Air Force Systems Command
The Air Force Systems Command is an inactive United States Air Force Major Command. It was established in April 1951, being split off from Air Materiel Command. The mission of AFSC was Research and Development for new weapons systems.
AFSC took on engineering functions which formerly resided in the Air Materiel Command, the Army Air Forces Technical Service Command, and the Air Technical Service Command as a separate research and development command in 1950. It incorporated Air Proving Ground Command in 1957. On 1 July 1992, AFSC and Air Force Logistics Command were merged to form the Air Force Materiel Command, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
In the reorganization of 1961, Air Force Systems Command acquired the materiel procurement function from Air Force Logistics Command. It was re-integrated with Air Force Logistics Command in 1992.
History
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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 '' 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, 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, 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 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. The first detonation of a thermonuclear 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.
On 20 September 1957, the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division conducted the first launch of a Thor missile from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and on 17 December that year, the first launch of an Atlas missile. By 1959, the PGM-17 Thor IRBM was deployed to the United Kingdom and turned over to RAF Bomber Command for operational service. This effort, Project Emily, saw RAF missile squadrons reforming for operational service from the first half of 1959. 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.