The Electronic Systems Center was a product center of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. Its mission was to develop and acquire command and control, communications, computer, and intelligence systems. ESC consisted of professional teams specializing in engineering, computer science, and business management. The teams supervised the design, development, testing, production, and deployment of command and control systems. Two of ESC's most well-known developments were the Boeing E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), developed in the 1970s, and the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), developed in the 1980s.
ESD’s first radar systems were ground-based, but in the 1960s the organization expanded into airborne radar systems. In overcoming the “ground clutter” problem, the 1970s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) represented a technological achievement for airspace surveillance. It was joined in the later 1980s by the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS). While still under development, Joint STARS was pressed into service for the Gulf War to monitor movement on the battlefield. Other ESD programs focused on creating secure communications systems, air defense systems for allied nations, command centers, intelligence data transmission, air traffic control systems, and computer-based training systems.
Since the later years of the Cold War, ESC worked to upgrade its key radar, command center, and communications systems. The decade of the 1990s presented new challenges for the expanded Center in the form of regional conflicts, joint and coalition engagements, terrorism, and asymmetric warfare. In response, ESC developed programs to work towards integration and interoperability in C2 systems. By presenting systems in action via several interactive C2 demonstrations, ESC engaged in ongoing dialogue with its customers. The Center then undertook a major restructure of its acquisition processes starting in 1996. “Spiral development” was introduced to achieve state-of-the-art systems in a timely, flexible, and cost-effective approach.
The pace of these initiatives had gained momentum by the start of the 21st century. The ESC developed automated systems for Air Tasking Orders, weather, mission planning, and management information, together with enhanced force protection for Air Force personnel on the ground. For the series of Joint Expeditionary Force Experiments (JEFX) starting in 1998, ESC managed the insertion of new C2 and information technology. At the same time, its work on standardizing C2 infrastructure and creating architectures laid the groundwork for further system integration.
In 2001, the Air Force gave ESC the lead responsibility to integrate its command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems—the C2 Enterprise Integration. Integrated C2ISR capabilities will enable the development of network-centric warfare and provide an asymmetric force advantage. The ESC pursued a major initiative to standardize and upgrade C2ISR capabilities at Air Operations Centers, with the goal of realizing the Aerospace Operations Center of the future.
Due to a major AFMC restructuring announced on 2 November 2011, ESC was to be inactivated no later than 1 October 2012. The role of ESC, along with the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) and the Air Armament Center (AAC), will be consolidated into the new Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (LCMC). This, along with other measures, will save up to $109 million for the Air Force annually. The new LCMC will be headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB. The highest-ranking officer at Hanscom AFB after the reorganization will be a major general, who will be the Program Executive Officer for the C3I and Networks AFPEO. The main purpose of the reorganization is to eliminate excess headquarter and staff type positions throughout AFMC.
The ESC deactivation ceremony took place on 16 July 2012 and from that point forward Hanscom AFB was part of the AFLCMC.
Fort Franklin
Fort Franklin (42°28′22″N71°18′12″W / 42.4729°N 71.3033°W / 42.4729; -71.3033) was an on-base encampment in the 1990s used for the purpose of testing new technology. The ESC had developed many of the radars and sensors used by military aircraft, and had created many of the command and control systems. However, when these systems were deployed for Operation Desert Storm, many did not work as advertised or communicate information to one another. In October 1993, Lieutenant GeneralCharles E. Franklin[1] took over as Commander of the ESC. ESC was the home of most of the new command and control technologies being sent to the war, but was getting a bad reputation for the lack of quality in the systems sent to the war. He decided to hold a technical exercise to emulate a deployed headquarters using the equipment ESC was producing, and test the reports.
The technical exercise went live in July 1994. The encampment used a patch of grass near the end of the runway.[2] Using tents, trailers, and communication vans inside a guarded perimeter, the area was quickly dubbed “Fort Franklin.” It was staffed by engineers from every program office and a few junior military. Major Steve Zenishek, with recent Gulf War experience, became the installation “commander” and was able to show off that the great capability indeed worked fine alone, but unfortunately didn't work well with others.[clarification needed][3]
Rather than take the failure as a defeat, General Franklin used it to encourage the staff to rebuild the systems under development to interoperate. Subsequently, by the time the second Fort Franklin occurred on 1–16 May 1995, the systems were beginning to communicate. For the first time, the results of calculations performed by one system were transferred automatically to another system for further interpretation or processing.[4][5]
Not wanting to lose the expertise that had created this success, LtGen Franklin established an ongoing experimentation facility at Hanscom known as the Command & Control (C2) Unified Development Environment (CUBE). CUBE was later renamed the C2 Engineering and Integration Facility (CEIF).
The experience of Fort Franklin was instrumental in development in 1997 of the Air Force's major experiment, the Expeditionary Force Experiment (EFX 98), which became a Joint EFX (JEFX) in 1999.
Lineage
Constituted as the Electronic Systems Division on 20 March 1961
Activated on 1 Apr 61
Redesignated Electronic Systems Center on 1 July 92
Inactivated on 1 October 2012
Assignments
Air Force Systems Command, 1 April 1961
Air Force Materiel Command, 1 July 1992 - 1 October 2012 (attached to Air Force Life Cycle Management Center after 16 July 2012)
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 Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) is an L band Distributed Time Division Multiple Access (DTDMA) network radio system used by the United States armed forces and their allies to support data communications needs, principally in the air and missile defense community. It produces a spread spectrum signal using Frequency-shift keying (FSK) and Phase-shift keying (PSK) to spread the radiated power over a wider spectrum than normal radio transmissions. This reduces susceptibility to noise, jamming, and interception. In JTIDS Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), each time interval is divided into time slots. Together, all 1536 time slots in a 12-second interval are called a "frame". Each time slot is "bursted" (transmitted) at several different carrier frequencies sequentially. Within each slot, the phase angle of the transmission burst is varied to provide PSK. Each type of data to be transmitted is assigned a slot or block of slots (channel) to manage information exchanges among user participation groups. In traditional TDMA, the slot frequencies remain fixed from second to second. In JTIDS TDMA, the slot frequencies and/or slot assignments for each channel do not remain fixed from frame to frame but are varied in a pseudo-random manner. The slot assignments, frequencies, and information are all encrypted to provide computer-to-computer connectivity in support of every type of military platform to include Air Force fighters and Navy submarines.
PAVE PAWS is a complex Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to "detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States". With the first solid-state phased array deployed, the system used a pair of Raytheon AN/FPS-115 phased array radar sets at each site to cover a wide azimuth angle of 240 degrees. Two sites were deployed in 1980 at the periphery of the contiguous United States, then two more in 1987–95, as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. One system was sold to Taiwan and is still in service.
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and development activities focus on long-term technology development as well as rapid system prototyping and demonstration. Its core competencies are in sensors, integrated sensing, signal processing for information extraction, decision-making support, and communications. These efforts are aligned within ten mission areas. The laboratory also maintains several field sites around the world.
The Northrop Grumman E-10 MC2A was planned as a multi-role military aircraft to replace the Boeing 707-based E-3 Sentry and E-8 Joint STARS, the Boeing 747-based E-4B, and the RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft in US military service. The E-10 was based on the Boeing 767-400ER commercial airplane.
Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base located predominantly within Bedford, Massachusetts, with portions extending into the adjoining towns of Lincoln, Concord and Lexington. The facility is adjacent to Hanscom Field which provides general aviation and charter service.
Rome Laboratory is the US "Air Force 'superlab' for command, control, and communications" research and development and is responsible for planning and executing the USAF science and technology program.
Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). AFMC was created on July 1, 1992, through the amalgamation of the former Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and the former Air Force Systems Command (AFSC).
Link 16 is a military tactical data link network used by NATO and nations allowed by the MIDS International Program Office (IPO). Its specification is part of the family of Tactical Data Links.
The 653d Electronic Systems Wing is a wing of the United States Air Force located at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts.
The 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing is an active United States Air Force organization. It was activated in 2021 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The wing is responsible for delivering electromagnetic spectrum capabilities to 69 United States and foreign electromagnetic warfare systems. Additionally, the wing is responsible for electromagnetic warfare reprogramming, modeling and simulation and assessments.
The Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) is a United States Air Force (USAF) airborne communications relay and gateway system carried by the unmanned EQ-4B and the manned Bombardier E-11A aircraft. BACN enables real-time information flow across the battlespace between similar and dissimilar tactical data link and voice systems through relay, bridging, and data translation in line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight situations. Its ability to translate between dissimilar communications systems allows them to interoperate without modification.
The 1st Space Operations Squadron is a United States Space Force unit responsible for space-based space domain awareness. Located at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, the squadron operates the Space Based Space Surveillance system, the Advanced Technology Risk Reduction system, the Operationally Responsive Space-5 satellite, and the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program.
The 51st Troop Carrier Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The wing was formed during World War II and was the first troop carrier wing in the Army Air Forces (AAF) organized for deployment overseas. During the war, it served in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, and its elements participated in every airborne assault in the theater. The wing also transported personnel and supplies within the theater. Its units also performed the majority of special operations flights by AAF units in the theater. Following V-E Day, the wing moved to Germany, where it became part of the occupation forces, operating as the European Air Transport Service until inactivating in January 1948. In August 1946, two of its planes were shot down by Yugoslav Air Force fighters near Yugoslavia's border with Austria and Italy.
JEFX, or Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment, was the periodic US Air Force-led operational experiment created to evaluate new technologies and war fighting concepts in a simulated wartime battle environment. It was an outgrowth of the C4I Initiative mandated by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. It was monitored by the Air Force senior leadership and each event culminated with a report for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB, is one of six centers reporting to the Air Force Materiel Command. Led by a Lieutenant General, AFLCMC is charged with life cycle management of Air Force weapon systems from their inception to retirement. The AFLCMC mission is to support qualities of war-winning.
Space Detection and Tracking System, or SPADATS, was built in 1960 to integrate defense systems built by different branches of the United States Armed Forces and was placed under North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The Air Force had a program called Spacetrack, which was a network of space-probing cameras and radar. The Navy had a system called SPASUR, a space surveillance system that was "an electronic fence" the protected the southern United States.
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:
The IBM 473L Command and Control System was a USAF Cold War "Big L" Support System with computer equipment at The Pentagon and, in Pennsylvania, the Alternate National Military Command Center nuclear bunker. Each 473L site included a Data Processing Subsystem (DPSS), Integrated Console Subsystem (ICSS), Large Panel Display Subsystem, and Data Communications Subsystem. The "System 473L" was an "on-line, real-time information processing system designed to facilitate effective management of USAF resources, particularly during emergency situations" e.g., for: "situation monitoring, resource monitoring, plan evaluation, plan generation and modification, and operations monitoring". In 1967, the 473L System was used during the "HIGH HEELS 67" exercise "to test the whole spectrum of command in a strategic crisis".
John Ferdinand "JT" Thompson is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force who last served as the commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center from May 2017 to July 2021. He entered the United States Air Force in 1984 as a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy.
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