating System” in 1957. It is one of those flukes of history that the Signal Corps gained ownership over the process, as earlier research was also conducted by the Army Ordnance Department and the Corps of Engineers. By 1936, the Signal Corps was the sole Army organization responsible for the development. Radar was one of the most important technologies of World War II, and its use in detecting incoming aircraft is credited with helping the Allies win that war. Today, the Army and the C5ISR Community employ radar for both combat and non-combat purposes.
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