General Electric AN/TPQ-10 Radar Course Directing Central

The General Electric AN/TPQ-1O Course Directing Central was a light-weight, two-unit, helicopter transportable, ground based bombing system developed for use by the United States Marine Corps to provide highly accurate, day/night all weather close air support. This self-contained system was designed to guide an aircraft, equipped with the proper control equipment, to a release point for accurate all-weather delivery of ordnance and supplies to a preselected target. The AN/TPQ-10 and its operators were known as an ‘’Air Support Radar Team’’ (ASRT) and were employed by the Marine Air Support Squadrons within the Aviation Combat Element.

The system was originally fielded in the early 1960s to replace the MPQ-14 Course Directing Central radar which was first utilized during the Korean War. The AN/TPQ-10 saw extensive use during the Vietnam War supporting Marine Forces in the I Corps Tactical Zone from 1965 through 1971, most famously to great effect during the Battle of Khe Sanh in early 1968. It remained a mainstay of Marine Corps close air support tactics until it was phased out of the inventory in the early 1990s after the Gulf War. Improved avionics in military aircraft and the emerging use of satellite based navigation systems had quickly made the AN/TPQ-10 redundant and obsolete.