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ReseaRch a n d developmenT In T h e aIR fo R c e 93
Materiel Command transferred purchasing, supply, and maintenance functions
for ground-based avionics from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to Griffiss.
Approximately half of Rome’s technical effort during this period focused on
the management and analysis of external R&D contracts. Support of AMC’s
procurement functions—through, for example, the preparation of specifications,
monitoring of pilot production at contractor factories, and field introduction
of avionics equipment—consumed another 40 percent, while the remaining 10
percent supported Rome’s in-house R&D operations.
Although it rendered technical assistance to the Cambridge Research
Center’s continental air defense programs, Rome’s primary mission in the early
1950s focused on the development of avionics equipment for tactical air power,
specifically local combat area defense and ground support. Guiding this effort
was the concept of an integrated network of electronic systems—mobile radar
sets, centralized computers, and radio data links—to maximize the coordination
and timely execution of communication, navigation, guidance, and intelligencegathering
functions between ground commanders and the tactical aircraft that
provided air support. Development of these “super-systems,” which commenced
at Rome in 1953, relied heavily on outside contractors; in-house participation
in the program was limited to 20 percent of the R&D performed that year. 76
By the end of the decade, expansion of the Air Force’s operations prompted
Rome to diversify its technical base into global communications systems. It also
moved beyond the development of ground-based avionics equipment for tactical
requirements to the development of guidance system technology for ballistic
missile defense. 77
Reintegration: R&D in the Air Force Systems Command,
1961–1991
On October 4, 1957, just as the Rome Air Development Center embarked
on a new program of ballistic missile defense, the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, into low earth orbit. This landmark
event stunned the citizens of the United States and prompted an immediate
response that transformed the federal research establishment. Early in 1958, just
four months after the Soviet launch, the Department of Defense established the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to fund private-sector R&D for
military space programs and other high-priority projects. 78 That same year, the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was abolished and replaced by
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The founding of these and
other Cold War institutions, and the allocation of seemingly limitless resources
to support their operations, signaled the nation’s commitment to permanent
76 P. Klass, “Rome Guides AF Avionics Development,” Aviation Week 59 (17 August 1953): 251,
255–56; “Rome Expands Role of Ground Avionics,” Aviation Week 59 (17 August 1953): 274; “Avionics
Team Spends Half a Billion Dollars,” Aviation Week 59 (17 August 1953): 262–70.
77 “Aerial Warfare Reshapes Rome’s Task,” Aviation Week 66 (3 June 1957): 110.
78 On the early history of ARPA, see Richard J. Barber Associates, The Advanced Research Projects
Agency, 1958–1974 (Washington, D.C.: Advanced Research Projects Agency, December 1975).