New fighter patrols were scheduled, and B-24 raids cratered the airfields on Iwo Jima. Searchlights and a Microwave Early Warning (MEW) radar system were installed at the north end of Saipan, and destroyers were positioned north of the island to act as radar pickets. These measures helped, but the threat was not entirely eliminated until February 1945, when the marines stormed Iwo Jima.
