Air Defense Direction Center
| Air Defense Direction Center | |
|---|---|
NORAD sector direction center (NSDC)[1] | |
| United States | |
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An Air Defense Direction Center[2]: 11 (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").[3] As with the World War II Aircraft Warning Service CONUS defense network, a "manual air defense system"[4] was used through the 1950s (e.g., NORAD/ADC used a "Plexiglass [sic] plotting board" at the Ent command center.)[5]: 151 Along with 182 radar stations at "the end of 1957, ADC operated … 17 control centers",[5]: 223 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,[6]: 22 a USAF ADDC collocated with an Army Air Defense Command Post, AADCP (together designated a "NORAD Control Center").
- Alaskan Joint Direction Center, at 2 sites: Fire Island and Murphy Dome Air Force Station for the Alaskan Air Command Semi-Automatic Defense System (ALSADS)[6]: 49
- Semi-Automatic Direction Center[7] (SAGE Direction Center),[8] an ADCC (e.g., the "Duluth Sector Direction Center"[9]) 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.)[6]: 24
- Combined Direction-Combat Center,[5]: 256 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)[6]
- 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")[10]
- 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).[7]
References
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- ^ Preface by Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ 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"
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- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). [captions of pp. 198, 208, & 265 photos] NOTE: Schaffel's history uses the same name as "The Emerging Shield: The Air Defense Ground Environment," Air University Quarterly Review 8, no. 2 (spring 1956).
- ^ a b c d Preface by Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lincoln Laboratory Memorandum 6M-3797: The operational specifications for the SAGE Direction Center (Schaffel p. 208 also identifies the term)
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