The RBS Express: The Trains of the Strategic Air Command

For ten years, SAC used radar bomb scoring equipment mounted on trains to create a constantly changing set of practice targets for its bomber crews.

The Strategic Air Command had radar bomb scoring (RBS) sites at fixed locations across the country that were used in the training and assessment of bomber crews. However, the sites became very well-known to SAC crews and became less-challenging with time.

Mobile RBS units on modified trains called the RBS Express were the fix. The RBS trains could park anywhere there was a rail siding and set up a totally new training target for SAC crews.

SAC's 1st Combat Evaluation Group had 3 squadrons that were charge of the fixed RBS sites- the 10th, 11th, and 12th RBS Squadrons were each assigned a geographic area of the United States. Each RBS Squadron had detachments and when the RBS Express was created, each squadron got a train.

The trains were pulled by commercial locomotives contracted by SAC. Besides the locomotive, there were 21 cars in each RBS train. Four were flatbeds with radar tracking equipment and the other 17 were support cars for the RBS detachment- one car had a generator to provide power to the equipment, two boxcars for support and maintenance, a dining car, two day room cars acting as offices, several supply cars, four sleeper cars that acted as dorms for the RBS crews, and an administrative car for the detachment commander which was usually the last car in the train.

The trains were immaculately maintained, with the cars painted gloss blue, each with the SAC shield on it. Thirty or so personnel went with each RBS Express deployment which could last anywhere from several weeks to as long as six months.

The first two RBS Express trains deployed in August 1961 and were pulled by Union Pacific locomotives. Until the miniaturization of the radar equipment made them road-portable, the RBS Express covered the country until 1972.