DTIC ADA524340: The Sound of Freedom. Naval Weapons Technology at Dahlgren, Virginia, 1918-2006

63.8 MB·English

by  Defense Technical Information Center

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Naval Weapons Technology at Dahlgren, Virginia
1918-2006
20100622230
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov
Phone: toll free [phone]
DC area [phone]
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ISBN 0-16-077712-7
NSWCDD/MP-06/46
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
About the Authors
Rodney P. Carlisle is vice president and senior associate of History Associates
Incorporated (HAI), a historical services firm located in Rockville, Maryland. He is
professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey,
at the Camden Campus. He holds an A.B. in History from Harvard College and an
M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of California at Berkeley
Dr. Carlisle is the author of several prior works in the fields of military and
naval history. Recent works include Where the Fleet Begins: A History of the David
Taylor Research Center (Naval Historical Center, 1998); Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal:
American Production Reactors, 1942-1992 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); and
nd
Powder and Propellants: Energetic Materials at Indian Head, Maryland, 1890-2001 (2
ed., University of North Texas Press, 2002). He has also written a number of shorter
studies for the Navy Laboratory/Center Coordinating Group, published by the Naval
Historical Center, which provide detailed examinations of Research, Development,
Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) in the Navy. Among these are Management of
the U.S. Navy Research and Development Centers During the Cold War: A Survey Guide
to Reports (Naval Historical Center, 1996) and Navy RDT&E Planning in an Age of
Transition: A Survey Guide to Contemporary Literature (Naval Historical Center, 1997).
With Dr. James Lide of HAI, he coauthored The Complete Idiot's Guide© to Communism
(Alpha, 2002). Dr. Carlisle has also edited the Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age (Facts
on Files, 2001) and the Encyclopedia of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (Facts on
File, 2004). Additionally, he has recently published The Persian Gulf War (Facts on File,
2003) and The Iraq War (Facts on File, 2004). He and his wife, Loretta, make their
home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
James P. Rife is a historian with HAI and a colleague of Dr. Carlisle. He holds
a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology from Bluefield State College, Bluefield,
West Virginia, a B.A. in History from King College, Bristol, Tennessee, and an M.A. in
history from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.
Mr. Rife has broad research and writing experience in the fields of American military
and naval history, and has taught Modern European History and Western Civilization
as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
This is his first published book. He and his wife, Samantha, reside in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
Foreioord
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction: Proving Ground to Warfare Center

Chapter 2 Finding the Range, 1841-1932
7
Enter Dahlgren
ID
From Annapolis to Machodoc Creek 12
Constructing the Lower Station 18
21
Naming the Lower Station
22
A Fight in Congress
Testing Ordnance 30
Experimental Program
35
The Aviation Detail 38
Flying Bombs
39
Radio Control 43
Pioneer Life 45
47
Separation
49

Chapter 3 Dahlgren at War, 1932-1945
r
A "New Deal" for the Navy
M)
Experimental Research Ascendant 55
The "Pickle Barrel" Sight
58
The Eve of War 62
The Armor & Projectile Laboratory 64
"Gang" Busters
66
The War Years 69
71
Secret Weapons
Chapter 4 Numbers Over Guns, 1945-1959 79

Normal Peacetime Living 80

ELSIE 84

Making Numbers 88

A New Look 97

Battle Royal 100

From Out of the Deep to Target 104

Fencing the Heavens 107

A Peaceful Revolution 109

Chapter 5 Rebels and Revolution, 1959-1973 111

The Main Stream 112

Kentucky Windage 116

A Rebel 120

A Revolution 123

Empire Building 126

Hitting the Bull 132

Chapter 6 On the Surface, 1973-1987 145

The Classical Manner 145

A Shotgun Wedding 149

"Centerizing" the Center 151

Guidance by the Stars 156

The Soviet Challenge 159

Some Changes on the Surface 161

Shield of the Fleet 165

The loiva Tragedy 171

A Naval PHALANX 172

Flying Bombs Redux 175

It Worked Perfectly ... Unfortunately! 179

The Systems Philosophy 181

Chapter 7 A New World Order, 1987-1995 183

SPAWAR 184

Another Name Change 184

A "Strategic Perspective" 186

"We knew you'd handle that!" 187

At the Pinnacle 188

The Peace Dividend 189

Identity Crisis 190

BRAC 192

The Death of White Oak 198
200
A Toxic Problem
Organized Chaos
202
Into the Gulf
205
208
A Question of "Jointness"
219
Gathering "Hyenas"
221

Chapter 8 Dahlgren Forever, 1995-2003
222
Restructuring Dahlgren
224
A Big "Mess"
227
Theater Warfare
232
Vindication
237
A New Forum
239
Into the Twenty-First Century
244
Stored Kills
A Rail Gun Revival
247
The Interceptor Challenge
250
252
Dahlgren Strikes Back
256
Echoes of the Past
Postscript The Way Ahead, 2004-2006
259
Leadership Turnover
260
Fundamentals of Success 261
262
BRAC 2005
A "Crown Jewel" 264
Appendices
267
Roll of Dahlgren's Military Commanders
I 268
Roll of Dahlgren's Civilian Directors 270
II
III Chronology of Milestones in the History of Dahlgren
271
IV Public Law No. 140, 65th Congress,
2nd Session, 26 April 1918
297
Letters
V
298
VI Oral History Interviews Conducted
300
VII Selected Acronyms
301
Endnotes
309
Bibliography
379
Index
401
The Sound of Freedom:
Naval Weapons Technology at
Dahlgren, Virginia, 1918-2006
When the United States Navy sails into harm's
way, our warships and weapons must be as good
th
as we can make them. Since the 19 century, officers
like Lieutenant John Dahlgren have worked to
bring scientific advancement into the fleet. Through
his leadership and that of others like him, much of
the Navy's shore establishment has been devoted
to making better ships, more powerful and more
accurate guns, stronger armor, and in more recent
years, improved aircraft, bombs, missiles, and
electronics to support the mission of the sailor
as both a warfighter and peacekeeper. We pride
ourselves on the character and training of the men
and women who serve in uniform; we also take
great pride in the quality of equipment that we
provide them.
This book tells the story of one part of the
Navy's research and development effort. Rooted
in tradition and heritage traced directly back to
the first efforts of Lieutenant Dahlgren to improve
the scientific study of ordnance and naval weapons
technology, our facility on the shores of the Potomac
River started life at the end of the First World War,
when the Navy needed a longer testing range than the existing facility at
Indian Head, Maryland. Every major naval gun and every lot of ammunition
had to be tested, not only to guarantee safety, but also to calculate the ballistic
data necessary to ensure accuracy in fire control.
The Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren, Virginia, first known as the
"Lower Station" of the Indian Head facility, soon expanded its mission area
into other technologies such as aerial bombing and formally separated from
Indian Head in 1932. Many of the types of research here were far ahead of
their time. We see this in the previously little-known story of the attempt
to develop automatic and remote-controlled aircraft that could serve as
weapons, forerunners of modern missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs). Often the work at Dahlgren was highly secret, and only in later
years could the details be released, as with the development of the Norden
bombsight. Other once-classified stories, such as the development and testing
of proximity fuzes, the ballistic experiments conducted on early scale models
of the "Little Boy" atomic bomb, the ballistic experiments conducted on its
later derivative, the "Light-Case" ground penetrator bomb, and Dahlgren's
movement into the fields of computing technology and systems engineering,
spell out the important role in the nation's defense that the station has played
over the years.
As James Rife and Rodney Carlisle point out, Dahlgren continued to take
on new missions, building on established reputations and achievements.
There was a logical progression from the ballistic computation of gun
projectiles, to calculating high-altitude bomb trajectories, to guiding long-
range ballistic missiles to their designated aim points. Some of the first large
computers built immediately after World War II were installed at Dahlgren,
and naturally, our people were ready to act whenever new demands for
computer knowledge appeared.
As a center of innovation devoted to the Navy's needs, and more
broadly to national defense needs, Dahlgren has constantly adapted to
change. Beyond the Cold War, sailors and Marines needed new technologies
in Vietnam, in the Middle East, and elsewhere around the globe. And the
nation has faced the need for fresh technological innovation to deal with the
War on Terror. Taking a lead in sensors technology and a "joint" approach
to defense and security needs, including "naval operations other than war,"
at Dahlgren we have worked on literally thousands of technical advances,
many still classified, that serve to strengthen the nation against new and ever
shifting threats.
At Dahlgren, we were fortunate to recruit the services of Dr. Carlisle
and Mr. Rife to assist us in bringing together the many fascinating aspects
of naval technological history presented in this volume. Both experienced
u