Germany led the way on development of radar. After radio waves were discovered, early experiments by Heinrich Hertz demonstrated that they bounced off metallic objects. It was proposed that a detection system based on that property would help ships avoid collisions in the fog. The major navies of the world quickly caught on to the military implications of such a device, and began developing their own. The name “Radar” in fact, came from the U.S. Navy’s codename for the project, an acronym standing for “Radio Detection and Ranging.”

On this day, February 26, in 1938, the battleship USS New York was outfitted with the first true radar device. Earlier systems could “detect” nearby ships or planes, but not “range” them. The New York contained the first “duplex” detection and ranging radar.

In Germany, development of the radar system led into more interesting avenues. German military leaders realized as early as 1935 the potential of radar to augment air defenses. Visibility of attacking planes was essential to shooting them down, but the Luftwaffe – the German Air Force – realized radar-sighted guns did not need to depend on the weather or cloud cover. Spurred on by the second world war, Germany, along with Britain and the U.S., made great strides in developing the radar used in guiding modern ships and airplanes.