Post-Attack Command and Control System

{{Short description|Former US nuclear communications network}} {{Use American English|date=May 2026}} thumb|upright=1.35|Peacetime orbits of PACCS aircraft, {{circa|1972}} The '''Post Attack Command and Control System''' ('''PACCS''') was a network of communication sites (both ground and airborne) 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 American 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.<ref name=PACCShistory>{{cite web |url=http://www.sac-acca.org/paccs.htm |last1=Ogletree|first1=Greg|title=A History of the Post Attack Command and Control System (PACCS)|date=n.d.|publisher= |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120910090836/http://www.sac-acca.org/paccs.htm |archivedate=September 10, 2012 |accessdate=May 14, 2014}}</ref>

Belief by the Soviet Union in the reliability of PACCS was a crucial component of the American mutual assured destruction doctrine, ensuring a long-term stalemate.

==History== The Strategic Air Command headquarters staff, under the direction of General Thomas S. Power assessed the feasibility of placing a continuous command and control element in an airborne mode. The purpose of such a system would be to use the aircraft as a platform for specially installed communications equipment to ensure delivery of command directives to SAC strike forces in the event ground-based headquarters were destroyed.

The original plan envisioned an aircraft, crew, and command and control team on 15-minute ground alert. This was later changed to a continuous airborne alert posture. The functions of this PACCS Airborne Command Post kept expanding until it became a true alternate command and control system, complete with force status monitoring, initiation or relay of launch/execution directives, a battle staff, communications to support an alternate CINCSAC, and limited capabilities to reconstitute and replan residual resources.

PACCS, in later variants, included an Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) capability, which provided an alternate means for execution message delivery to missile combat crews and a back-up launch control center, forcing the Soviet Union to target each missile silo, rather than just the launch control centers, to incapacitate the Minuteman force.<ref>Strategic Air Command: "Weapon Systems Acquisition 1964-1979", 28 Apr 1980</ref>

==Components== ===Airborne=== *E-4B National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP) **1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron - Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska *EC-135 Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) "Looking Glass" **2d Airborne Command and Control Squadron - Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska **4th Airborne Command and Control Squadron - Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota **22d Air Refueling Squadron - March Air Force Base, California; West Auxiliary Command Post (West AUXCP) <ref>[http://2accs.com/history.html 2d Airborne Command and Control Squadron history]</ref> ***Ground Entry Point - Lamar, Colorado<ref name="paccs">[https://www.scribd.com/doc/115566349/Post-Attack-Command-and-Control-System-overview IRIS #010808041 - Post Attack Command and Control System overview]</ref> **99th Air Refueling Squadron - Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts; East Auxiliary Command Post (East AUXCP) <ref>Strategic Air Command Regulation 100-24 Vol III: SAC Communications System Operations/EWO Support Requirements, 6 Jul 1979</ref> ***Ground Entry Point - Plano, Illinois<ref name="paccs" /> **913th Air Refueling Squadron - Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; Central Auxiliary Command Post (Central AUX) ***Ground Entry Point - Lyons, Nebraska<ref name="paccs" /> *EB-47L **4362d Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Lincoln Air Force Base, Nebraska<ref name="Lloyd">{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Alwyn T. |title=A Cold War Legacy: A Tribute to Strategic Air Command 1946-1992|date=January 15, 2000 |publisher=Pictorial Histories Publishing |location=Missoula, Montana |isbn=1-57510-052-5 |oclc=44672618}}</ref> **4363d Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio<ref name="Lloyd" /> **4364th Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho<ref name="Lloyd" /> **4365th Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York<ref name="Lloyd" />

===Ground=== * Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana (Second Air Force (later Eighth Air Force) Command Post) * Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts (Eighth Air Force Combat Operations Center, aka "The Notch")<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.westoveryesterday.com/TheNotch.html |title=Westover Yesterday: "The Notch and Grayson: Eighth Air Force's alternative command posts", no date |access-date=2010-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115201511/http://www.westoveryesterday.com/TheNotch.html |archive-date=2017-11-15 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> * March Air Force Base, California (Fifteenth Air Force Command Post) *Grissom Air Force Base, Indiana * Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska (Strategic Air Command Headquarters) **Headquarters Emergency Relocation Team (HERT) - Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant, Grand Island, Nebraska<ref>[https://archive.today/20130211082114/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coldwarcomms/message/17285?source=1&var=1 Yahoo! Groups: Cold War Comms Msg 17285, dated Jun 24, 2010]</ref>

===Communications=== *Survivable Low Frequency Communications System - VLF/LF *Alpha and Bravo Nets - High Frequency<ref name="paccs" /> *Green Pine<ref name="paccs" /> *Emergency Rocket Communications System<ref name="paccs" />

==Gallery== <gallery> File:PACCS Alpha Net.JPG|ALPHA Net stations File:PACCS UHF Links.JPG|PACCS UHF Links File:PACCS Primary Alert System.JPG|PACCS Primary Alert System </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.forecastinternational.com/archive/disp_old_pdf.cfm?ARC_ID=286 WWABNCP/PACCS patches]

Category:Telecommunications equipment of the Cold War Category:United States nuclear command and control Category:Continuity of government in the United States Category:Equipment of the United States Air Force