ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Eighty-eight years ago this month, the Army and the Signal Corps capabilities transformed with the first successful demonstration of radar by the Signal Corps Laboratories. Radar served a decisive role in World War II. Today, radar is essential to the military’s defense and has been integrated into the public's everyday lives. 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, New Jersey.
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 responded favorably and urged the Signal Corps to develop a long-range version as an early warning device. With this high-level support, the Signal Corps received the funds needed to continue its development program. The funding developed a searchlight control and gun-laying detector, a surface vessel detector, a long-range aircraft detector, and a tracker for directing pursuit planes.
The Army’s radar research dates 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 to locate approaching enemy aircraft by the noise of their engines. In 1937, Blair, then a colonel and 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 conducted by the Army Ordnance Department and the Corps of Engineers, along with the Signal Corps. By 1936, the Signal Corps was the sole Army organization responsible for the development.
Radar sets were in place in Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and detected the incoming Japanese bombardment, but unfortunately, the warnings were disregarded. Radar was credited with turning the tide of World War II, affecting the outcome of two key engagements: the Battle of Britain and the Battle of the Atlantic. The Japanese in the Pacific theater were at a distinct disadvantage as they were without radar, while the Allied ships were equipped with early warning radar. The development and use of radar transformed the Army’s abilities to track and respond to air attacks, setting the stage for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance development and innovation that continues to support Soldiers today.
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