The
Second World War had shown the destructiveness of aerial attack and made General
Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, an aggressive advocate for aeronautical research. On 7 November 1944, Arnold directed the AAF Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) to study the technological achievements of America's wartime allies and provide a blueprint for large-scale research and development of science and advanced technology for the Air Force. However, the Army Air Forces needed to achieve independence, which it did on 18 September 1947, with its transition into an independent
United States Air Force. Also, the role of the Air Force in the postwar world had to be defined. The
1948 Finletter Commission published its report,
Survival in the Air Age, in January 1948. It set forth a new concept of airpower, as a powerful peacetime force able to counter any enemy air attack. The Finletter Report inspired a group of senior USAF officers with backgrounds in engineering and related fields to analyze the existing R&D organization. Their findings, and the salesmanship of Generals
Jimmy Doolittle and
Donald Putt, convinced
Air Force Chief of Staff General
Hoyt S. Vandenberg to put the R&D mission on a more equal footing with the operational Air Force. Accordingly, and in the face of intense Air Staff opposition, on 23 January 1950, the Research and Development Command (RDC) came into being. Established at Washington D.C., with an initial assignment of 20 officers, 5 airmen, and 20 civilians, Major General David M. Schlatter was appointed as its first commander. The command's name was changed to Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) on 16 September 1950. The original transition plan called for ARDC to gradually assume Air Materiel Command's research and development responsibilities, but the transfer process proved to be much more difficult than planned. ARDC leadership favoured a "one-time, one-date," assumption of all research and development activities while AMC preferred the gradual transfer as originally planned. Also ARDC and AMC could not agree on where development ended and production began. General Vandenberg settled the disputes by issuing a 28 March 1951 directive, calling for the immediate activation of ARDC as an "independent Air Force Command, effective 2 April 1951." General Vandenberg directed the transfer to ARDC of
Edwards,
Holloman, and
Griffiss Air Force Bases; the
Cambridge,
Watson, Climatic Project Laboratories, and the Upper Air Research Station. The
Air Force Flight Test Center and
Air Force Missile Test Center also joined the new command. The former Watson laboratory, relocated to Griffiss AFB, soon became the
Rome Air Development Center. HQ USAF established the Air Development Force at Wright-Patt AFB in April 1951. As part of ARDC, the Wright Air Development Center (WADC) was formed at Wright-Patterson AFB. WADC conglomerated four elements extracted from Air Material Command: Engineering, flight test, all-weather flying, and air research. WADC was reorganized and renamed the Wright Air Development Division (WADD) in 1959 until it became the Aeronautical Systems Division under AFSC two years later. The
Arnold Engineering Development Center was dedicated by President
Harry S. Truman on 25 June 1951. tanker aircraft. During the 1950s, ARDC began to make its mark, developing many ambitious aircraft and missile prototypes. Among the successes of this period were the
North American F-86 Sabre swept wing fighter, the
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress intercontinental bomber, the
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker jet-powered refueling tanker aircraft, the
Lockheed C-130 Hercules turboprop transport and the
Lockheed U-2 very high-altitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft. In 1949 a Human Resources Research Center was established at
Lackland Air Force Base, which developed classification and other tests, focusing on ways to improve personal effectiveness. However, some of these functions were under Air Training Command, while others fell under ARDC, while the School of Aerospace Medicine was now part of
Air University. from 1954 until 1961.
Satellite and missile development The
German Army's employment of the
V-2 rocket had demonstrated the viability of ballistic missiles during the
Second World War. The
United States Army Air Forces began developing U.S. ballistic missiles immediately after the end of the war. However, initial efforts to combine ballistic missiles and
nuclear weapons was technologically infeasible until the development of
thermonuclear weapons. In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union outpaced the United States in ballistic missile development, leading to the convening of the
Teapot Committee to determine why the United States was struggling. In accordance with the Teapot Committee's recommendations,
Air Research and Development Command established the
Western Development Division (WDD) at
Los Angeles Air Force Station under Brigadier General
Bernard Schriever on 1 July 1954. The Western Development Division's first program was the
Convair SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, however by 1955 it initiated development of the
Martin HGM-25A Titan I ICBM and
Douglas PGM-17 Thor intermediate range ballistic missile. In October 1955, the Western Development Division gained responsibility for
spacecraft development when the Weapon System 117L satellite (nicknamed PIED PIPER), intended to conduct reconnaissance and missile warning, was transferred from the
Wright Air Development Center. WS-117L formed the basis of the
Samos and
CORONA satellites. Brigadier General
Bernard Schriever, Commander, WDD, was instructed to prepare a system development plan for WS-117L. On 1 June 1957, the Western Development Division was renamed the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division. The Weapon System 117L program, initially intending to perform a variety of task under different sub-systems, was broken into three different programs in 1959. The
Discoverer Program, better known as Corona, was a photographic reconnaissance satellite that ejected film for recovery in-atmosphere. The Discoverers were launched using a
Thor-Agena booster, with
Discoverer 1 becoming the first satellite to enter a
polar orbit and
Discoverer 2 was the first to have
three-axis stabilization. In 1960,
Discoverer 13 was the first to return a capsule when it crashed into the
Pacific Ocean and
Discoverer 14 marked the first successful return of film when it was
recovered in-air by a
6593d Test Squadron Fairchild JC-119 Flying Boxcar. The
Satellite and Missile Observation Program (SAMOS), was intended as a heavier counterpart to Discoverer and used the
Atlas-Agena booster. SAMOS was intended to collect photographic and electromagnetic reconnaissance data, but instead of returning film capsules to earth, SAMOS would electronically transmit the data to ground stations. However, the technology for electro-optical film readout was not mature and it was canceled by
Undersecretary of the Air Force Joseph V. Charyk. The
Missile Defense Alarm System (MIDAS) was the third program derived from WS 117L and focused on providing missile warning of ICBMs using infrared sensors. Initial plans called for a constellation of eight spacecraft in polar orbits to monitor the Soviet Union, however due to early satellite failures it remained a test program until 1968. To control these satellites, in 1958 the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division established an interim satellite control facility at
Lockheed Missile and Space Division. On 6 April 1959, the
6594th Test Wing was established to operate the facility and on 1 March 1960 it transferred operations to
Sunnyvale Air Force Station in California. It also established a global
Air Force Satellite Control Network. On 16 November 1959, the 6592nd Support Group was established to manage
Los Angeles Air Force Station. The first space missions launched by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division were not DOD, but the scientific
Pioneer lunar probes. First directed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, they were later turned over to NASA. The Thor-Able rocket was specifically developed by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Agency for these lunar missions, which aimed to enhance scientific knowledge and American global prestige during the
Cold War. ARPA assigned the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division responsibility for three probes to be launched with the Thor-Able, the
Army Ballistic Missile Agency two probes to be launched with the
Juno II, and the
Naval Ordnance Test Station to provide the imaging system.
Pioneer 0,
Pioneer 1, and
Pioneer 2 were the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division's lunar probes. While Pioneer 0 and Pioneer 2 suffered launch failures and Pioneer 1 only travelled a third of the way to the Moon, it was the world's first
deep space probe and provided information on the extent of the
Van Allen radiation belts. The command played a major contribution in the development of
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The first detonation of a
thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb was the "George" test of
Operation Greenhouse by the United States on 9 May 1951. In response, the
Soviet Union raced to reduce their vulnerability, detonating a thermonuclear device on 23 August 1953. A crash program was begun to develop the first U.S. ICBM, the
SM-65 Atlas. The Atlas became operational in 1959. In terms of importance, resources, and success, the ICBM program was rivalled only by the famed
Manhattan Project of World War II. The SM-65 Atlas ICBM was turned over SAC by the end of 1962. In 1960, the HGM-25A Titan I ICBM made its first flight and was turned over to Strategic Air Command in 1962, completing the deployment of the first-generation ballistic missiles. These first-generation ballistic missiles also served as the foundation for the first-generation of
space launch vehicles. The first space launch vehicle developed by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division was the
Thor-Able, which used a Thor IRBM as the first stage and a
Vanguard-derived
Able. Its first launch was on 11 October 1958. The first satellite launched by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division was the
Army Signal Corps SCORE using an
Atlas B. The
Thor and
Atlas rocket families would form the core of the United States' space launch fleet. Following its 1958 establishment,
NASA immediately began using the Thor for space launches and in 1959 developed the
Thor-Delta. The Atlas was adopted by NASA in 1959 and
Project Mercury used the
Atlas LV-3B for its orbital flights, with the Army's
Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle used only for sub-orbital flights.
Computing, Atlas, and AF Systems Command AIMACO, the "Supply Control Command compiler" for
Air
Materiel
Command, began circa 1959 with the definition of a
high level programming language influenced by the
UNIVAC Flow-Matic and
COMTRAN programming languages. The draft AIMACO language definition was developed by an AMC-chaired committee of industry representatives from
IBM,
United States Steel, and AMC Programming Services. AIMACO had two compilers specified/designed (never produced), and AMC originally intended all programming for AMC systems would be in AIMACO and compiled on a UNIVAC at the AMC headquarters at Wright-Patterson AFB for operation on UNIVAC or IBM computers. An alternative compiler was designed by AMC Programming Services to compile systems on IBM computers for operation on IBM computers. AIMACO, along with FLOW-MATIC and COMTRAN, influenced development of the
COBOL programming language. The Atlas program led to the belief that the entire responsibility for deploying new weapons systems – from research, development and testing through procurement and production – should be vested in one command, rather than split between Air Materiel Command (AMC) and ARDC. It was the
Soviet Union's launch of
Sputnik 1 in October 1957 that greatly influenced HQ USAF and ARDC thinking. ARDC's Air Defense Systems Management Office was redesignated as the
Air Defense Systems Integration Division on February 24, 1958. The
Stever Report, completed in June 1958, which proposed a new Air Force command for weapons acquisition. With this report and a realization of DoD's desire to assign the military space mission to the Air Force, the Air Force won the approval of
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in 1961 for a new major command. The final disposition of ADSID was not yet determined. In the reorganization of 1961, Air Materiel Command was re-designated
Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) while Air Research and Development Command, gaining responsibility for weapon system acquisition, was re-designated
Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) under General
Bernard Schriever. The Ballistic Missile Division was to continue the work of the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division on second-generation ballistic missiles. The first major missile system it worked on was the
LGM-25C Titan II ICBM, which was an improvement over the LGM-25A Titan I. The Titan II had storable propellent, an all-inertial guidance system, and could be launched from underground
missile silos. The first Titan IIs went on alert with Strategic Air Command in June 1963. The BMD also began development of the
LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM, which was the first Air Force ballistic missile to use solid fuel rather than liquid fuel. The first Minuteman I was launched by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division on 1 February 1962 and turned over to Strategic Air Command on 11 September 1962. By 1965, the Minuteman I had replaced the Atlas and Titan I ICBMs. The Space Systems Division provided close support to NASA's
Project Mercury, providing three of the
Mercury Seven astronauts, launch facilities (
Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5 and
14),
RM-90 Blue Scout II and
Atlas LV-3B launch vehicles, and recovery forces. The Space Systems Division was planning to provide similar support to
Project Gemini and was supporting 14 NASA programs with 96 research and development officers attached. In April 1962, the position of deputy to the commander of Air Force Systems Command for Manned Space Flight was established at
NASA Headquarters, consisting of personnel from all three services. Under the
Kennedy Administration, Secretary McNamara instituted greater centralization in acquisition, though measures such as the
Total Package Procurement concept (TPP). This system shifted many major program management functions to the Pentagon. Stressing computer modeling, concurrency, and paper competitions among the contractors, TPP sharply curtailed the flexibility of Systems Command program managers. Cost overruns and serious technical difficulties in such TPP programs as the
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and
General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark lead to drastic changes in DoD acquisition practices. In 1970, Deputy Secretary of Defense
David Packard revised many McNamara policies. He decentralized the acquisition system and reemphasized prototyping in weapons development. During this turbulent period, new and updated weapons systems continued to join the USAF. The B-1B Lancer was delivered to SAC in record time, though with significant problems that would hamper its service career for some time. Stealth technology found its way to the ramps in the form of the
F-117 Nighthawk fighter-bomber and the
B-2 Spirit bomber. After the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, AFSC helped restore US space launch capability by quickly making available a family of new
expendable launch vehicles such as the
Delta II. Major gains were made in operational readiness rates through the Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) 2000 program. == Lineage ==