SATS/EAF HISTORY

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	SATS/EAF HISTORY The Short Airfield for Tactical Support (SATS) was a rapidly constructed expeditionary airfield placed near a battle area to provide area support for amphibious Marine forces. The rapid assembly of a temporary airfield provided ground units with the distinct advantage of continuous air support on foreign soil. The Marine Corps tried several types of expeditionary airfields during World War II. Initial research used wooden planking for the runway surface. Later, during the Korean War, aircraft actually landed on pierced steel mats, known as “Marston Matting.” The SATS or Short Airfield for Tactical Support program was a vital part of the Marine Corps expeditionary mission, one which the Corps has been called upon to perform throughout the nation’s history. The mission has not changed. It is a mandate of the Marine Corps to be capable of providing expeditionary forces anywhere in the world. Marine Aviation is an integral part of that force with the mission providing “anti-air warfare and offensive air support operations in support of Fleet Marine Forces”. To locate Marine aviators in a position where they will be most effective in the performance of their mission frequently requires that they operate from forward bases near or actually within objective areas. Such a requirement wasn’t too difficult to fulfill in the early 40’s when tactical aircraft could operate from captured airfields, dirt strips, roads, and, when necessary, pierced steel planking laid on most any level area. Marine Corps study of expeditionary airfields that could be packed up and taken over the beach began during this period. In fact, an F4F was launched and recovered on a wood plank runway equipped with a catapult and arresting gear in 1942. However, it wasn’t until the Corps’ tactical squadrons transitioned from propellor to jet aircraft that a definitized expeditionary airfield concept was created. In 1956, the Commandant of the Marine Corps established a formal requirement for short, temporary, and transportable airports to meet the air support requirements of Marine expeditionary forces. The concept thus recommended was approved in 1958 under the designation of Short Airfield for Tactical Support or SATS. Development of such airfields since 1958 was both rigorous and successful. The Marines now had the hardware and it is remarkable. Imagine, if you will, an entire airport that can be moved by truck or helicopter and erected and made operational within a few days. And, in 1965, not just a runway or even a catapult and arresting gear. The list of facilities that were packed up and shipped in a SATS field included airport lighting systems, crash equipment, communications, optical landing aids, TACAN, air traffic control facilities (MATCU), liquid oxygen and nitrogen generating plants, aluminum mat runways and taxiways. . .the list is extensive. As a point of information, the Marine Corps had developed expeditionary airfields which, though similar in some respects, are not SATS. These bases had been developed as an interim system for use until SATS was operational. An expeditionary airfield was longer than SATS, normally by a factor of 2, though it used the same aluminum matting. It did not have a catapult and may or may not have had arresting gear. The aircraft, when the ambient conditions and/or fuel or ordnance load required, use JATO for launching. Such an expeditionary airfield was installed and operational in South Viet Nam (e.g. Chu-Lai from 1965 to 1970). The SATs concept, initially known as Small Airfield for Tactical Support, was born in 1953 when the Commandant of the Marine Corps stated a need for a portable expeditionary airfield. Preliminary studies conducted by HQMC, Bureau of Weapons and Bureau of Ships, established the basic criteria. Related research and development projects were evaluated at the Marine base in Quantico, VA. The proposed airfield was to be 1,000 feet long, construction completed in five days, and capable of accommodating one squadron for 30 days. In addition to the runway, airfield design included taxiways, aircraft maintenance and parking areas, refueling area, and ordnance arming area. Operational tests and evaluations were conducted at Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, MD, Naval Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory, Philadelphia, PA, and SATS test sites located at marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field, Bogue, NC, Marine Corps Air Station, Quantico, VA, and Marine Corps Base, 29 Palms, CA. The testing at Quantico concluded in 1964 and 7011's were deployed to all three Marine Air Wings. The catapult testing continued at Bogue Field, Cherry Point, NC. The first major field test of the SATS concept was in October 1964 during "Operation Steel Pike" on the southern coast of Spain. This exercise was the largest amphibious exercise undertaken since WW II and was commanded by Vice Admiral John S. McCain. All Marines, including 7011's, disembarked over the side of their troop ships and into landing craft for the trip to the beach. F-8 Crusaders eventually landed on the SATS runaway and were successfully arrested by the M-2 gear. The SATS concept proved itself. The first major combat application for the SATS system was in Chu Lai, Vietnam. On April 25, 1965, President Johnson approved plans to land Marines at Chu Lai to construct a combat airfield. MABS-12 deployed by ship from Iwakuni, Japan and landed in May, 1965. The Marines worked with Navy Seabees to complete the runway. The Marine Corps began launching A-4 Skyhawks (with JATO) for combat missions in June, 1965. By October, 1965, the Chu Lai 7011s had logged 5,000 arrests. On the night of October 27, 1965, a group of enemy "sappers" penetrated the airfield and damaged several A-4's, as well as trying to blow up the arresting gear that was manned and operational, awaiting returning A-4's. In 1966 the Chu Lai, MAG-12 catapult was installed and the first combat deployment of complete SATS concept was operational. The SATS operation enabled Chu Lai to become an important combat capability for the 3rd MEB, providing fast and effective close air support for many of the key combat operations against enemy forces. The 1965 requirements of the Marine Corps’ SATS program called for complete air station facilities that could be transported by plane, ship or truck, and set up, ready for use, within a few days. These mobile air stations include crew quarters, maintenance, supply and operational facilities, and short runways equipped with catapults and arresting gears that will permit high performance jet aircraft to take off and land. The choice of the site of a SATS field would naturally be dictated by topography, but the intention was to provide such installations near or within areas where tactical air support would be required. The design criteria for SATS equipment, therefore, included stringent requirements for light weight, transportability, quick installation, high performance and reliability. All American’s expeditionary catapult met these requirements. The CE1-3, like all CE series launchers, was capable of bi-directional operations and used a small wheeled shuttle to guide the aircraft. The shuttle was provided with a detachable cable clamp to attach the shuttle to the launch cable, a location for aircraft nose wheel, and a hook for the nylon launching bridle which connects the aircraft to the shuttle. The J-79-2 turbojet engines exhausting into General Electric LM 1500 free power turbines supplied the power for the CE1-3. The turbines were connected to a gear box and high speed capstan that drove an endless loop of steel cable. The loop was wrapped on the capstan, around a tensioning device and around sheaves at either end of the launch stroke. The SATS CE1-3 had a maximum launch stroke of 1750 feet, the stroke required to launch an F-4B weighing 55,000 pounds on a 100°F day. A lighter aircraft, of course, used a shorter stroke; an A-4 on a similar day needed less than 1100 feet. The 1750-foot dimension was not a limitation, by merely extending the stroke slightly, the catapult’s capacity could be increased to launch heavier aircraft (e.g. an A-3B at 75,000 pounds) at comparable speeds or comparable weight aircraft at higher speeds. One model of a CE catapult made repetitive launches of a 28,000 pound aircraft in excess of 225 knots on just such an extension. Actually, CE series catapults could be tailored to meet most any aircraft launching requirement. The operation of the CE1-3 was similar to carrier based catapults. The aircraft nose wheel was placed on the shuttle and the nylon bridle connected between the shuttle and the aircraft launching hooks. An aircraft holdback similar to those used on shipboard was also attached. Bridle pre-tension, supplied by the idle thrust of the catapult turbine, was applied after which the turbine is locked with a brake. On the launching officer’s signal, the operator pressed the launch button. Form that point on, the launch was fully automatic. The turbine brake was released, the throttles advance to a predetermined setting, the holdback broke, and the aircraft accelerated and took off. The shuttle engaged a nylon arrester that disconnected the cable clamp, stopped the shuttle, and propelled it back to the launch end of the runway. It was then ready for the next aircraft. The major components of a SATS consisted of: AM-2 Airfield Matting. Approved for use in 1961, AM-2 a fabricated aluminum panel consisting of a hollow extruded, one piece main section with extruded end connectors. Manufactured in 6-foot and 12-foot lengths, the top surface was coasted with a nonskid material in Marine Corps Green. It was laid in a brickwork pattern giving extra strength to the design. M-21Arresting Gear. Approved for use in 1962, the M-21is a lightweight high-capacity arresting system for the recovery of aircraft. The arresting engines utilize the vortex principle of energy absorbing in a hydrodynamic braking system. CE1-3 Aircraft Expeditionary Catapult that employed the “slingshot” principle of launch. The operational reliability evaluation and pilot indoctrination program of the U.S. Marine Corps’ then new and fully operational land based expeditionary CE1-3 SATS (Short Airfields for Tactical Support) catapult continued at an accelerated pace through December, 1965. The dual program, which began in November, 1965 after acceptance of the CE1-3 by the USMC, was being conducted on the SATS mat runway at the Naval Air Test Facility (Ship Installations) at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, N.J. In a separate but related event, a SATS school was opened on 2 December, 1965 in Building 154 on the station to train Marine Corps ground crews to operate the launcher and related equipment. The shorebased CE1-3 catapult was the production model of the CE gas turbine powered aircraft launchers that had been developed by All American Engineering Company of Wilmington, Delaware, under contract to the U.S. Naval Air Engineering Center at Philadelphia, and under the cognizance of the Bureau of Naval Weapons and the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1965 the CE1-3 was undergoing operational evaluation on the first of the production launchers and the same unit that completed acceptance testing at the same location in the summer of 1965 under the supervision of a Marine Acceptance Board, headed by Col. Gelon Doswell (USMC), and NATF and NAEL personnel. During the 1965 acceptance test program, the CE1-3 demonstrated its performance by launching a variety of aircraft – A-4’s, A-6’s, F-4’s, F-8’s – at weights ranging from 18,000 to 54,000 pounds and at launch velocities up to 175 knots. The launcher was also shown to meet the SATS requirements for reversing launch direction and rapid cycle operations. The second production catapult completed acceptance tests at NATF during September, 1965 testing of other production catapults under simulated airfcraft conditions were performed at the CE test installation at All American’s Georgetown Test Facility at Sussex County Airport, Georgetown, Delaware. The program was being supplied with aircraft from six Marine/Navy reserve squadrons and one active Marine squadron. It was thus serving the dual purpose of both evaluation and pilot indoctrination in a single operation. The cost effectiveness of this approach was further enhanced by the fact that USMC CE1-3 crews scheduled for early field assignment were being trained at the same time in spotting, rigging, launching and related activities. The reserve aviators and aircraft involved in the program include: A-4’s from Naval Air Stations at South Weymouth (Mass.), New York, and Norfolk; and F-8’s from NAS Willow Grove (Pa.), Atlanta, and NAF Andrews (AFB). VMFA-251, an operational Marine Squadron from Beaufort, South Carolina, was supplying F-4 aircraft. With the exception of the F-4 personnel and aircraft which were temporarily assigned to Lakehurst for the program, the planes were flown in each morning from their home stations. Launching operations begin as soon as the aircraft were aboard and continued until late afternoon at which time they are launched on their way home. Between 30 and 35 launches per day had been the norm with more than 60 occurring on some days. As of 7 January, 1966 a total of 1012 aircraft launches had been made on the production catapult. The CE1-3 version of All American’s catapult that has been chosen for production by the Marine Corps was the result of several years of development and testing of a variety of CE configurations. The original prototype CE-1 was initially tested with deadloads at the Company’s Georgetown base after which it was moved to the NATF installation for aircraft launches. A single engine model was produced, the CE-2, which launched aircraft programs at Quantico, El Toro, and Parris Island, South Carolina. It was the latter location that a CE launcher was first integrated into and operated with a complete expeditionary airfield in a simulated tactical situation. Further definition and refinement of the catapult requirements and design dictated a return to the two engine configuration. Additional refinements provided improvements in such components as launching bridles and shuttles which have substantially increased performance and maintainability and reduced aircraft rigging and launch cycle times. The first SATS school was at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station and officially opened on 2 December, 1965 by Captain J. W. Fairbanks (USN), Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Technical Training Unit at the station. Captain Fairbanks, together with Commander John Counihan, NATTU Director of Training at Lakehurst, toured the school’s facilities in Building 154 following a cake cutting ceremony. The tour, which included visits to the classrooms and offices, and demonstrations of the training aids, was conducted by the Commanding Officer of the school, Captain James Harrison, a Marine Aviator. Captain Harrison’s staff was headed by S/Sgt. E. O. Morgan, the senior NCO. Sgt. Morgan and many of the other instructors had been involved in the development and evaluation of SATS and expeditionary airfield equipment for many years. Many had come directly from Southeast Asia to help train the new Marines. The majority of the instructors thus had, in addition to a high degree of expertise in their subjects from their experience in development and simulated exercises, actual firsthand knowledge of how a Marine expeditionary airfield operates under tactical conditions. During the acceptance test program conducted at NATF in the summer of 1965, a number of SATS crews were trained on the first two production catapults. But now that more CE1-3’s were being shipped to the Corps, more trained personnel were required. A secondary mission of the evaluation program was on-the-job training of catapult crews who received early field assignment. Most of these Marine trainees, however, had previous experience in SATS or related operations. The SATS school, on the other hand, was designed to train Marine Corps personnel who had no background in the field. The school was running two concurrent programs. The first was an accelerated training course under contractor tutelage for the Marine Corps instructors who were not familiar with the CE1-3. The second program was the first of the regular 5 week courses for Marines who had been assigned to the SATS program and had come to the school to learn their specialty. For the most part, the classes consisted of privates and Pfc’s who had recently completed their recruit training, their required duty with an Infantry Training Regiment (ITR), and a 1 or 2 week aviation indoctrination course at NATTU in Memphis. There were a number of SATS training programs underway throughout the Marine Corps, but the school at Lakehurst was concerned only with launching and recovering aircraft, or, in other words, the runway and its immediate environs. This was divided into 3 major equipment and/or functional categories: runways, catapults, and arresters. The curriculum of the Lakehurst SATS school that was prepared by the school staff was divided into 3 major phases corresponding to the above categories. The first phase provided the students with a working knowledge of the M-2 Morest (MK 5) and the M-21 arresting gears. The second phase, Support Equipment, encompassed the variety of runway items and operations such as the AM-2 matting and its staging, the optical Fresnel lens landing aid, runway lighting, and earth anchors. The All American CE1-3 catapult was covered in the third phase. For the purpose of familiarization, the students were also exposed to a number of other equipment which are part of a modern SATS complex; however, their main efforts are devoted to the three phases described above. The curriculum consisted of classroom lectures supplemented with both static and dynamic displays and models. Furthermore, the trainees received indoctrination on the CE1-3 during the evaluation program. The training aids at the school included a large table model of a double (2 runways end to end) SATS complex, a CE catapult control console, demonstration models of CE1-3 catapults and arresters, and various cross section and assembly displays. Portable Optical Landing System (POLS). A lightweight landing aid containing three sets of horizontal lights, two green and one amber, mounted on tripods. This was replaced in the early 1960s with the Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System (FLOLS), a mobile, trailer-mounted system. Aircraft lighting components including runway edge lights, threshold, high intensity approach lights, optical glide slope indicator, taxiway, parking, and service area lights, airport beacon and lighted wind indicator. Tactical Airfield Fuel Dispensing System (TAFDS). A portable, helicopter transportable fuel farm consisting of six collapsible rubber fuel tanks each holding 10,000 gallons, associated pumps, water separators, filter units, mters, hoses, etc., and a de-fueling unit. Sources: All American Engineering Company Wilmington, Delaware “The All American Word” February, 1966 CWO-4 James R. Casey, USMC (Ret) Gary Robbins 7002 JOB DESCRIPTIONS 7011 JOB DESCRIPTIONS
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