Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years

■ This article provides an overview of the first fifty years of radar development at Lincoln Laboratory. It begins by reviewing early Laboratory efforts in North American air defense, which quickly branched into efforts in missile defense and space surveillance as the Soviet Union developed missiles and launched satellites into space. In the 1970s, two other radar-intensive activities began at the Laboratory: a program in tactical surveillance arose out of the challenges of the Vietnam War, and a program in air traffic control responded to the need to modernize systems for control of civilian aircraft. Research in advanced air defense also returned to the Laboratory with the advent of the modern cruise missile. This article summarizes these major Laboratory radar programs in a synoptic fashion, which can serve the reader as a road map to the ensuing fourteen articles, each of which provides a more in-depth view of the Laboratory’s radar developments.