by Bob Tourville
The idea of placing air surveillance radars in aircraft dates from the earliest days of World War II, when the limitations of ground-based radar technology became evident. Exploiting the advantages of altitude, and positioned many miles from the land they defended, the first aircraft equipped with powerful air surveillance radars arrived late in the war. However, the technologies and tactics needed to make true AEW aircraft would take several years to evolve.
Experimental AEW aircraft came to NAS Patuxent River in 1948, with VX-4’s PB-1Ws, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in which an array of sensors had replaced all armament. These aircraft sported large, under-fuselage domes that housed the antenna for an airsearch radar known as the APS-20. Developed under ‘Project Cadillac’ late in World War II, the APS-20 was used in the Grumman TBM-3W, the first carrier-based AEW aircraft. The APS-20’s success led to its use on the shore-based PB-1Ws (unofficially designated ‘Cadillac II’ aircraft).
After four years of experimentation with the PB-1W, the squadron was re-designated as VW-2 in 1952. At that time, the squadron replaced its PB-1Ws with Lockheed WV-1s, derivatives of the L-749 Constellation. VW-2’s primary roles would be the development of AEW systems and tactics and the evaluation of AEW aircraft based on the WV “Warning Star” (an official name preferred by the USAF…the Navy favored “Willy Victor” or simply “Connie”). Interestingly, one of VW-2’s other roles was to oversee the Navy’s secret Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) operations in Morocco. These ELINT operations resumed two years after the Turbulent Turtle was shot-down, as previously discussed. The innocuously-named ‘Naval Air Field Patrol Unit’, which had earlier been formed from VP-26’s ELINT detachment in Morocco, was re-designated as VW-2 Det A in May of 1953.
Under the command of VW-2 at NAS Pax River, VW-2 Det A flew Martin P4M-1Q Mercators, conducting electronic surveillance of the Soviet Union. VW-2’s oversight of the Morocco-based ELINT operations ended in 1955, when VW-2 Det Able was commissioned as a new squadron, VQ-2, with headquarters at NAS Port Lyautey, Morocco.
At Pax, VW-2 traded in its WV-1s for WV-2s in 1953. Derived from Lockheed’s powerful L-1049 Super Constellation, the WV-2 was an upgrade in every sense over the WV-1. The aircraft was externally similar to the WV-1, featuring two large radomes (one atop the fuselage and one below), but was longer and more powerful than its predecessor. In 1955, VW-2 was joined by three new Willy Victor squadrons that were commissioned at NAS Pax River: VW-11, VW-13, and VW-15. Within a year, all four of NAS Pax River’s AEW squadrons would become part of a massive aerial surveillance system that provided North America’s east coast with non-stop, 24-hour air defense.
Beginning in July of 1956, Willy Victors homeported at NAS Pax River made lengthy deployments to the North Atlantic, typically to NAS Argentia in Newfoundland and to NAS Keflavik in Iceland. There the aircraft and their crews became the airborne element of an Atlantic Barrier Force (BarLant) that also included Navy destroyers on the surface employing powerful radars of their own. This Atlantic Barrier force was essentially an extension of the Northern Canada Distant Early warning (DEW) Line. BarLant was intended to deter Soviet aggression and to detect surprise bomber attacks against our continent. In constant communication with BarLant control centers, Pax’s Willy Victor crews could — and did — trigger the launching of interceptor aircraft against ‘bogeys’ detected within their radar’s massive search area.
When deployed for BarLant operations, Pax’s Willy Victors initially flew roughly twelve-hour BarLant patrols on a two-hundred mile track between Newfoundland and the Azores. In June of 1961, the Barrier was shifted to cover the approaches between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the so-called “GIUK Gap”.
Pax’s Willy Victors, when deployed for BarLant, patrolled over frigid waters in the thick of the weather, far from rescue forces, at altitudes of 3,000 to 12,000 feet. One can only image the effects of sitting in front of a radar console for a mission that could range from six to twenty hours in duration…in a metal tube subject to the mercy of the North Atlantic weather, and containing the most primitive of rest facilities. To provide 24 / 7 / 365 coverage, four or five Willy Victors, each carrying 21 or more men, were typically airborne at all times.
The beginning of the end of NAS Pax River’s role as a base for AEW aircraft came in 1958, when VW-11 was reassigned to NAS Argentia. By 1961, the three remaining operational Willy Victor squadrons at NAS Pax River – VW-2, VW-13, and VW-15 – were all either relocated or decommissioned. Still, NAS Pax River would remain a Willy Victor base for over ten more years. In March of 1960, the Navy had chosen NAS Pax River as the home-port for the Atlantic Fleet’s AEW Training Unit (AEWTULANT), which trained BarLant crews. At Pax, the AEWTULANT operated WV-2s (re-designated as EC-121Ks in 1962) until the AEWTULANT was disestablished in July of 1965. The Atlantic Barrier force was itself stood down just a few months earlier.
Several of the former AEWTULANT EC-121Ks were transferred to a new unit at NAS Pax River, the “Oceanographic Airborne Survey Unit” (OASU), which was discussed in earlier. The OASU modified these EC-121s for their purposes, and operated them into the early 1970s. At that point, the beautiful, massive “Willy Victors” that had graced Southern Maryland’s skies for over two decades were finally gone…but certainly never forgotten by those fortunate to have seen them overhead.
Next time, in Part 4 of our series, we’ll cover the Anti-Submarine Warfare squadrons that were based at NAS Patuxent River.
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