AN/MSQ-1

The Reeves AN/MSQ-1 Close Support Control Set produced by Reeves Instrument Corporation was a trailer-mounted^[1] combination radar/computer/communication ("Q" system) developed under a Rome Air Development Center program office (MPS-9 radar & OA-215) for Cold War command guidance of manned aircraft (e.g., those equipped with AN/APS-11A or AN/APW-11 avionics.)^{[citation needed]} Developed for Korean War ground-directed bombing (e.g., B-26 bombers), one detachment of the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron bombed itself with an MSQ-1 because it mistakenly used procedures for the earlier SCR-584/OA-294 system^[2] (the MSQ-1 was later replaced by the Reeves AN/MSQ-2 Close Support Control Set.) The MSQ-1 was subsequently used for nuclear testing during Operation Teapot, and for aircraft tests such as for "MSQ-1 controlled pinpoint photography" in 1954 (RB-57A Canberra "Night Photo Bombing").^[3]

The set had a direct current analog computer and was modified to use an alternating current computer for Matador Automatic Radar Control (AN/MSQ-1A) to guide MGM-1 Matadors and other unmanned aerial vehicles. The MSQ-1 was considered for guidance of the "XQ-5 Target" drone in 1957,^[4]

Air Force MSQ-1A units were carried aboard the USS Tarawa (CVS-40) and the USS Neosho (AO-143) to track Lockheed X-17s launched during the Operation Argus nuclear tests.

Radar stations

In addition to the Tadpole radar stations of the Korean War, a downrange AN/MSQ-1 for the Atlantic Missile Range had been at Florida's Jupiter Missile Guidance Annex in 1952,^[5] and an MSQ-1 radar station on the United States Gulf Coast for the RB-57A tests.