July-August - Air Defense Artillery

Using vertical plexiglass boards.
503d AAA Operations Detachment AAOC
THE functions, Tactical Operations,
and Command of an AAOC (Antiaircraft
Operations Center) are covered by
Field Manuals, Training Memorandums
from the Artillery School at Fort Bliss
and various SOP's of AAA Brigades.
This article will deal with the construction
and operations of an AAOC in permanent
tactical position using equipment
modified considerably from T ;O&E issue.
An AAOC of the type herein described
is presently in operation by the 503d
AAA Operations Detachment. Extensive
tactical operations have shown that
it gives greater efficiency in the primary
mission of collecting, evaluating, and
disseminating intelligence to all units in
the defense.
T ;O&E Equipment for an operations
detachment is issued in a plotting kit,
AN;TTQ-l (Army-Navy Transportable
Telephone Special Equipment). This
kit includes relay cabinet, telephones,
operations or plotting board, radios,
switchboard, large tent, generators,
Capt. Berger entered the service from the
Pennsylvania National Guard and served in
the ETO. He returned to EAD in October,
1950.
JULY-AUGUST,1951
By Captain R. R. Berger, Arty.
bridge platforms, clocks, and other necessary
communications equipment. Such
plotting equipment, with slight modifications,
is suitable when an AAOC is
performing under field conditions, especially
since the equipment is completely
portable and includes a 30' by 30' tent
for housing the operations room. However,
the AAOC for the defense of a
large metropolitan city, when located in
permanent buildings, should be modified
so that the highest degree of efficiency,
maximum utilization of personnel, and
accuracy of intelligence data can be
reached.
The effectiveness of AAA against
aerial targets is not only dependent on
such things as state of training, condition
of material but also on the efficiency
of the warning system. The AAA defense
units need complete, up to the
minute, accurate, early warning information
in order that they may engage the
enemy planes under range and other
conditions favorable to the defense.
EARLY Warning is sent to the
AAOC by the Gel stations of the air
defense force and our own acquisition
radars. When it is received by the AAOC
it must be collected at one point, evaluated,
and disseminated to all units with
the least possible delay. Some of the
problems encountered from using the
horizontal boards in the AAOC were:
(1) Length of time it required the plotters
to make up a raid stand, (2) The
arrows used to mark the route of the
target were very difficult to see by the
tellers and AAOO sitting on the bridge.
It became a habit to read the position of
the raid stand. This introduced error
since the arrows which indicate the direction
of flight show the latest position;
whereas, the raid stand is placed off to
the side of this row of arrows, (3) The
plotters standing around the horizontal
plotting board will invariably cover up
and block the view of the personnel on
the bridge when they are reaching across
the table. Many times the shirt or coat
sleeve of the plotter will strike and move
the arrows already on the board causing
more time to elapse because these arrows
must be replotted. All of these factors
added together, meant poor information
being sent to the gun units.
To reduce and eliminate as many
problems as possible, a substitution of
organic T;O&E was made by the 503d
AAOC. In place of plotting tables, raid
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