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The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. SAGE directed and controlled the NORAD response to a possible Soviet air attack, operating in this role from the late 1950s into the 1980s. Its enormous computers and huge displays remain a part of cold war lore, and after decommissioning were common props in movies such as Dr. Strangelove and Colossus, and on science fiction TV series such as The Time Tunnel.
The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off range and altitude capability for a much smaller size and weight. Its low-level performance was greatly improved over Nike through the adoption of new radars and a continuous wave semi-active radar homing guidance system. It entered service with the US Army in 1959.
Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for air defense of the continental United States. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly inactivated in 1950, reactivated in 1951, and then redesignated Aerospace rather than Air in 1968. Its mission was to provide air defense of the Continental United States (CONUS). It directly controlled all active measures, and was tasked to coordinate all passive means of air defense.
Fort MacArthur is a former United States Army installation in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. A small section remains in military use by the United States Air Force as a housing and administrative annex of Los Angeles Air Force Base. The fort is named after Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur. His son, Douglas MacArthur, would later command American forces in the Pacific during World War II.
Fort Fisher Air Force Station was a United States Air Force installation located on the Atlantic coast 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of Kure Beach, North Carolina. Its primary mission was as a radar complex. It was closed on 30 June 1988 by the Air Force, and turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Ground Equipment Facility J-33 is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar station of the Joint Surveillance System's Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) with an Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR-4). The facility was previously a USAF general surveillance radar station during the Cold War.
The SAGE radar stations of Air Defense Command were the military installations operated by USAF squadrons using the 1st automated air defense environment and networked by the SAGE System, a computer network. Most of the radar stations used the Burroughs AN/FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitting Set (CDTS) to automate the operator environment and provide radar tracks to sector command posts at SAGE Direction Centers (DCs), e.g., the Malmstrom Z-124 radar station was co-located with DC-20. The sector/division radar stations were networked by DCs and Manual Control Centers to provide command, control, and coordination for ground-controlled interception of enemy aircraft by interceptors such as the F-106 developed to work with the SAGE System.
The Fort Meade radar station was an air defence radar installation used by the Army and USAF. The site operated c. 1950 until 1979 and had a Project Nike command post and radar network.
The Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System, better known as Missile Master, was an electronic fire distribution center to computerize Cold War air defense (AD) command posts from manual plotting board operations to automated command and control of remote surface-to-air missile (SAM) launch batteries. The 10 United States Army C3 systems used radar netting ("electronic umbrella") at Missile Master military installations for coordinating ground-controlled interception by Nike and MIM-23 Hawk missiles. The vacuum tube fire control logic reduced the time to designate the appropriate missile battery to launch if an enemy target had intruded into a defense area where an AN/FSG-1 system was deployed.
The Hughes AN/TSQ-51 Air Defense Command and Coordination System was a transportable electronic fire distribution center for automated command and control of remote Nike missile launch batteries. The radar netting system replace the vacuum tube AN/FSG-1 in 6 United States Missile Master bunkers after the upgrade was approved by the United States Department of Defense in 1963; and additional deployments were at Homestead-Miami, Florida, and Providence, Rhode Island, to replace Battery Integration and Radar DIsplay Equipment (BIRDIE) systems; as well as at San Francisco. As with the AN/FSG-1, the AN/TSQ-51 could provide fire control for 24 Nike batteries, but the smaller AN/TSQ-51 could be fielded in 2 trailers.
Missile Master was a US Army surface-to-air missile control complex/facility. It controlled Project Nike missiles. Virtually all Missile Masters had a bunker housing the Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System, as well as additional structures for "an AN/FPS-33 defense acquisition radar (DAR) or similar radar, two height-finder radars," and identification friend or foe secondary radar. The radars, along with Automated Data Links (ADL) from remote Nike firing units, provided data into the AN/FSG-1 tracking subsystem with the DAR providing surveillance coverage to about 200 mi (320 km).
The Martin AN/TSQ-8 Coordinate Data Set was a Project Nike CCCS system for converting data between Army Air Defense Command Posts (AADCP) and Integrated Fire Control sites for missile Launch Areas. The AN/TSQ-8 in the Firing Unit Integration Facility (FUIF) was first installed for each Launch Area controlled from a Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System and then later for other Nike CCCS. The system included a "data converter, range computer, summing amplifier, status relay panel, status control panel, problem unit, [and] power control panel".
Backup Interceptor Control was the Electronic Systems Division 416M System to backup the SAGE 416L System in the United States and Canada. BUIC deployed Cold War command, control, and coordination systems to SAGE radar stations to create dispersed NORAD Control Centers.
The Arlington Heights Army Air Defense Site was a Project Nike Missile Master site near Chicago, Illinois. It operated from 1960 until 1968.
The Permanent System was a 1950s radar network used for the CONUS "manual air defense system" and which had a USAF aircraft control and warning (AC&W) organization of personnel and military installations with radars to allow Air Defense Command ground-controlled interception of Cold War bombers attacking the United States.
The Fort Heath radar station was a USAF radar site and US Army Missile Master installation of the joint-use site system (JUSS) for North American Air Defense at a former coastal defense site. The Cold War radar station had 2 USAF AN/FPS-6B height finding radars, 2 Army AN/FPS-6A height finders, an FAA ARSR-1 radar emplaced 1958-9, and an Army nuclear bunker. Arctic Towers were the pedestals for the FPS antennas and radomes, while the Air Route Surveillance Radar was on a 50-foot extension temperate tower adjacent to the Federal Aviation Administration building.
The GE AN/GPA-37 Course Directing Group was a USAF Cold War air defense command, control, and coordination system for weapons direction. During Air Defense Command's "Control Capability Improvement Program" to improve command guidance of manned aircraft, the AN/GPA-37 was "developed by the General Electric Heavy Military Electronic Equipment Department at Syracuse in conjunction with...Rome Air Development Center and the Electronics Research Laboratories of Columbia University." Used to process radar data, the system was to "track a potential enemy aircraft and direct intercepters [sic] into a position from which they can make their automatic firing runs", the system included the:
An Air Defense Direction Center (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. As with the World War II Aircraft Warning Service CONUS defense network, a "manual air defense system" was used through the 1950s 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:
NORAD Control Centers (NCCs) were Cold War "joint direction centers" for command, control, and coordination of ground-controlled interception by both USAF Air Defense Command (ADC) and Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM). The Joint Manual Steering Group was "formed by the Army and Air Force in July 1957 to support…collocation" of USAF Air Defense Direction Centers and Army Air Defense Command Posts, which began after a January 28, 1958, ADC/ARADCOM meeting with NORAD to "collocate the Fairchild-Geiger facilities" Army contracts for 5 NCCs had been let by August 17, 1958, after 1956 DoD approval for collocation of interim "pre-SAGE semiautomatic intercept systems" and radar squadrons at 10 planned Army Missile Master AADCPs
Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) was a Unified Combatant Command of the United States Department of Defense, tasked with air defense for the Continental United States. It comprised Army, Air Force, and Navy components. It included Army Project Nike missiles anti-aircraft defenses and USAF interceptors. The primary purpose of continental air defense during the CONAD period was to provide sufficient attack warning of a Soviet bomber air raid to ensure Strategic Air Command could launch a counterattack without being destroyed. CONAD controlled nuclear air defense weapons such as the 10 kiloton W-40 nuclear warhead on the CIM-10B BOMARC. The command was disestablished in 1975, and Aerospace Defense Command became the major U.S. component of North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
References
- ↑ "Chapter 2 Air Defense Artillery Control Systems". US Army Air Defense Digest, 1972. Hillman Hall, Fort Bliss, Texas: U. S. Army Air Defense School. 1972. Retrieved 2013-02-23– via Ed Thelen's Nike Missile Web Site.