[1][8][9] Field Laboratory Number One was situated west of Red Bank, New Jersey, and was primarily responsible for the development of ground communications technologies and radio equipment.

[10][15] As a consolidated laboratory, SCEL prioritized research pertaining to communication systems, radar, electron tubes, and component improvement as well as meteorology, proximity fuzes, and photography.

In 1954, the Signal Corps began moving SCEL operations to the new but incomplete Albert J. Myer Center in the Charles Woods Area of Fort Monmouth.

[11][17] Upon consolidation, the individual laboratories of SCEL were divided into seven divisions: Communications, Radar, Countermeasures, Physical Sciences, Electron Devices, Production and Maintenance Engineering, and Components, Materials and Power Sources.

1 was reorganized into the White Sands Signal Corps Agency (WSSCA), which sought to improve munition performance by conducting high altitude and upper-atmosphere research.

On August 1, 1962, AMC established one of its subordinate elements, the U.S. Army Electronics Command (ECOM), at Fort Monmouth to continue the research and development operations previously helmed by the Signal Corps.

While the U.S. Navy and the Naval Research Laboratory were responsible for the initial development of radar in the 1920s, the Signal Corps significantly advanced its capabilities in the years leading up to World War II.

[6] In February 1931, SCL Director Major William R. Blair established Project 88, “Position Finding by Means of Light,” to continue the mission on detecting airplanes.

By this point, SCL and the Naval Research Laboratory decided to share information on developments of their respective radar systems to avoid duplication of effort.

[6][8] In December 1936, SCL conducted the field test of its preliminary radar system, including the 75-watt transmitter, near Newark Airport in New Jersey to determine if it could detect the commercial airplanes flying in the sky.

[6] In May 1937, Blair invited Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps Brigadier General Henry Arnold, and other government officials to Fort Monmouth for a showcase of the SCL radar’s capabilities.

Impressed by the demonstration, Woodring praised the “amazing scientific advances made by the Signal Corps,” and substantial funding was provided to SCL to continue the development of its radar technology.

Back in 1943, General Henry “Hap” Arnold forewarned the emergence of projectiles that could fly at speeds too fast to detect and be powerful enough to wipe out an entire city—an early prediction of the intercontinental ballistic missile.

In 1945, the Pentagon ordered Lieutenant Colonel John H. DeWitt Jr., the director of the Evans Signal Laboratory, to investigate whether such a weapon could be detected and tracked using radar.

[1][35] This time, Dewitt assembled a team of five people, including mathematician Walter McAfee, to push the boundaries of how far electronic signals can be transmitted into the upper atmosphere.

[1][34][35] Project Diana represented the first demonstration of artificially created signals piercing the ionosphere and is often noted as the birth of the U.S. space program as well as that of radar astronomy.

[36] The resulting “Moonbounce” technique, now known as Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication, granted researchers the ability to observe and measure the distance of nearby astronomical objects by analyzing their reflections.

Since World War I, the Signal Corps was responsible for reporting the weather and other meteorological information to the Army for the purposes of long-range artillery and antiaircraft support, storm tracking, and general operational planning.

Researchers at Evans Signal Laboratory were tasked with modifying the CPS-9 to suit the needs and requirements of the Army Air Forces (AAF) Weather Service.

[40][42][43] In addition to weather prediction, SCL investigated the behavior of wind and the physical properties of the upper atmosphere, often in order to improve the guidance and control of missiles.

[10] The White Sands Signal Corps Agency, which originated as an SCEL field station, experienced a series of advancements in multiple areas of weather research during the 1950s.

In 1957, researchers launched Loki II rockets into the air and used radar to track the drift of the metallic chaff that was released at designated altitudes, through which they obtained new knowledge of high-altitude winds in the process.

[44] During the late 1950s, SCL (then called the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory) represented one of the major players on the U.S. side of the Space Race against the Soviet Union.

The laboratory’s long history of advancements in electronic communications technology enabled SCL researchers to make significant contributions to the payload of several successful satellites.

The solar power devices developed by SCL enabled Vanguard I’s radio transmitters to operate for years, whereas a conventional battery would have only lasted several days.

[10] Launched on December 18, 1958, the SCORE satellite was jointly developed by SCL and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) with help from the U.S. Air Force.

[47][49] The spacecraft carried a communications package designed and built by SCL that contained a tape recording of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Christmas greeting to the world.

The TIROS-1 satellite was equipped with two television cameras that took pictures of the Earth’s cloud formations from above and sent them down to ground stations at Fort Monmouth and in Hawaii within a matter of minutes.

[47][52] The Courier program was first proposed by SCL in September 1958 as a way to test the feasibility of creating a global military communications network through the use of satellites that could receive, store, and transmit information.

An internal clock ensured that the satellite only listened to radio transmissions while orbiting above one of the two designated ground stations in either Fort Monmouth or Salinas, Puerto Rico.