AIR
POWER HISTORY SPR 92 PATRIOT MISSILE WW2 YAMAMOTO MISSION CONTROVERSY MATS
LUFTSTREITKRÄFTE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PATRIOT
MISSILE
CREATION OF GERMAN AIR WAR
DOCTRINE 1919-20: POST WW1 LUFTSTREITKRÄFTE
FORMATION OF THE MILITARY AIR
TRANSPORT SERVICE – THE AIR FORCE AND NAVY STRATEGIC AIRLIFT MERGER OF 1948
MATS ATC NATS VR VRF
CASE FOR A “NEW” UNIT HISTORY
NOTES ON THE YAMAMOTO AERIAL
VICTORY CREDIT CONTROVERSY
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The MIM-104 Patriot is a
surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary such system used by the United
States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense
contractor Raytheon and derives its name from the radar component of the weapon
system. The AN/MPQ-53 at the heart of the system is known as the "Phased
Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target",[6] which is a backronym for
"Patriot". Starting in 1984, the Patriot system began to replace the
Nike Hercules system as the U.S. Army's primary High to Medium Air Defense
(HIMAD) system and the MIM-23 Hawk system as the U.S. Army's medium tactical
air defense system.[7] In addition to these roles, Patriot has been given a
function in the U.S. Army's anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system. The system is
expected to stay fielded until at least 2040.
Patriot uses an advanced aerial
interceptor missile and high-performance radar systems. Patriot was developed
at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, which had previously developed the
Safeguard ABM system and its component Spartan and hypersonic speed Sprint
missiles. The symbol for Patriot is a drawing of a Revolutionary War–era
minuteman.
The MIM-104 Patriot has been
widely exported. Patriot was one of the first tactical systems in the U.S.
Department of Defense (DoD) to employ lethal autonomy in combat.[9] The system
was successfully used against Iraqi missiles in the 2003 Iraq War, and has also
been used by Saudi and Emirati forces in the Yemen conflict against Houthi
missile attacks. The Patriot system achieved its first undisputed shootdowns of
enemy aircraft in the service of the Israeli Air Defense Command. Israeli
MIM-104D batteries shot down two Hamas UAVs during Operation Protective Edge in
August 2014, and in September 2014, an Israeli Patriot battery shot down a
Syrian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 which had penetrated the airspace of the Golan
Heights, achieving the system's first shootdown of a manned enemy aircraft.
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Although Operation Vengeance was
notable for its target, there has been controversy about who shot down the
admiral's aircraft. The issue began immediately after the mission when the U.S.
military credited Captain Thomas Lanphier with the kill. Lanphier claimed in
his report that after turning to engage the escort Zeros and shooting the wings
off one, he had flipped upside down as he circled back towards the two bombers.
Upon seeing the lead bomber turning in a circle below him, he came out of his
turn at a right angle to the circling bomber and fired, blowing off its right
wing. The plane then crashed into the jungle. Lanphier also reported that he
saw Lieutenant Rex Barber shoot down another bomber which also crashed into the
jungle.
From the report, U.S.
intelligence assumed that three bombers had been downed because Lieutenant
Besby F. Holmes claimed the "Betty" that crashed into the sea. None
of the remaining pilots were debriefed after the mission because no formal interrogation
procedures existed on Guadalcanal at that time. Likewise, Lanphier's claim of
the kill was not officially witnessed. Many of the mission's other pilots were
skeptical of the official U.S. Army version. Six months later, unauthorized
details about the operation leaked into the press. In October 1943, an issue of
Time magazine featured an article about Vengeance and mentioned Lanphier by
name. An outraged U.S. Navy considered it a serious breach of security. As a
result, Major John Mitchell's nomination for the Medal of Honor was downgraded
to the Navy Cross; this was the same award subsequently presented to all the
pilots of the killer flight.
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The Military Air Transport
Service (MATS) was activated under United States Air Force Major General
Laurence S. Kuter, in order to harness interservice efforts more efficiently.
It was an amalgamation of Navy and Army air transport commands, jointly placed
by the Department of Defense under the control of the newly created United
States Air Force (USAF) as a unified (joint) command.
During the Second World War, the
Army Air Force's aerial transportat arm was the Air Transport Command, which
had a dual function of ferrying new aircraft from factories to combat theaters
and transportation of troops and supplies, also organized by Tunner. The Naval
Air Transport Service focused on supporting deployed Naval and Marine personnel
transporting vital cargo, specialist personnel and mail to the Fleet and ground
forces, especially in advanced areas of operation.
MATS was the first Joint-Service
command, and naval aircrews participated in every major MATS airlift operation.
MATS would organizationally be under the Department of the Air Force, as the
vast majority of its equipment and personnel of ATC had been inherited by the
Air Force with the inactivation of the USAAF.
During the Berlin Airlift, Naval
aviators flew transport aircraft from the United States to European supply
depots; in the Korean War, MATS Navy Squadrons airlifted some 17,000 battle
casualties. In its original organization, a Rear Admiral commanded the MATS
Pacific Division and another rear admiral served as MATS vice-commander. During
the 1958 reorganization, senior Naval officers were on the staffs of the
commanders of both EASTAF and WESTAF, and at MATS Headquarters.
