The Martin AN/TSQ-8 Coordinate Data Set[1] was a Project Nike CCCS system for converting data between Army Air Defense Command Posts (AADCP) and Integrated Fire Control sites for missile Launch Areas. The AN/TSQ-8 in the Firing Unit Integration Facility (FUIF) was first installed for each Launch Area controlled from a Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System and then later for other Nike CCCS. The system included a "data converter, range computer, summing amplifier, status relay panel, status control panel, problem unit, [and] power control panel".[2]
The AN/TSQ-8 in each FUIF was the remote terminus of the AN/FSG-1's automated data link (ADL) of AADCP digital information[3] that included identification friend or foe status (e.g., "foe" symbol), the "prepare to engage" symbol (for the battery to track the designated foe),[4] and the attack symbol[5] from the AADCP director to the Battery Control Officer who issued the firing order to a ready missile.[6]
History
editThe first AN/TSQ-8 training course for Army technicians was in April 1958 at the "Martin-Orlando facility"[7] after the Ft Meade AN/FSG-1 was "operational"[3] on December 5, 1957[8] (the last AN/FSG-1 was at Fort MacArthur in December 1960.) In 1961, the AN/TSQ-8 was deployed for the ADL interface with portable Martin AN/GSG-5 & AN/GSG-6 BIRDIEs emplaced at AADCPs for smaller defense areas (replacement Hughes AN/TSQ-51 systems were emplaced at AADCPs beginning in 1963 similarly required FUIFs). Firing Unit Integration Facilities had been replaced when the Improved Nike Hercules ground system (Western Electric System 1393 Radar Course Directing Central) was deployed and included an internal automated data link.
References
edit- ^ TM 11-5895-253: COORDINATE DATA SET, AN/TSQ-8 (webpage with Technical Manual list). United States Army Technical Manual. Retrieved 2012-06-30.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Barlow, Lee Adrian. "Resume". part of autobiography. WanderingFarm.com. Archived from the original (memorial webpage) on 2004-07-16. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
- ^ a b "Chapter 3: Army Air Defense Control Systems" (PDF). U. S. Army Air Defense Digest (PDF). Hillman Hall, Fort Bliss, Texas: U. S. Army Air Defense School. January 1965. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
- ^ McNamara, Jack (December 17, 1961). "24 Hours At A Nike Site" (Google News Archive). The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
rotates the "entry stick" on his console, designating a target to be tracked by radar…"prepare to engage
- ^ Missile Master (PDF). Martin Company. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
Tactical Monitor operators assign a specific target to an individual battery
- ^ FM 44-1: U. S. Army Air Defense Employment (PDF). Headquarters, Department of the Army. 11 October 1965. Archived from the original (field manual) on 9 March 2013. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
- ^ "Nike People".
- ^ "Missile Master News Release-1". (FTMeade.army.mil transcript) United States Army. December 5, 1957. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved 2011-09-03.