Reeves AN/TPQ-2 Close Air Support System

After the Air Medal was awarded for development of ground-directed bombing in Italy for World War II Close Air Support, a detachment of NAS Mojave's "Pilotless Aircraft Unit" was established in 1945 on a SeaBee military installation at Point Mugu[3] (4 officers and 11 enlisted men). A Bureau of Aeronautics committee's December 1945 Study of the Requirements for Pilotless Aircraft for Fleet Use in 1950 was approved 3 months later, and the KGW-1 Loon was 1 of its 18 missile proposals. The detachment's "Marine LtCol Marion Dalby and Dr. Herbert Wagner",[3] the latter arriving by Operation Paperclip in early 1946,[4] developed "NAVAIR’s TPQ-2 Close Air Support System" for command guidance of the KGW-1 Loon missile for submarine attacks on mapped Japanese "beach-head fortifications".[3] Point Mugu development of the KGW-1 and its test launch facilities were by "Jack Schoenhair's gang" and included additional Operation Paperclip scientists "Willy Fiedler, Robert Lusser and Otto Schwede".[3][4][5] The 1st KGW-1 launch was in January 1946,[6] and its 1st submarine launch was February 12, 1947, using rocket assist[4] developed by Robert Truax's team.

The transportable AN/TPQ-2 included a World War II surplus SCR-584 radar and, as in the AN/MSQ-1, a Reeves Instrument Corporation analog computer for converting the radar's spherical coordinates to rectangular coordinates, and a Reeves "plotting board to yield course changes, a warhead arming signal and a dump [dive] command to the Loon".[3] A "Marine F6F fighter" was to escort the KGW-1 for safety (e.g., to abort by shooting a missile straying back over land)[3] and during simulated KGW-1 missions, MSgt. Clark. D Hayden used the system to instead control the manned fighter. During Dalby's 2nd mission piloting a "Loon simulation flight" he "wondered why…prefer [sub-launched, 1,000 lb payload] Loon over a two thousand lb. Bomb” from a piloted aircraft launched by a carrier. Dalby briefed Point Mugu's Director of Tests, Captain Grayson Merrill, when "both realized…we were talking about [an] all-weather, close-air support system" and "Dalby and I conceived the idea of converting [its use to] Close Air Support."[3] Dalby and Cpt. Samuel A. Dressin redesigned the system (e.g., switched from the SCR-584 to the SCR-784 radar), and the TPQ-2 was demonstrated at Camp Pendelton in April 1950.[3] Dalby claimed dummy bombs from 18,000 ft (5,500 m) would drop within 150 yd (140 m) of the target, and a direct hit on a terrain feature was observed by the 1st Marine Air Wing Chief of Staff.[7] Lt. Col. Homer G. Hutchinson helped the project receive support including two F4U night-fighters and pilots for training.