Reeves AN/TSQ-96 Bomb Directing Central

The Reeves AN/TSQ-96 Bomb Directing Central was a Cold War automatic tracking radar/computer/communications system ("Q" system) that was an India Band monopulse variant of the conical scan Reeves AN/MSQ-77 Bomb Directing Central and had a solid state Univac 1219B computer with punch tape reader^[1] (Mark 152 fire control computer),^[2] for ballistic calculation. As with the MSQ-77, an analog vacuum tube computer converted radar range, azimuth, and elevation to cartesian coordinates, but the TSQ-96 used a digital radiometer for analog-to-digital conversion. The TSQ-96 systems manufactured by Reeves Instrument Corporation were replaced c. 1990 by the US Dynamics AN/TPQ-43 Radar Bomb Scoring Set ("Seek Score").^[3]

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An AN/TSQ-96 was used for Vietnam War ground-directed bombing training at Bergstrom AFB in Austin TX and tracked flights at the Matagorda Island General Bombing and Gunnery Range.^[4] Deployment of the central began at operating location 23 (OL-23) on Nakhon Phanom RTAFB during the Vietnam War^[5] and in 1983, Radar Bomb Scoring Division Detachment 24 operated a TSQ-96 for Radar Bomb Scoring in Guam.^[6] The La Junta Bomb Plot also used a TSQ-96. Detachment 12, 1CEVG Hawthorne, Nevada had a TSQ-96 that had been transferred from Detachment 6, 1CEVG Bayshore, Michigan.

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