Super-Radars for Missile Ship
July 1957 Radio & TV News Article

July 1957 Radio & TV News [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Super-Radars for Missile Ship

Long-secret class of super-radars, now in service with the fleet for guidance of its Terrier missiles, was revealed recently by the Navy.

Subject of speculation since first displayed aboard the guided missile cruiser "USS Canberra," massive, turret-like antennas for the new radars have radically changed the contours of the nation's fighting ships. Although the radar antennas, which resemble gigantic searchlights, attracted considerable attention during President Eisenhower's recent trip on the Terrier-equipped "Canberra," the structures were identified only recently. Only limited, general information regarding the new AN/SPQ-5 radars has been released.

Developed for the Navy by Sperry Gyroscope Company, of Great Neck, N. Y., the long-range, high-altitude missile guidance radar systems came into fleet use only after years of successful tests.

Rear Admiral F. S. Withington, chief of Navy's Bureau of Ordnance, said that the new super-radars were a part of the Navy's program directed toward providing the fleet with highly reliable missiles to combat supersonic jet aircraft. "Our new radar systems," he said, "are giving exceptionally high performance for tenacious, stable guidance of supersonic missiles, whether fired singly or in salvoes at individual or multiple enemy attackers." He confirmed that the two SPQ-5 systems aboard the "Canberra" combine many automatic radar functions in each unit. Either system can control the missiles from a single launcher or battery, which fires the Terrier missile, or both radars can track different target groups simultaneously.

The SPQ-5 radar systems include flexible modes of scanning the air space many miles beyond the horizon, providing the advantage of early warning. Individual targets can be selected from close-flying groups and tracked at great distances while the missiles are launched and guided with "extreme accuracy."

Concurrently, Sperry announced that a new manufacturing facility at Charlottesville, Virginia, The Sperry Piedmont Company, is producing the super-radars for the Navy. Completed in October, 1956, the new $2 million plant includes special facilities to accommodate the massive radar antenna "barbettes" used aboard ship.

Two cruisers, the "USS Boston" and the "USS Canberra," have been converted to Terrier-equipped missile ships and have joined the fleet. The "USS Topeka," the "Providence," and the "Springfield" now are being converted to carry the missile. The photo at top right is a blown-up view of one of the radar turrets.

Posted  January 30, 2014