Rome Laboratory The Rome Laboratory , formerly known as the Rome Air Development Center , is one of eight research and development labs run by the US Air Force located at the former Griffiss AFB in Rome , NY . One of four " superlabs " run by the Air Force , the Rome Lab is tasked with generic research , as opposed to having a specific area of study . Over the years since it was founded , the Rome Lab has made major contributions to computing , command and control automation , and pure engineering . It is also responsible for planning and executing the Air Force ' science and technology program . It is part of the Air Force Materiel Command Air Force Research Laboratory , based at Wright - Patterson AFB , Ohio . In October 1997 , Rome Laboratory was merged into the Air Force Research Laboratory as the part Information and Sensors Directorates . Overview . The Rome Information Directorate develops information technologies for aerospace command and control , and its transition to air , space and ground systems . Its focus areas include a broad spectrum of technologies including information fusion and exploitation , communications and networking , collaborative environments , modeling and simulation , defensive information warfare and intelligent information systems technologies . Directorate scientists and engineers develop systems , concepts and technologies to enhance the Air Force ' s capability to successfully meet the challenges of the information age . In addition to its primary mission , the directorate has partnered with other elements of the federal government , national intelligence agencies , numerous allied nations , state and local governments , and more than 50 major universities to work problems of common interest . History . During WWII , the Norden bombsight was built at the Rome site , and large airplane engines were rebuilt and tested . These buildings were converted after the war into offices and laboratories . Development of the Rome Lab started in 1948 , when several small teams were sent to Griffiss from Watson Laboratories and the Middletown testing units at Middletown , Pennsylvania . The Senate Armed Services Committee recommended that the base become official , and President Harry Truman signed their bill on September 26 , 1950 to establish an " Air Force Electronics Center " . The remaining staff at Watson moved in during 1951 , and RADC was officially opened on June 12 , 1951 . One of their earliest experiments involved the construction of the Forestport Tower , a 1205 foot high transmission antenna used for low - frequency communications experiments . Testing units were also involved in final acceptance of various radar units , and did considerable basic research on antenna design and radio navigation system . These areas remained their primary research focus through the 1950s . In the early 1960s the Air Force planned a major overhaul of its various research divisions , planning on reducing the total number to seven . RADC was to become the Air Force Electromagnetics Laboratory , while Edwards AFB would host the Rocket Propulsion and Weapons labs , and Wright - Patterson AFB would host Materiels , Avionics , and the Air Force Flight Dynamic Laboratories . However these plans did not come to fruition , although it did change the RADC ' s reporting chain and caused some confusion in the meantime . In the 1960s , the focus changed to that of intelligence gathering , and automation of the flow of the gathered information . RADC offered a number of contracts in automated film processing , supercomputer s , various computer memory systems , high - resolution display systems , and were even involved in early attempts at machine translation to make quick " first pass " translations of Russian documents . In the late 1960s , RADC won a contract for the AN / TRN - 26 man transportable TACAN to be used in Vietnam War . This unit was developed , tested , and manufactured by Ling - Temco - Vought - Salt Lake City , Utah . Not being available in time to be used in Vietnam , the first units went to Israel and Camp David . Mort Setrin , a developer of the radar IFF , was also a researcher at this time and helped analyze ways to jam Russian radars . In December 1991 the name was changed to Rome Laboratory . Their basic areas of research , communications , radar , intelligence and command and control , have remained the focus of the lab until today . As the power of civilian computers have increased , the Lab has focused more on software than hardware .