The National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) was part of the United States government's Continuity of Operations plans during the 1960s. It was one-third of a triad composed of airborne, ground, and sea-based assets. [1]
The National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) was part of the United States government's Continuity of Operations plans during the 1960s. It was one-third of a triad composed of airborne, ground, and sea-based assets. [1]
In October 1961, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the NECPA plan, directing initial operating capability (IOC) by 1 March 1962. United States Atlantic Command converted the cruiser Northampton in March 1962, and the light carrier Wright in 1963 for NECPA duties. The United States Navy began alternating the ships in mid-1964, to keep one at sea and the other in port at any time. The Northampton was marginally upgraded for NECPA duties, since it was due for replacement; however, the Wright was modified to the utmost efficiency to hold the National Command Authorities for indefinite periods. [1]
The software was developed by the Naval Electronics Laboratory, San Diego. The product was turned over for acceptance and administration to the Naval Command and Systems Support Activity (NAVCOSSACT), Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC.
The nuclear submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) was considered for the NECPA role in the early 1960s after its original radar picket mission became obsolete, but no such conversion has been documented.
A permanent UHF ground station (located in Waldorf, Maryland), served as the primary communications link between the separate command posts: National Military Command Center, Alternate National Military Command Center, National Emergency Airborne Command Post, and NECPA. Three ground communications vans were located at Otis AFB, MA, Greenville, SC, and Homestead AFB, FL to cover commonly used routes of Presidential aircraft. After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, vans were moved to Jackson, MS and Austin, TX, to cover President Lyndon B. Johnson’s travel routes. [1]
Continuity of Operations (COOP) is a United States federal government initiative, required by U.S. Presidential Policy Directive 40 (PPD-40), to ensure that agencies are able to continue performance of essential functions under a broad range of circumstances. PPD-40 specifies certain requirements for continuity plan development, including the requirement that all federal executive branch departments and agencies develop an integrated, overlapping continuity capability, that supports the eight National Essential Functions (NEFs) described in the document.
Offutt Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base south of Omaha, adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing of the Air Combat Command (ACC), the latter serving as the host unit.
TACAMO is a United States military system of survivable communications links designed to be used in nuclear warfare to maintain communications between the decision-makers and the triad of strategic nuclear weapon delivery systems. Its primary mission is serving as a signals relay, where it receives orders from a command plane such as Operation Looking Glass, and verifies and retransmits their Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) to US strategic forces. As it is a dedicated communications post, it features the ability to communicate on virtually every radio frequency band from very low frequency (VLF) up through super high frequency (SHF) using a variety of modulations, encryptions and networks, minimizing the likelihood an emergency message will be jammed by an enemy. This airborne communications capability largely replaced the land-based extremely low frequency (ELF) broadcast sites which became vulnerable to nuclear strike.
USS Wright (CVL-49/AVT-7) was a Saipan-class light aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy, later converted to the command ship CC-2. It is the second ship named "Wright". The first Wright (AV-1) was named for Orville Wright; the second honored both Wright brothers: Orville and Wilbur.
The third USS Northampton (CLC-1/CC-1) was a US Navy command light cruiser. She was laid down as an Oregon City-class heavy cruiser (CA–125), on 31 August 1944 by the Fore River Yard, Bethlehem Steel Corp., Quincy, Massachusetts. Work suspended between 11 August 1945 and 1 July 1948; she was converted to a command cruiser under project SCB 13 and launched as CLC–1, on 27 January 1951; sponsored by Mrs. Edmond J. Lampron; and commissioned as CLC–1, on 7 March 1953.
The National Military Command Center (NMCC) is a Pentagon command and communications center for the National Command Authority. Maintained by the Department of the Air Force as the "DoD Executive Agent" for NMCC logistical, budgetary, facility, and systems support; the NMCC operators are in the Joint Staff's J-3 (Operations) Directorate. "The NMCC is responsible for generating Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) to missile launch control centers, nuclear submarines, recon aircraft, and battlefield commanders".
The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force's Air Transport Command (ATC) into a single joint command. It was inactivated and discontinued on 8 January 1966, superseded by the Air Force's Military Airlift Command (MAC) as a separate strategic airlift command, and it returned shore-based Navy cargo aircraft to Navy control as operational support airlift (OSA) aircraft.
The Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC), also known as Site R, is a U.S. military installation with an underground nuclear bunker near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, at Raven Rock Mountain that has been called an "underground Pentagon". The bunker has emergency operations centers for the United States Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Along with Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, it formed the core bunker complexes for the US continuity of government plan during the Cold War to survive a nuclear attack.
A launch control center (LCC), in the United States, is the main control facility for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). A launch control center monitors and controls missile launch facilities. From a launch control center, the missile combat crew can monitor the complex, launch the missile, or relax in the living quarters. The LCC is designed to provide maximum protection for the missile combat crew and equipment vital to missile launch. Missile silos are common across the midwestern United States, and over 450 missiles remain in US Air Force (USAF) service.
The Boeing EC-135 is a retired family of command and control aircraft derived from the Boeing C-135 Stratolifter. During the Cold War, the EC-135 was best known for being modified to perform the Looking Glass mission where one EC-135 was always airborne 24 hours a day to serve as flying command post for the Strategic Air Command in the event of nuclear war. Various other EC-135 aircraft sat on airborne and ground alert throughout the Cold War, with the last EC-135C being retired in 1998. The EC-135N variant served as the tracking aircraft for the Apollo program.
Looking Glass is the historic code name for an airborne command and control center operated by the United States. In more recent years it has been more officially referred to as the ABNCP. It provides command and control of U.S. nuclear forces in the event that ground-based command centers have been destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable. In such an event, the general officer aboard the Looking Glass serves as the Airborne Emergency Action Officer (AEAO) and by law assumes the authority of the National Command Authority and could command execution of nuclear attacks. The AEAO is supported by a battle staff of approximately 20 people, with another dozen responsible for the operation of the aircraft systems. The name Looking Glass, which is another name for a mirror, was chosen for the Airborne Command Post because the mission operates in parallel with the underground command post at Offutt Air Force Base.
The AN/FRC-117 Survivable Low Frequency Communications System (SLFCS) was a communications system designed to be able to operate, albeit at low data transfer rates, during and after a nuclear attack. The system used both very low frequency (VLF), and low frequency (LF) radio bands.
The Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS) was designed to provide a reliable and survivable emergency communications method for the United States National Command Authority, using a UHF repeater placed atop a Blue Scout rocket or Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile. ERCS was deactivated as a communication means when President George H.W. Bush issued a message to stand down SIOP-committed bombers and Minuteman IIs on 27 September 1991. Headquarters SAC was given approval by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to deactivate the 494L payloads beginning 1 October 1992. However, Headquarters SAC believed it was inefficient and unnecessary to support ERCS past fiscal year 1991, and kept the accelerated deactivation schedule.
The Post Attack Command and Control System (PACCS) was a network of communication sites for use before, during and after a nuclear attack on the United States. PACCS was designed to ensure that National Command Authority would retain exclusive and complete control over US nuclear weapons. Among other components, it included Strategic Air Command assets such as the Looking Glass aircraft and mission, and various hardened command and control facilities.
The Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) provides a survivable launch capability for the United States Air Force's LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force. The ALCS is operated by airborne missileers from Air Force Global Strike Command's (AFGSC) 625th Strategic Operations Squadron (STOS) and United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The system is located on board the United States Navy's E-6B Mercury, which serves as USSTRATCOM's "Looking Glass" Airborne Command Post (ABNCP). The ALCS crew is integrated into the ABNCP battle staff and is on alert around the clock.
Spread throughout various locations across the country, the United States' Continuity of Operations facilities coordinate the geographic dispersion of leadership, staff, and infrastructure in order to maintain the functions of the United States government in the event(s) that national security is compromised by a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The ITT 465L Strategic Air Command Control System was a Cold War "Big L" network of computer and communication systems for command and control of Strategic Air Command "combat aircraft, refueling tankers, [and] ballistic missiles". International Telephone and Telegraph was the prime contractor for Project 465, and SACCS had "Cross Tell Links" between command posts at Offutt AFB, March AFB, & Barksdale AFB (SACCS also communicated with the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and Air Force command posts. The 465L System included IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing Systems, Remote and Simplex Remote Communication Systems, SAC Network Control Office, "4-wire, Schedule 4, Type 4B alternate voice-data operation", and one-way communication with "ICBM launch control centers" In addition to IBM for the "Super SAGE type computers", another of the 6 direct subcontractors was AT&T,
The National Military Command System (NMCS) was the federal government of the United States' Cold War command and control system that consisted of the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at The Pentagon, the Alternate National Military Command Center (NMCC) at Pennsylvania Raven Rock Mountain, 3 National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP) aircraft on 24-hour ground alert, 2 National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) ships, "and interconnecting communications".
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).
Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 4 (VQ-4), nicknamed the Shadows, is a naval aviation squadron of the United States Navy based at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. The squadron flies the Boeing E-6B Mercury airborne command post and communications relay aircraft. It is part of the U.S. Navy's TACAMO community, whose mission is to enable the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense to directly communicate with U.S. submarines, bombers, and missile silos during a nuclear war.
