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The United States Army and Navy conducted parallel but mostly independent programs in radar development through the 1930s, with different applications in mind. Early on in the research, the Army explored a detection system using infrared light instead of radio waves. At one point, some hoped the scientific work would lead to a “death ray” - an extremely strong electromagnetic beam capable of disabling aircraft and perhaps injuring or killing enemy pilots. That idea was quickly abandoned to the realm of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.
Real progress, however, was being made. Following the adoption of the pulse method over the continuous beam approach, radar progressed to the point of field-testing. The first demonstration was conducted in May 1937 with impressive results. The Army quickly gave enthusiastic approval for aggressive development. By 1940, the War Department had issued procurement orders for the first generation of antiaircraft radar. Throughout the course of the war, the Signal Corps would acquire over $60 million worth of radar equipment (in dollars of the period).
Even though the United States had functional radar at the time of entry into World War II, it was not publicly touted. Media and popular publications of the period still heralded the obsolete acoustic sound locator as advanced technology. Even in 1943, when the word radar was being presented for public consumption, the new advancements weren’t fully explained and the implication remained that the older sound locators and visual tracking systems remained the primary method of aircraft detection and engagement. Cryptic references to “new techniques” and “mysterious devices” continued to circulate on the home front, thanks to the diligence of Army censors. The reality was that radar had quickly evolved to be a highly effective and advanced tool in the Army's Antiaircraft Artillery arsenal.
"Radar equipment developed by the United States and Britain was superior to the electronics devices of either Germany or Japan. Our radar instruments, for example, which tracked aircraft in flight and directed the fire of antiaircraft guns was more accurate than any possessed by the enemy. American radar detection equipment...had greater range than the German. Japanese radar was greatly inferior." General George C. Marshall, Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, 1945
Although the U.S. Army used several models of radar in various applications during World War II, the most significant antiaircraft systems are discussed here:
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