The AN/MPQ-2 Close Cooperation Control Unit was a truck-mounted pautomatic tracking radar/computer/communication system ("Q" system) for aircraft command guidance, e.g., missile tracking, and for Radar Bomb Scoring.[1] It was introduced shortly after the end of World War II. For ground directed bombing (GDB), an operator would manually plot a target on the "Blind Bombing Plotting Sheet", then use the manual "E6B computer and bombing tables" to plot the release point for striking the target, after which a radar operator used the AN/MPQ-2 to acquire a track of the bomber near an initial point during which allowed ground control of the bomb run to the release point.
Based on the World War II SCR-584 radar[2] developed by MIT and which was used for the "SCR-584-M missile control Receiver and beacon", the MPQ-2 included an "RC-294 Plotter"[3] and its analog computer for converting radar range, azimuth, and elevation to cartesian coordinates, as well as a plotting board for drawing the aircraft track. The AN/MPQ-2 was the basis for the Rome Air Development Center's AN/MSQ-1 & -2 Close Support Control Sets also used in the Korean War,[4] and the MSQ-1A was used for command guidance of the Matador missile.
Radar Bomb Scoring detachments of the Colorado Springs' 206th Army Air Force Base Unit (organized on June 6, 1945) used MPQ-2s at Kansas City and Fort Worth Army Airfield and in 1946, the 4th launch of a V-2 at White Sands Proving Ground (1946) was tracked by two MPQ-2s.[5] In addition to the CONUS RBS detachments (e.g., Detachments C, K, & N), Detachment 23's AN/MPQ-2 was at the Heston Radar Bomb Scoring Site on November 10, 1950,[6] and after deployment to the Korean War, the three AN/MPQ-2 radars of the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group RBS detachments were transferred in January 1951 under the operational control of the 502nd Tactical Control Group. The MPQ-2 guided Martin B-26 Marauders against enemy positions in front of the 25th Infantry Division."[7] On February 23, 1951, the 1st Boeing B-29 Superfortress mission controlled by an MPQ-2 was flown.[8]