Air Defense Direction Center Explained
Air Defense Direction Center |
Native Name: | NORAD sector direction center (NSDC) |
Country: | United States |
An Air Defense Direction Center[1] (ADDC) was a type of United States command post for assessing Cold War radar tracks, assigning height requests to available height-finder radars, and for "Weapons Direction": coordinating command guidance of aircraft from more than 1 site for ground-controlled interception ("weapons assignment").[2] As with the World War II Aircraft Warning Service CONUS defense network, a "manual air defense system"[3] was used through the 1950s (e.g., NORAD/ADC used a " plotting board" at the Ent command center.) Along with 182 radar stations at "the end of 1957, ADC operated … 17 control centers", and the Ground Observation Corps was TBD on TBD. With the formation of NORAD, several types of ADDCs were planned by Air Defense Command:
- Joint Direction Center,[4] a USAF ADDC collocated with an Army Air Defense Command Post, AADCP (together designated a "NORAD Control Center").
- Semi-Automatic Direction Center (SAGE Direction Center),[5] an ADCC (e.g., the "Duluth Sector Direction Center"[6]) with a command, control, and coordination system that provided the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), e.g., AN/FSQ-7 or AN/GSA-51 (in 1958, NORAD "forecast full SAGE direction center capability" by January 1963.)
- Combined Direction-Combat Center, a USAF ADDC collocated with a SAGE Combat Center (e.g., DC-03 & CC-01 at Hancock Field for the Syracuse Air Defense Sector)
- SCC Direction Center (SCC/DC), a USAF ADDC to be collocated with a planned Super Combat Center in a nuclear bunker (no SCCs, SCC/DCs, or above-ground DCs with AN/FSQ-32 were ever completed)
- Manual Direction Center, an ADCC without a SAGE CCCS, successors to the Manual Air Defense Control Centers of the Permanent System (cf. ADCCs with a "pre-SAGE semiautomatic intercept system")
- NIKE direction center, Army Project Nike AADCPs for coordinating surface-to-air missile fire from multiple batteries, e.g., W-13DC (at the Fort Meade radar station) through LA-45DC (Fort MacArthur Direction Center), 9 of which were within Missile Master nuclear bunkers.
Most ADDCs were replaced by Regional Operations Control Centers of the Joint Surveillance System (FOC on December 23, 1980).
Notes and References
- 1958 . 2013-04-20.
- Lincoln Laboratory memorandum 6M-3797 which cites "6M-3788, "Weapons Direction Requirements," R. Nelson) … SAGE designation of targets directly to AA batteries … CAPE COD DIRECTION CENTER … Memorandum 6M-2926-3, "Lighting Requirements for AN/FSQ-7 Direction Centers," … 6M-3772…Requirements for Separate Rani-Air Training Command Direction Center Facility"
- Narrated by Colonel John Morton . In Your Defense . digitized movie . Western Electric . 2012-04-03 . The System Development Corporation…in the design of massive computer programs … Burroughs…electronic equipment … Western Electric…assist the Air Force in coordinating and managing the entire effort…and design of buildings. …SAGE project office…Air Material Command.
- 1958b . 2013-04-20.
- Lincoln Laboratory Memorandum 6M-3797: The operational specifications for the SAGE Direction Center (Schaffel p. 208 also identifies the term)
- Web site: Philips, Alan F. . 20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War . Issues (Accidents) webpage . NuclearFiles.org . 2013-05-04 . At around midnight on October 25, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence. He shot at it, and activated the "sabotage alarm." … and the Klaxon sounded which ordered nuclear armed F-106A interceptors to take off. … The original intruder was a bear. . 2016-04-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160408032853/http://nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/issues/accidents/20-mishaps-maybe-caused-nuclear-war.htm . dead .