leading to the creation of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in 1920.
Perhaps the most important accomplishment of the NRL in those early years was the discovery of the underlying principles of radar, derived from radio detection and ranging. It happened in 1922, when two researchers experimenting with radio equipment noticed a wooden ship interfered with the signals as it passed by on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. In 1930, a pair of NRL scientists managed to detect a plane using the same principles. By 1936, the NRL’s first operational radar device could track aircraft at distances of up to 25 miles.
Another groundbreaking NRL invention was active sonar (the name was an acronym for sound, navigation, and ranging). During World War I, sonar was of the passive type, with no signals being sent out, and it had a very limited range. In 1927, NRL researchers developed a quartz-steel sonar transducer that used an active method to echo-locate, or “ping,” enemy submarines. Active sonar proved to be one of the most useful and ubiquitous tools ever developed for naval warfare.
The NRL launched another successful satellite, Vanguard I, March 17, 1958. It was the nation’s first solar-powered spacecraft, and although it weighed just 3.5 pounds and was a mere 6.4 inches wide, it made several significant discoveries. The roughly 200 scientists who worked on Vanguard formed the nucleus of NASA when it was established in July 1958, and by 1960, they were housed at the newly built Goddard Space Flight Center in Beltsville, Md. The first signals intelligence satellite, or Galactic Radiation and Background, also came from the center, according to Capt. Paul Stewart, USN, former commanding officer of the NRL. NRL scientists built, designed, and launched the signals intelligence satellite, and others later helped form the National Reconnaissance Office in 1961.
DECEMBER 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 63
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