Search Light, 60 inch --Bristol, Tennessee - Military Ground Equipment Displays on Waymarking.com

WW II searchlights formed part of a system of aircraft detection linking (a) locator devices, (b) searchlights, and (c) antiaircraft (AAA) guns. The locators sent electronic information to the lights and guns, which in turn tracked the target in synch with each other. Once a locator of any of the aforementioned types had "locked on" to an aerial target, the concept was for both lights and guns to be trained on the target (via the height and distance data received from the locator) so the target could be nearly simultaneously illuminated and then destroyed. Locators were first based on sound and heat detection, and ultimately radar became the preferred method of target acquisition. Units were generally separate, but advances in radar technology late in the war saw the integration of radar into both searchlight and AAA gun designs. Antiaircraft artillery accuracy was at stake, both from tactical and economic points of view. In 1940, in England, for example, it took an average of 20,000 rounds of ammunition to down a single enemy aircraft! The demand for more accurate methods of engaging, tracking, and destroying aircraft, especially at night, was driven by the need to destroy more targets without expending lots of ammunition.

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