Air Force Missile Development Center Explained

Unit Name: Air Force Missile Development Center
Dates:1 September 1957-1 August 1970[1]
Country:United States
Branch:United States Air Force, assigned to:

with predecessors assigned to:

Role:Research & Development

The Air Force Missile Development Center and its predecessors were Cold War units that conducted and supported numerous missile tests using facilities at Holloman Air Force Base, where the center was the host unit ("Holloman" and "Development Center" were sometimes colloquially used to identify military installations in the Tularosa Basin).

Background

Planned for British Overseas Training which was not pursued, World War II construction for a Tularosa Basin USAAF base 6miles west of Alamogordo, New Mexico, began on 6 February 1942. A nearby military range was established by Executive Order No. 9029,[2] and the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range was designated on 14 May 1942. On 27 May 1942 the USAAF base was designated Alamogordo Field Training Station for range support and was subsequently named Alamogordo Army Air Base.[3]

359th Base Headquarters

The 359th Base Headquarters was the base operating unit for Alamorgordo AAB beginning on 10 June 1942, and the base was redesignated Alamogordo Army Air Field on 21 November 1942 and supported numerous WWII Bomber Groups (range targets were added in late 1942.) In October 1944 at Wendover Army Air Base, Utah, the Special Weapons Field Test Unit was established as a detachment of the Special Weapons Branch in Ohio to evaluate captured and experimental systems such as the Republic‐Ford JB‐2, a copy of the German V-1 flying bomb. South of Alamogordo AAF between White Sands National Monument and Fort Bliss, water well drilling began construction of White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG) facilities on 25 June 1945.

On 25 March 1944, the 231st AAF BU became the base operating unit, and in 1946 the post-war Alamogordo AAF was "manned by a skeleton crew merely as a plane refueling station, [for] emergency landings, etc" (the USACE property division "acquired...exclusive use of all private lands and interests within the Alamogordo Bombing Range until 1967".) In March 1947, the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group of Florida began Republic-Ford JB-2 testing at the Alamogordo range, and the Special Weapons Field Test Unit was inactivated when Wendover transferred to Strategic Air Command.[4] Equipment and 1,200 personnel of the Test Unit moved to a new Alamogordo AAF unit organized 16 March 1947 (4145th Army Air Forces Base Unit), and the move continued until September 1947 for R&D of pilotless aircraft, guided missiles, and other programs. The Balloon Branch at Alamogordo AAF began in 1947 after an Air Materiel Command awarded a contract to New York University (NYU) to develop and fly high-altitude balloons.[5] The 4145th was redesignated an Air Force Base Unit on 27 September 1947 during the month the USAF was created, and in late 1947[6] the former USAAF bombing range and the White Sands Proving Ground merged to become the New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range. The former USAAF air base was designated Holloman Air Force Base on 14 January 1948, and the 2754th Air Force Base was its host unit after being established from the 4145th AFBU on 15 August 1948 (the 2754th AFB unit's "Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron" were established by 15 December 1948).[7]

Alamogordo Guided Missile Test Base

The Alamogordo Guided Missile Test Base near Holloman AFB continued to be used for testing in 1948 and later[8] (July 1951 – 31 August 1952), sub-base of the AFMTC in Florida, and the 2754th subsequently developed additional launch support sites at/near the former bombing range (e.g., Four Bits Peak Instrumentation Annex assigned June 1949 "7 mi ESE of Alamogordo, NM"). In March 1949, the 2754th took "control of [the Army's range] support airfield, Condron Field...from Biggs Army Air Field at Fort Bliss." The 2754th and subsequent units' launches at the test base and other sites such as for the Tiny Tim (the first Army rocket), GAM-63 RASCAL, and XQ-2 Drone, e.g.:

Reorganizations changed the Holloman wing's name to the 2754th Experimental Wing (on 20 September 1949—the 2d Guided Missiles Squadron was a subordinate from 25 October-30 December 1950), the 6540th Missile Test Group (30 June 1951, later 6580th Missile Test Group on 1 September 1952) which had an "Aero-Medical Sub-Unit...to support the Aeromedical Field Laboratory." In May 1952, an additional NaNmiles area was set aside to add to the "Alamogordo bombing range, White Sands proving ground, and the Fort Bliss antiaircraft range".[21]

Development centers

The Holloman Air Development Test Center (later Holloman Air Development Center, HADC) was established from the 6580th Wing on 10 October 1952 while Colonel Don R. Ostrander was the commander[22] (7 June 1952 – 26 September 1954). On 1 October 1953, HADC continued as the test unit after transferring "base operating unit" responsibilities to the 6580th Test Support Wing. ARDC's Dr. Ernst Steinhoff "in the 1950s was building up the Air Development Center at Holloman Air Force Base through most of the decade".[23] The center supported tests for Air Force flights and upcoming manned space flights,[24] e.g., 1955 Project Manhigh, 1959–60 Project Excelsior, the first human tests in the rocket sled firings,[25] and Ham, a chimpanzee, who went through astronaut training in 1959.[26]

The Air Force Missile Development Center (AFMDC. "AF Mil Dev Test Cen") was designated from HADC on 1 September 1957, the year when a Matador missile from the center crashed in western Colorado[27] (the joint range was renamed White Sands Missile Range on 1 May 1958) The 6571st Aeromedical Research Laboratory was activated 1 December 1961 as an AFMDC unit, and the center's Twin Buttes Instrumentation Annex "16 mi SSW of Alamogordo, NM" (assigned December 1949) transferred under the WSMR Army headquarters in November 1963.

6585th Test Group

The AFMDC and the 6571st lab were inactivated on 1 August 1970;[1] more than 450 military and 570 civilian positions were lost; and the AFSWC's 6585th Test Group was established as a tenant of Tactical Air Command, to which Holloman AFB transferred. Associate units and programs transferred to other locations within Air Force Systems Command. In addition to the Holloman High Speed Test Track operated by the 6585th's "Armaments Division" in 1974,[28] remaining facilities included the Central Inertial Guidance Test Facility (CIGTF), the Radar Target Scatter Facility (RATSCAT), and the Target Drone Facility.

Notes and References

  1. Air Force Systems Command Special Order G-94
  2. Web site: Dunes and Dreams: A History of White Sands National Monument . Michael Welsh . 1995 . As early as January 30, 1946, he wrote to the regional director that "the [Alamogordo Army Air Base] will be manned by a skeleton crew merely as a plane refueling station, emergency landings, etc. ..." The Engineers' property division had "acquired the fee simple title to all private owned lands within the Fort Bliss Anti-Aircraft Range, has the exclusive use of all private lands and interests within the Alamogordo Bombing Range until 1967 ...".
  3. Mueller . Robert . 1989 . Air Force Bases . I: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 . Office of Air Force History . 0-912799-53-6 . 2013-08-15.
  4. http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/179/518.xml AFHRA Document 00179518, Pictorial Brochure of the Special Weapons Field Test Unit, Wendover Army Air Base, Utah
  5. Web site: Holloman Air Force Base – Alamogordo, New Mexico.
  6. Integration of the Holloman-White Sands Ranges, 1947–1952 (2nd Edition, 1957)
  7. Web site: United States v. Allen . Court-Martial Reports of the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force . LLMC.
  8. 1948 . Alamogordo Guided Missile Test Base: Progress Summary Report . Air Force History Index.org abstract . iris 01013761 . 2013-10-03 . Early Warning Radars Razon, Radio Controlled Bombs Tarzon, Radio Controlled Bombs Radar Development.
  9. Bushnell . David . 1986-08-25 . GAPA: Holloman's First Missile Program . Scribd.com image . Air Force Missile Development Center: Historical Branch . iris 00169113 . 2013-08-11 . [1st ramjet GAPA] "was launched 14 November 1947 and the initial liquid-fuel variety 12 March 1948.8 ... The last of the GAPAs, number 114, was launched 15 August 1950, and the project officially terminated at Holloman the following month.11. (date identified at http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/169/113.xml)
  10. Web site: A Brief History of White Sands Proving Ground 1941–1965 . Peter L. Eidenbach . https://web.archive.org/web/20141028154222/http://nmsua.edu/tiopete/files/2008/12/wspgcoldbook.pdf . 2014-10-28.
  11. Web site: History of Research in Space Biology and Biodynamics at the Air Force Missile Development Center . Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico . 1946–1958 . Project MX-1450R, Physiology of Rocket Flight ... Standards Laboratory at Holloman ... Scott Crossfield and the Air Force's Major Charles E. Yeager both flew a number of Keplerian trajectories ... in January 1953 [the Aeromedical Field Laboratory] became a function of the local [Holloman Air Development] Center ... the Aeromedical Field Laboratory in 1953 was placed directly under the Center's 6580th Test Group, and was thus on an equal standing with the 6580th Missile Test Squadron and the 6580th Special Test Squadron (which in turn included the Holloman Balloon Unit) ... in 1956 the Aromedical Field Laboratory was made part of a newly created Directorate of Research and Development. ... test installation . https://web.archive.org/web/20140518205113/http://spacemedicineassociation.org/timeline/1941-1948/History%20of%20Holloman%20AFB%20Space%20Biology%20.pdf . 2014-05-18.
  12. Book: Meeter, George F. . 1967 . The Holloman Story: Eyewitness accounts of Space Age research . University of New Mexico Press . Albuquerque . 47 . 9780826300775 . 1430870 . 2014-05-15.
  13. Book: Turner Publishing Company. Air Force Missileers. 1998. Turner Publishing Company. 978-1-56311-455-7. 20.
  14. Web site: Untitled . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170904/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/af/100_years_of_flight.pdf . 2016-03-03 .
  15. U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles, (2009), George Mindling, Robert Bolton
  16. Web site: Hughes AIM-4 Falcon.
  17. Van Citters . Karen . Bissen . Kristen . June 2003 . National Register of Historic Places: Historic Context and Evaluation for Kirland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico . 2013-06-16 . first operational Genie rockets onto F-89J aircraft. Problems cleared during 1956 included rocket fin modifications, rocket engine temperature control and storage matters, final testing of systems components, flight-testing and examining possible weapon vulnerability, and hazards in operational situations. Results of ground firings at Holloman Air Development Center in 1956 revealed a fin instability problem. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130601170303/http://www.denix.osd.mil/cr/upload/kirtland-historic-context_0.pdf . 2013-06-01 .
  18. Web site: 1 September 2012 . Highlights – 500th Balloon Launch . HiddenHolloman website . 2014-05-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140518190713/http://hiddenholloman.blogspot.com/2012/09/highlights-500th-balloon-launch.html . 18 May 2014 . (cites "Chronology of Events, Air Force Missile Development Center 1941–1958, AFHRA IRIS 0487401")
  19. Web site: 1997 . SM-73 Bull Goose . FAS.org . 2007-11-10.
  20. newsletter . Lake . Dale . Fall 2008 . Call Sign Updates . TAC Missileers . 10 . 3 . 2013-07-18 . The AN/MSQ/1A Training was done at the small community of Bonn, near Ramstein Air Base. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081212111119/http://www.tacmissileers.com/MISSILEER.html . 2008-12-12 .
  21. News: New Mexico Area Will Be Missile Range . 28 May 1952 . The Milwaukee Journal .
  22. Web site: Holloman Air Force Base – Fact Sheet (Printable) : 96TH TEST GROUP HISTORY . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130315234526/http://www.holloman.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=5950&page=1 . 2013-03-15 .
  23. Weitze . Karen J. . November 1999 . Cold War Infrastructure for Strategic Air Command: The Bomber Mission . United States Army Corps of Engineers . 2013-08-15 . 3 . German scientific-engineering community of World War II are many and subtle. Those who stayed within the U.S. military civil service system often worked at the GS-15 to GS-17 level—the uppermost grade levels within the system. Those who left were behind the scenes in noteworthy places. … Examples include Dr. Ernst A . Steinhoff, Dr. Martin Schilling, and Dr. Bruno Balke, among many.. (see also:
    Weitze, Karen. 1997. "Guided Missiles at Holloman Air Force Base: Test Programs of the United States Air Force in Southern New Mexico, 1947–1970." Alamogordo: Holloman Air Force Base.
  24. Book: Bushnell, David . James Stephen Hanrahan, Chief of Historical Office . History of Research in Space Biology and Biodynamics at the Air Force Missile Development Center, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico 1946–1958 . United States Air Force, Air Force Missile Development Center . Holloman Air Force Base . 1958 . 9 August 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090706090249/https://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/top.htm. 6 July 2009 . live.
  25. Book: Burgess , Colin . Colin Burgess (author). Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Springer. 978-0-387-36053-9. 2007. 109 . 17 August 2009.
  26. Web site: A Brief History of Animals in Space. 12 May 2008. Gray. Tara. 1998. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. https://web.archive.org/web/20080512082239/https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html. 12 May 2008 . live.
  27. News: Missile Goes Wild, Crashes in Rockies . The Milwaukee Journal . 21 February 1957.
  28. 1974 . The Holloman Track . Armament Division . Holloman Air Force Base. (cited by NRHP nomination)

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