Air Resupply And Communications Service

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= Air Resupply And Communications Service


caption= Emblem of the USAF Air Resupply And Communications Service
dates= 1951 - 1956
country= United States
allegiance=
branch= United States Air Force
type= Psychological Warfare
role=
size=
command_structure= Military Air Transport Service
current_commander=
garrison= Andrews AFB, Maryland
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=The Air Resupply And Communications Service (ARCS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was assigned to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.

Mission

The mission of ARCS was:

* Introducing, evacuating and supplying guerrilla-type units in enemy occupied territory.
* Storing and packaging psychological warfare propaganda materials and storing and packing supplies used by guerilla-type personnel.
* Housing, supplying, administering, training and briefing guerilla-type personnel.
* Composing and reproducing psychological warfare propaganda.
* Composing and transmitting by radio, psychological warfare propaganda.
* Providing and maintaining communications circuits and communications security for the transmission and reception of intelligence material and for the analysis of such intelligence material.
* Perform such other functions as may be assigned.

History

Background

By 1948 it became apparent to US leadership that the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin could not be appeased, persuaded, or otherwise convinced to respect the territorial rights of its neighbor nations. The United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been created by the National Security Act of 1947 and activated a short time later.

Visionaries in the Pentagon reasoned that the next war would be fought and won (or lost) in the mindsof those fighting it. Subsequently, the Psychological Warfare Division was established at the Air Staff in February 1948. By definition psychological warfare in 1948 was synonymous with special operations as defined during World War II. The new Psychological Warfare Division (also known as PW) division immediately set about to develop plans to fight this "new" type of warfare, which came to be known as psychological warfare, or PSYWAR for short.

In 1950 Air Staff/PW created two special operaions wings devoted to the PSYWAR mission and scheduled them to be activated in 1952. The plan called for three additional wings to be activated in 1953, with future growth programmed to seven wings. On 5 January 1951 the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) was tasked to organize, train, and equip these new wings. For security purposes, the special operations wings were designated "Air Resupply and Communications wings". A new service was established to provide oversight for this new capability and was designated the Air Resupply and Communications Service (ARCS).

Activated on 23 February 1951 at Andrews AFB, Maryland, the ARCS represented the most ambitious commitment to special operations since World War II and was responsible for oversight of the PSYWAR mission of the US Air Force. The catalyst for this new capability was the requirement by the CIA for long-range air transport of guerrilla warfare agents and supplies into Soviet occupied Europe and Northwest Asia. ARCS was responsible for USAF unconventional warfare (guerrilla warfare), direct action (commando-type raids), strategic reconnaissance (intelligence gathering), and PSYWAR operations.

Equipment

Assigned to an Air Resupply Wing were 12 specially modified B-29 heavy bombers, four C-119 heavy transports, four SA-16 amphibians, and four H-19A helicopters. All aircraft were new, except for the B-29s, which had been pulled from USAF storage at Warner Robins AFB, Georgia.

Five other non-flying squadrons were assigned to support the wing's operations by providing maintenance, cargo airdrop rigging, long-range communications, and PSYWAR/leaflet production. One unique squadron was devoted to preparing guerrilla-type personnel for insertion into enemy occupied territory.

Extensive modifications were required for the B-29 Superfortress to enable it to perform the special operations mission. All turrets, except the tail turret, were removed from the aircraft, leaving the aircraft unarmed and incapable of self-defense. A parachutist’s exit was made where the belly gun turret was originally located. Resupply bundles were mounted on bomb racks inside the bomb bay, thus allowing the bundles to be dropped like bombs over the drop zone. Aircraft were painted black, and a crude HTR-13 obstruction-warning radar was installed to warn the crew of approaching terrain. The major flaw in the B-29 employed in the special operations role, however, was that it had been designed for high-altitude precision bombing, not low-level airdrop. Over the drop zone at drop airspeed, the aircraft was near its stall speed and was difficult to maneuver.

A B-29 was assigned to the 580th ARCW conducted trials at Eglin AFB, Florida, during the summer of 1951 to determine if the aircraft could be used to extract personnel utilizing the prototype Personnel Pickup Ground Station extraction system. The test aircraft was modified with a 48-inch diameter opening in place of the aft-belly turret and with an elongated tailhook at the rear of the aircraft. The system was similar to the one adopted in 1952 by Fifth Air Force for the C-47s of the Special Air Missions detachment in South Korea. The tests proved technically feasible, but the project was dropped for the B-29 aircraft due to aircraft size and safety considerations of flying it so close to the ground.

Units/bases assigned

* Headquarters, Air Resupply and Communications Service: Andrews AFB, Maryland
* 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 16 Apr 1951 - 17 Sep 1952
Wheelus Air Base, Libya, 22 Sep - 1952 to 8 Sep 1953: 580th Air Resupply Group
Wheelus Air Base, Libya, 8 Sep 1953 - 12 Oct 1956
* 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 23 Jul 1951 - 18 Jul 1952
Clark Air Base, Philippines, 18 Jul 1952 - 8 Sep 1953: 581st Air Resupply Group
Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 8 Sep 1953 - 1 Sep 1956
* 582nd Air Resupply and Communications Wing
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 24 Sep 1952 - 1 May 1953
Great Falls AFB, Montana, 1 May - 14 Aug 53: 582nd Air Resupply Group
RAF Molesworth, England, 21 Feb 1954 - 25 Oct 1956
* 1300th Air Base Wing (Training): Mountain Home AFB, Idaho

Aircraft assigned

* C-119 Flying Boxcar 1950 - 1953
* B-29 Superfortress 1951 - 1953
* SA-16 Albatross 1951 - 1953
* Sikorsky H-19 1952 - 1953
* C-54 Skymaster 1952
* C-118 1952 - 1953

Deactivation

By 1953 USAF interest in the unconventional warfare mission had run its course. The primary reason for this reduction was funding. The Air Force was essentially operating a national-level special operations program for an agency outside the Department of Defense for the CIA with dollars needed for higher priority strategic forces. With the rapid buildup of the Strategic Air Command to counter Soviet Cold War aggression and the resulting funding requirements, the lesser priority PSYWAR mission was curtailed.

In April 1953 the Air Staff directed ARCS to limit operations to Air Force only projects, thus ending support for such outside agencies as the CIA. Nine months later Department of the Air Force Letter 322 and Military Air Transport Service General Order 174 deactivated ARCS, effective 1 January 1954.

In September 1953, after the Korean Armistice was signed that ended active conflict on the Korean peninsula and three months before deactivation of the ARCS, the three active wings were reduced to air resupply groups. The downsized groups were approximately one-half the size of the former wings and consisted of two squadrons - one flying squadron and one support squadron, as compared to six squadrons in each wing before the reorganization

General Order 37, Headquarters Seventeenth Air Force, dated 12 October 1956, deactivated the 580th ARG in place in Libya. Third Air Force General Order 86, dated 18 October 1956, deactivated the 582d ARS, effective 25 October 1956. With the deactivation of the 581st at Kadena AB in September 1956, the USAF closed the book on the long-range unconventional warfare mission around which the ARCS and its associated wings were based.

Eight years later, the United States found itself in the Vietnam War, and the formation of the Air Commando, later renamed Special Operations Wings. In 1990, the Air Force formed the Air Force Special Operations Command.

See also

* Air Force Special Operations Command

References

* [http://www.arcassn.org/index.html Air Resupply and Communications Association]
* Thigpen, Jerry L. (2001). The Praetorian STARShip: The untold story of the Combat Talon. Air University Press , Maxwell AFB, Alabama. ASIN: B000116LSI

External links

* [http://www.arcassn.org/index.html Air Resupply and Communications Association]