The 678th Air Defense Group is a disbanded United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the

20th Air Division The 20th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Tactical Air Command at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida where it was inactivated on 1 March 1983. During most of the division's history it ...

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was est ...

(ADC) at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The group was formed in 1970 when ADC expanded its radar units that operated

Back-Up Interceptor Control Backup Interceptor Control (BUIC, ) was the Electronic Systems Division 416M System to backup the SAGE 416L System in the United States and Canada. BUIC deployed Cold War command, control, and coordination systems to SAGE radar stations to create d ...

sites from

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, de ...

sized units to groups. From 1977 until it was inactivated in 1983 the 678th was responsible for operating the Southern Air Defense System.

History

The 678th Air Defense Group replaced the 678th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (formerly the 678th Aircraft Warning & Control Squadron) at Tyndall Air Force Base in 1970.Cornett & Johnson, p. 85 The group operated a

(BUIC) site with the mission to back up the centralized and vulnerable Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) operations center of the

Gunter Air Force Base Gunter Annex is a United States Air Force installation located in the North-northeast suburbs of Montgomery, Alabama. The base is named after former Montgomery mayor William Adams Gunter. Until 1992 it was known as Gunter Air Force Base or Gu ...

, Alabama. The BUIC III operated by the group gave the unit a semi-automatic control capability, unlike earlier BUIC systems that required manual operation. The group provided air defense mission command and control from 1970 to 1983. It was a component of Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) (later transferred to

Tactical Air Command Tactical Air Command (TAC) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force, established on 21 March 1946 and headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. It was inactivated on 1 J ...

(TAC)) Air Defense Weapons Center from 1974 to 1981. The group earned an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for exceptionally meritorious service for the period 1 June 1970 through 1 June 1972.AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits, Vol II
Department of the Air Force, Washington, DC, 30 Sep 76 , p. 87 In 1969, the inadequacy of the radar coverage to the south of the United States had been dramatically illustrated whan a Cuban Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 went undetected before it landed at Homestead Air Force Base, south of Miami, Florida.Leonard. Vol I, p. 172 and two years later, an Antonov An-24 similarly arrived unannounced at

New Orleans International Airport Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport ( French: ''Aéroport international Louis Armstrong de La Nouvelle-Orléans'') is an international airport under Class B airspace in Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is ...

. As a result, ADC established The Southern Air Defense System (SADS). Initially, the

630th Radar Squadron 63 may refer to: * 63 (number) * one of the years 63 BC, AD 63, 1963, 2063 * +63, telephone country code in the Philippines * Flight 63 (disambiguation) * ''63'' (album), by Tree63 * ''63'' (mixtape), by Kool A.D. * "Sixty Three", a song by Karm ...

operated a manual control center at the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center and the USAF added radars to supplement the existing Federal Aviation Administration coverage in the Caribbean area. In 1977, responsibility for operating the SADS control center was transferred to the group, which was operating the last BUIC III site in ADC. The previous year the group also assumed responsibility to operate the Tyndall

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

Control Center. The group continued to act as a control center until it was inactivated in 1983 when the Tyndall radar site became part of the

Joint Surveillance System The Joint Surveillance System (JSS) is a joint United States Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It replaced the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system in 1983. Overvie ...

Lineage

* Constituted as 678th Air Defense Group on 13 February 1970 : Activated on 1 March 1970 : Inactivated on 1 March 1983 : Disbanded on 27 September 1984Department of the Air Force/MPM Letter 575q, 27 September 1984, Subject: Disbandment of Units

Assignments

, 1 March 1970 – 1 March 1983

Components

None

Stations

* Tyndall AFB, Florida, 1 March 1970 – 1 March 1983

Awards

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *
AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits, Vol II
Department of the Air Force, Washington, DC, 30 Sep 76

External links

* {{Aerospace Defense Command, state=autocollapse Aerospace Defense Command units Military units and formations established in 1970 0678 Military units and formations in Florida Military units and formations disestablished in 1984