Experimental SAGE Subsector

The Experimental Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Sector (ESS, Experimental SAGE Subsector until planned Sectors/Subsectors were renamed NORAD Regions, Divisions, and Sectors) was a prototype Cold War Air Defense Sector for developing the Semi Automatic Ground Environment. The Lincoln Laboratory control center in a new building was at Lexington, Massachusetts.

ESS Computer System

The network's Direction Center was completed in a new 1954 building (Building F, ) with prototype peripherals and a single IBM XD-1 computer, (p. 7) a successor to Lincoln Lab's Whirlwind I computer (WWI). In 1955, Air Force personnel began IBM training at the Kingston, New York, prototype facility, and the " 4620th Air Defense Wing (experimental SAGE) was established at Lincoln Laboratory"—its "primary mission was computer programming".

ESS had a capacity of 48 tracks and used a pre-SAGE ground environment in a "prototype intercept monitor room tMIT's Barta building" with "track situation displays, which geographically showed Air Defense Identification Zone lines and antiaircraft circles ndeach console also had a 5-inch CRT for digital information display. Audible alert signals were used, with a different signal for each symbol on a situation display."

Radar stations

Initial service test models of the Burroughs AN/FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitting Set were placed with radars at South Truro and West Bath, Maine; followed by Texas Tower#2 (TT2) in the Atlantic Ocean, which provided a "triangular pattern with overlap" radar coverage https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/40551/MC665_r15_M-3832.pdf?sequence=1 , quote=ADES JPO initial Burroughs service test models of FST-2…would be placed at South Truro and Bath, respectively, in order to have an operational experimental subsector containing two heavy radars by 1 April 1956 ndthe third FST-2 on Texas Tower #2 ora triangular pattern providing overlap. XD-1 display system External Environment of XD-1…XD-1 Direction Center (TT2 later had a connection from the XD-1 via the GE G/A Data Link Output Subsystem through North Truro Air Force Station.) By August 1955, 13 radar stations were networked by the subsector, e.g.:
*Chatham
*Clinton, Massachusetts with gap-filler radar
*Great Boars Head
*Halibut Point
*Killingly, Connecticut ().with gap-filler radar
*Rockport Air Force Station
*Scituate, Massachusetts
* South Truro
*West Bath, Maine () with AN/FPS-31 on Jug Handle Hill: ("Lincoln Laboratories experimental radar station")

Required by 21 November 1955 were 44 consoles: 38 for the operations floor, 3 on the computer floor for display maintenance, and 3 near the maintenance console (program checkout). WWI was connected to the Experimental SAGE Subsector to verify crosstelling (collateral communication) with the ESS DC, and WWI was also used for a Ground-to-Air (G/A) experiment using a transmitter of the GE G/A Data Link Output Subsystem on Prospect Hill, Waltham, MA sending data to simulated airborne equipment at Lexington. Transmissions from the WWI SAGE Evaluation (WISE) computer system to XD-1 and back were without error by December 1955 when operational software specifications were frozen. Operating procedures for the ESS external sites were complete in March 1956, and

System Operation Testing

From November 15, 1955, to November 7, 1956, three System Operation Tests were conducted which used voice "Ground-to-Air" communication from the Barta control room to aircraft outfitted with SAGE receivers (F-86 interceptors modified to F-86L models in "Project FOLLOW-ON".) Test teams included employees of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Western Electric-ADES, IBM, the RAND Corporation, and Lincoln Labs' Division 6, Division 3, & Division 2 (Division 6 had been created for ESS support.)

The North Truro P-10 AN/FST-2 was moved to Almaden Air Force Station (M-96)Cite NORAD Historical Summary , year=1956-7 , quote=Project FOLLOW-ON provided the third improved model -the F-86L --which was an F-86D with modernized electronic gear and wings with slatted leading edges. … Project FOLLOW-ON was to make the F-86D compatible with the new re-SAGE AN/GPA-37. … Eleven squadrons were meeting Project FOLLOW-ON schedules by 30 June 1957. and on August 7, 1958, control of an airborne BOMARC missile that had malfunctioned transferred from the "Experimental SAGE Sector" to a Westinghouse AN/GPA-35 Ground Environment system and the missile crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. By December 31, 1958, ADC Manual 55-28 described the Model 3 SAGE System.

1959 Experimental Testing

"To prove out the revised SAGE computer program" for Automatic Targeting and Battery Evaluation and ADDC- AADCP crosstelling, a "SAGE/Missile Master" test was conducted beginning in September 1959 with communications between the ESS XD-1 and Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System equipment at Fort Banks planned for the CONAD Joint Control Center at Fort Heathlst Ind, (ADC to CONAD, "Site Adaptation Plans for CONAD Joint Direction Centers,"
22 Oct 1957), CINCNORAD to C/S USAF, 1 Nov 1957 ited by the NORAD Historical Summary for 1957 July–December)—a "SAGE ATABE Simulation Study" (SASS) was also completed 1959-60 by MITRE Corporation.

References

{{Reflist , refs=
{{Cite web , url=http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/capecodprototype-2.html , title=MIT Lincoln Laboratory: History: Cape Cod SAGE Prototype (Continued) , access-date=2014-08-09 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811144042/http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/capecodprototype-2.html , archive-date=2014-08-11 , url-status=dead

{{Cite book , last1=Redmond , first1=Kent C , last2=Smith , first2=Thomas Malcom , year=2000 , title=From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of The SAGE Air Defense Computer , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxZVbxcf_IoC&q=SAGE+ESS+mitre&pg=PA374 , format=Google Books , publisher=MIT Press , access-date=2013-05-02 , quote=in Poughkeepsie…IBM engineers ran through a final series of tests before dismantling the XD-1 for shipment… Division 6 engineers began to ready the XD-1 for…the Experimental SAGE Subsector … eight subsystems [were] input or output channels to the XD-1.¹⁴ … preliminary testing of ESS subsystems into which the pieces of equipment were integrated… gap-filler inputs, long-range radar inputs, height-finder inputs, ground-to-air outputs, automatic teletype outputs, crosstelling, ground-to air voice radio, and wire communications. …test teams were composed of individuals from Division 6, Division 3, Division 2, Bell Labs, Western Electric-ADES, IBM, and the RAND Corporation…¹⁷ … a small-scale air defense system, Whirlwind I SAGE Evaluation (WISE)…much simpler than the 1954 Cape Cod System… WISE will be modified for crosstelling to XD-1.²¹, isbn=9780262264266

Computer systems of the United States Air Force
Computer networks
History of New England