Air Defense Direction Center

{{Short description|Cold War-era command posts of USAF Air Defense Command}} {{Distinguish|Air Defense Operations Center|Raven Rock Mountain Complex{{!}}"ADCC (Blue Ridge Summit)"}} {{Infobox military installation | name = Air Defense Direction Center | native_name = NORAD sector direction center (NSDC)<ref name=FM44>{{Citation |date=February 1963 |title=Missile Master… |type = field manual |volume=FM44-1 |publisher=United States Army |quote=AN/FSG-1 … f. Utilizes reference track data '''from local radars''' and voice communications with the NORAD sector direction center (NSDC) … 22. Normal Tracking The S & E officers and the trackers monitor the SAGE reference track data … 34. General … The two surveillance and entry consoles…are separated by a channel status unit … "Missile Master organic radars:" … SAGE SELECTOR two-position switch: Selects SAGE 1 or SAGE 2 (primary or secondary SAGE DC) as the source of SAGE data. … 45. Range-Height Subsystem a. Equipment. The range-height equipment consists of two RHI consoles (fig. 15) and two antenna control units}}</ref> | country = United States }} An '''Air Defense Direction Center'''<ref>{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary |version=1958 |accessdate=2013-04-20}}</ref>{{rp|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").<ref>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''"</ref> As with the World War II Aircraft Warning Service CONUS defense network, a "manual air defense system"<ref name=IYD>{{cite AV media |others=Narrated by Colonel John Morton |title=In Your Defense |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06drBN8nlWg |format = digitized movie |publisher=Western Electric |accessdate=2012-04-03 |quote=''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''}}</ref> was used through the 1950s (e.g., NORAD/ADC used a "{{sic|Plexiglass}} plotting board" at the Ent command center.){{r|Schaffel}}{{rp|151}} Along with 182 radar stations at "the end of 1957, ADC operated … 17 control centers",{{r|Schaffel}}{{rp|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''',<ref name=NORAD1958B>{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary |version=1958b |accessdate=2013-04-20}}</ref>{{rp|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){{r|NORAD1958B}}{{rp|49}} *'''Semi-Automatic Direction Center'''{{r|DelPapa}} (SAGE Direction Center),<ref>Lincoln Laboratory Memorandum 6M-3797: ''The operational specifications for the SAGE Direction Center'' (Schaffel p. 208 also identifies the term)</ref> an ADCC (e.g., the "Duluth Sector Direction Center"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Philips, Alan F. |title=20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War |url=http://nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/issues/accidents/20-mishaps-maybe-caused-nuclear-war.htm |work=Issues (Accidents) webpage |publisher=NuclearFiles.org |accessdate=2013-05-04 |quote=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. |archive-date=2016-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408032853/http://nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/issues/accidents/20-mishaps-maybe-caused-nuclear-war.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>) 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.){{r|NORAD1958B}}{{rp|24}} **'''Combined Direction-Combat Center''',{{r|Schaffel}}{{rp|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){{r|NORAD1958B}} *'''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"){{r|McMullin}} *'''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).{{r|DelPapa}}

==References== {{Reflist |refs=

<ref name=DelPapa>{{Cite report |last1=Del Papa |first1=Dr. E. Michael |last2=Warner |first2=Mary P. | date=October 1987 |title=A Historical Chronology of the Electronic Systems Division 1947-1986 |url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a201708.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224105532/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a201708.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=December 24, 2013 |number=ESD-TR-88-276 (AD-A201 708) |accessdate=2012-07-19 |quote=''so-called Semi-Automatic Direction Center System, later known as…Semi-Automatic Ground Environment System, in essence, the Lincoln Transition System.''}}</ref>

<ref name=McMullin>{{Cite report |last=McMullen |first=R. F. |date=15 Feb 1980 |title=History of Air Defense Weapons 1946–1962 |volume=ADC Historical Study No. 14 |publisher=Historical Division, Office of information, HQ ADC |pages=211, 306 |quote=the GPA-37 electronic heart of an advanced system of ground controlled interception which immediately preceded SAGE, and with SAGE itself. … The AN/GPA-35 was a pre-SAGE control system that would be used until SAGE was ready.}}</ref>

<ref name=Schaffel>{{Cite report |last=Schaffel |first=Kenneth |year=1991 |title=Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheEmergingShield |format=45MB pdf |work=General Histories |publisher=Office of Air Force History |isbn=0-912799-60-9 |accessdate=2011-09-26 |quote=A SAGE component, a 64 x 64 [4K] magnetic core memory … SAGE direction center. This installation is located at Stewart Air Force Base in New York state. …[Hancock Field] combined direction-combat center was located at Syracuse, New York. |url-access=registration }} [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).</ref>

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Category:North American Aerospace Defense Command Category:Military command and control installations Category:Air defense