The 4620th Air Defense Wing (Air Def Wg) is a discontinued

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command (ADC) at

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

, where it was discontinued in 1961. The wing was organized in 1955 to ensure that the

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...

(SAGE) air defense system, was compatible with ADC's operational requirements. It also performed operational testing and training on SAGE and earlier systems. Once SAGE started to become operational, the need for the wing no longer existed and it was discontinued, although one of its subordinate

groups A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

continued the SAGE training mission until 1962.

History

The 4620th Air Defense Wing was established to implement the

(SAGE) air defense system, a system of

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In ...

-equipped direction centers that could process information from ground

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

picket ship A radar picket is a radar-equipped station, ship, submarine, aircraft, or vehicle used to increase the radar detection range around a nation or military (including naval) force to protect it from surprise attack, typically air attack, or from cr ...

s and ground observers onto a generated

radar scope is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo. The player assumes the role of the Sonic Spaceport starship and must wipe out formations of an enemy race known as the Gamma Raiders before they destroy t ...

to create a composite picture of the emerging air

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

. The wing was responsible to ensure that SAGE computer systems were based on approved operational concepts for air defense and provided guidance to operational units concerning the implementation, installation, testing, and utilization of SAGE

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program ...

s. Until December 1958, the wing also provided training on the existing manual air defense control systems that were being replaced by SAGE. The 4620th was originally located with

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

's Lincoln Laboratories, which had developed the SAGE system, to permit close coordination with the organization developing SAGE.Cornett & Johnson, p. 65 In 1957, the 4620th Air Defense Group was organized at

Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport is a former airport that operated alongside Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station (also Richards-Gebaur Air Force Station) until the base's closure in 1994, and until it was closed in 1999. Formerly, it was oper ...

, Missouri to manage programming and

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

for the SAGE system and was assigned to the wing.Cornett & Johnson, p. 87 The wing moved to Santa Monica, California in 1958. Anticipating the wing move to Santa Monica, the 4620th

Group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

was reassigned directly to ADC. On 15 September, the 4620th group was renumbered as the 4606th Air Defense Group, and continued with that designation until discontinued on 25 June 1962. The wing prepared the operational employment plan for integration of

IM-99 Bomarc The Boeing CIM-10 BOMARC (Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center) (IM-99 Weapon System prior to September 1962) was a supersonic ramjet powered long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) used during the Cold War for the air defense of North ...

surface-to-air missiles into the SAGE system. Preceded by extensive planning and testing of almost three years, the first SAGE air defense sector (New York) became operational on 26 June 1958.Leonard, p. 311 The first SAGE division (New York) became operational on 1 January 1959. As the SAGE system was becoming fully operational in 1961,Cornett & Johnson, p. 34 the 4620th Wing had completed its mission and was discontinued.

Lineage

* Designated and organized as 4620th Air Defense Wing (SAGE Experimental) on 1 June 1955 : Discontinued on 1 February 1961

Assignments

* Air Defense Command, 1 June 1955 – 1 February 1961

Components

* 4620th Air Defense Group (SAGE Programming and Training), 8 May 1957 – 1 July 1958 : Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base, Missouri

Stations

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was firs ...

, 1 June 1955 – 8 August 1958 * Santa Monica, California, 8 August 1958 – 1 February 1961

Commanders

* Col. Robert J. Stevenson, by July 1958 – 24 June 1959 * Lt Col. George R. Kauffman, 24 June 1959 – 1 July 1959 * Col. Samuel C. Galbreath, 1 July 1959 – 1 February 1961

References

Notes

Bibliography

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