Air Force Missile Development Center
 Air Force Missile Development Center |
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Air Force Missile Development Center sign in 1958
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| Active | 1 September 1957-1 August 1970 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch |
United States Air Force, assigned to:
with predecessors assigned to:
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| Role | Research & Development |
 Holloman Range Control (minute 4:55)
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United States Air Force, assigned to:
with predecessors assigned to:
The Air Force Missile Development Center and its predecessors were Cold War units that conducted and supported numerous missile tests using facilities at Holloman Air Force Base, where the center was the host unit ("Holloman" and "Development Center" were sometimes colloquially used to identify military installations in the Tularosa Basin.)
Planned for British Overseas Training which was not pursued, World War II construction for a Tularosa Basin USAAF base 6 mi (9.7 km) west of Alamogordo, New Mexico, began on 6 February 1942. A nearby military range was established by Executive Order No. 9029, and the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range was designated on 14 May 1942. On 27 May 1942 the USAAF base was designated Alamogordo Field Training Station for range support and was subsequently named Alamogordo Army Air Base.
The 359th Base Headquarters was the base operating unit for Alamorgordo AAB beginning on 10 June 1942, and the base was redesignated Alamogordo Army Air Field on 21 November 1942 and supported numerous WWII Bomber Groups (range targets were added in late 1942.) In October 1944 at Wendover Army Air Base, Utah, the Special Weapons Field Test Unit was established as a detachment of the Special Weapons Branch in Ohio to evaluate captured and experimental systems such as the Republic‐Ford JB‐2, a copy of the German V-1 flying bomb. South of Alamogordo AAF between the White Sands National Monument and Fort Bliss, water well drilling began construction of White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG) facilities on 25 June 1945.
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