World War II included
Army Air Forces Bombardier Schools' scoring of trainee's proficiency at the "
West Texas Bombardier Triangle" and other USAAF ranges (e.g., observers on Range Towers), and
ground-directed bombing for combat guided by automatic tracking radars was used in the
Mediterranean Theatre's Po Valley. On 6 June 1945 "the 206th Army Air Force Base Unit (RBS) (206th AAFBU), was activated at
Colorado Springs, Colorado under the command of Colonel Robert W. Burns [with] operational control of the two SCR-584 radar detachments located at Kansas City and
Fort Worth Army Airfield (Det B), in Phoenix in 1952, and Guam in 1954.
Strategic Air Command RBS by Strategic Air Command began with the last of 888 simulated bomb runs against
San Diego scored in 1946 as well as 2,499 runs scored in 1947. On 21 July 1948, the 263rd AAFBU (RBS) had been renamed the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron (
SAC), and early RBS detachments were designated by letters, e.g., Detachment D at
Fort George Wright WA in 1950. at "Tactical Air Direction Posts" (
colloq. TADPOLE sites). (10 August 1954, the 3933rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron was redesignated the
11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron.) In 1955, RBS bomb runs for the
SAC Bombing and Navigation Competition were on Amarillo, Denver, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, and San Antonio (Phoenix also had runs) and in 1957, SAC installed RBS sites for the competition (named "Operation Longshot") which had 3 targets:
Atlanta, Kansas City, and St. Louis. The "
Goldwater congressional investigation" investigated working and travel conditions at the Lynchburg, Virginia, detachment, which was a mobile unit that had temporary radar stations at "
Blackstone,
Staunton and
Farmville before [being] shut ... down".
Army & Navy RBS By 1960, USAF RBS equipment had been incorporated in US Army
Course Directing Centrals for
Project Nike (i.e., receivers for telecommunicated tones to indicate the aircraft's bomb release on the Nike radar plotting boards). Nike RBS of SAC/ADCOM bombers used USAF personnel on
temporary duty to calculate the simulated bomb run score from the track by a Nike missile crew/radar (e.g., at the
Chicago-Gary Defense Area). In 1961, Nike units "scored 1,890 practice bomb runs" and in 1962 the NIKE site at
Maitland/Lake Park in Milwaukee was RBSing. Four Navy
Radar Bomb Scoring Units during the Cold War included those near
Spokane, Washington, and at the Pachino Radar Bomb Scoring Range near Naples, Italy. After the
10th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron's
RBS Express train had been used in 1961 near the
Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant, SAC's
Hawthorne Bomb Plot in nearby
Babbitt also scored bomb runs of US Navy aircraft (e.g., out of
Naval Air Station Fallon). On 1 August 1961, SAC's
1st Radar Bomb Scoring Group at Carswell AFB merged with the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group to form the
1st Combat Evaluation Group at
Barksdale AFB. with scale, protractor,
E6B computer, and bombing tables" and in 1969, the Combat Skyspot Trophy was first "awarded annually to the most outstanding [RBS] detachment in the 1st Combat Evaluation Group". At least 1 of the SAC RBS sites was operating until mid-1994 when
Wilder Radar Bomb Scoring Site closed after the 1993
Base Realignment and Closure Commission. In 2005, USAF RBS records were designated for destruction "10 years after inactivation of site".
Post-Cold War bomb scoring The
Northrop T-38C was upgraded to have no-drop bomb scoring capability in 2007 by estimating the impact from the onboard GPS-calculated position of release, and the
United States Marine Corps had no-drop bomb scoring at
Yuma Proving Ground in 2010. At least 1 Strategic Air Command RBS site continues as an electronic warfare range—the
Belle Fourche Electronic Scoring Site in Powder River
Military Operations Area with Infrared Enhance Targets and Unmanned Threat Emitters (the site's
call sign remains "Belle Fourche Bomb Plot"). ==USAF Equipment==