NORAD Control Centers (NCCs) were

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

"joint direction centers" for command, control, and coordination of

ground-controlled interception Ground-controlled interception (GCI) is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was p ...

by both USAF

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) and

Army Air Defense Command Army Air Defense Command, previously Army Anti-Aircraft Command, was a major command of the United States Army which existed from 1957 to 1974. The previous ARAACOM was created in 1950 and was redesignated ARADCOM in 1957. It was formed to command t ...

(ARADCOM). The Joint Manual Steering Group was "formed by the Army and Air Force in July 1957 to support…collocation" of USAF

Air Defense Direction Center An Air Defense Direction Center (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 aircraf ...

s and

Army Air Defense Command Post An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

s, which began after a January 28, 1958, ADC/ARADCOM meeting with NORAD to "collocate the

Fairchild Fairchild may refer to: Organizations * Fairchild Aerial Surveys, operated in cooperation with a subsidiary of Fairey Aviation Company * Fairchild Camera and Instrument * List of Sherman Fairchild companies, "Fairchild" companies * Fairchild Fash ...

- Geiger facilities" (operations began on May 15, 1958.) Army contracts for 5 NCCs had been let by August 17, 1958, after 1956 DoD approval for collocation of interim "pre-SAGE semiautomatic intercept systems" and radar squadrons at 10 planned Army

Missile Master Missile Master was a type of United States Army, US Army United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Missile Command military installation for the Cold War Project Nike, each which were a System of systems, complex of systems and facil ...

AADCPs (the remaining 5 Missile Master bunkers of the Joint Use Site System (JUSS) were delayed until the Missile Master Plan resolved the

BOMARC The Boeing CIM-10 BOMARC (Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center) (IM-99 Weapon System prior to September 1962) was a supersonic ramjet powered long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) used during the Cold War for the air defense of North ...

NIKE Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

dispute.)
Windsor Daily Star article: ''Peek Slated At Missile Master Plan'' Retrieved 2011-09-28)
/ref>

Stations

Two NCCs were completed in Alaska ("''

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Long ...

on 1 March 1959 and Murphy Dome on 10 May 1959''"), and by the end of 1959 NCCs "with limited identification and control facilities ere at: :

Loring AFB Loring Air Force Base was a United States Air Force installation in northeastern Maine, near Limestone and Caribou in Aroostook County. It was one of the largest bases of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command during its existence, and was t ...

Ellsworth AFB Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base located about northeast of Rapid City, South Dakota, just north of the town of Box Elder, South Dakota, Box Elder. The host unit at Ellsworth is the 28th Bomb Wing (28 BW). Assi ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Malmstrom AFB Malmstrom Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place (CDP) in Cascade County, Montana, United States, adjacent to the city of Great Falls. It was named in honor of World War II POW Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom. ...

Glasgow AFB Glasgow Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base near Glasgow, Montana. It operated from 1957 to 1968 and again from 1971 through 1976. Major commands to which assigned * Air Defense Command, 8 February 1957 – 1 Apri ...

Minot AFB Minot Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force installation in Ward County, North Dakota, north of the city of Minot via U.S. Route 83. In the 2020 census, the base was counted as a CDP with a total population of 5,017, down from 5,521 in ...

, Mt. Home AFB, Davis-Monthan AFB, and

Offutt AFB Offutt Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base south of Omaha, adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing (55 WG) of the Air C ...

." USAF/Army collocation in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

was underway in 1959. Several USAF aircraft control and warning squadrons had begun moving to JUSS installations by May 15, 1960 during the

SAGE Geographic Reorganization Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...

. For example, the

635th Radar Squadron The 635th Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 20th Air Division, Aerospace Defense Command, stationed at Dauphin Island Air Force Station, Alabama. It was inactivated on 1 July 1974. The unit w ...

was scheduled to begin operating the RP-1 site radars at the first completed Missile Master bunker at

Fort Lawton Air Force Station Fort Lawton Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located on Fort Lawton in the Magnolia neighborhood of northwest Seattle, Washington. The Air Force inactivated its unit in 1963; while ...

(SE-90DC) on January 21, 1960.

Mill Valley Air Force Station Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

was the

San Francisco Defense Area The following is a list of Nike missile sites operated by the United States Army. This article lists sites in the United States, most responsible to Army Air Defense Command; however, the Army also deployed Nike missiles to Europe as part of the ...

NORAD Control Center after the "

40th Artillery Brigade The 40th Artillery Brigade is an artillery formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, based in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast, Pervomaisk. The unit was activated on 25 May 2015. On 23 August 2020, the Brigade was awarded the honorific "Lithuanian gran ...

Air Defense Command Post" was established in September 1961 with a

Martin AN/GSG-5 Battery Integration and Radar Display Equipment The Martin AN/GSG-5 Battery Integration and Radar DIsplay Equipment (BIRDIE) was a transportable electronic fire distribution center for automated command and control of remote surface-to-air missile launch batteries. The solid state radar netting ...

(BIRDIE) fire distribution center. It maintained this mission until 1974. NCC tracking data was provided to the computer(s) at the "NORAD/ADC Combined Operations Center" which opened in 1963 at the

Chidlaw Building The Chidlaw Building is a former United States Air Force facility located in the Knob Hill neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The building was close to, but not within, the Ent Air Force Base complex, and was leased by the military for ...

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Computerized centrals

Military installations with hardened NCCs included 9 JUSS stations with partially underground

nuclear bunkers housing

Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System The Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System, better known as Missile Master, was an electronic fire distribution center to computerize Cold War air defense (AD) command posts from manual plotting board operations to automated command and cont ...

s and over 20 bases with above ground SAGE Direction Centers built for .overpressure and containing

AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central The AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central, referred to as the Q7 for short, was a computerized command and control system for Cold War ground-controlled interception used in the USAF Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense network. The ...

s (the last completed "SAGE direction center became operational at Sioux City, Iowa, in December 1961)." Three SAGE DCs were collocated with SAGE Combat Centers that used

AN/FSQ-8 Combat Control Central The AN/FSQ-8 Combat Control Central was a United States Air Force computerized command and control system. Several of the centrals were used in the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense network for Cold War ground-controlled interce ...

s for managing the air battle. Solid-state Martin AN/GSG-5/6 BIRDIE systems were at Mill Valley AFS CA, Belleville AFS IL, and in Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas (2) by July 1, 1962. In 1968, 17 of the NORAD Control Centers received the new Bell 305 Switching System to use AUTOVON telecommunications for

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 ...

. (article includes image of general surveillance radar on 30 foot tower and height-finder) AADCPs at NORAD Control Centers were phased out as Nike Defense Areas were closed. On December 23, 1980, the USAF declared

full operational capability In military acquisition, full operating capability or full operational capability (FOC) is the completion of a development effort. This is usually preceded by an initial operating capability or initial operational capability (IOC) phase. For the Un ...

for the first seven

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 ...

Regional Operations Control Center 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 ...

(ROCCs) with Hughes AN/FYQ-93 systems.

References

{{Reflist, 35em, refs= {{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) , access-date=2012-07-19 {{Cite report , last=McMaster , first=B. N. , display-authors=etal , date=December 1984 , title=Historical Overview of the Nike Missile System , url=http://www5.hanford.gov/pdw/fsd/AR/FSD0001/FSD0037/D199049898/D199049898_19126_147.pdf , publisher=Environmental Science and Engineering, Inc. , access-date=2011-09-16 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402132428/http://www5.hanford.gov/pdw/fsd/AR/FSD0001/FSD0037/D199049898/D199049898_19126_147.pdf , archive-date=2012-04-02 {{Cite report , title=NORAD/CONAD Historical Summary July–December 1958 , location=Ent Air Force Base , publisher=Directorate of Command History: Office of Information Services , date=15 April 1959 , url=http://www.northcom.mil/FOIA/docs/1958%20NORAD%20CONAD%20History%20Jul-Dec.pdf , access-date=13 June 2013 , version=1958b {{dead link, date=February 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes {{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 Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

, work=General Histories , publisher=

Office of Air Force History An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...

, isbn=0-912799-60-9 , access-date=2011-09-26 , url-access=registration aptions of p. 198, 208, & 265 photos/ref> <--!ref name=Winkler>{{Cite report , last1=Winkler , first1=David F , last2=Webster , first2=Julie L , date=June 1997 , title=Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program , url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201202922/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231 , url-status=dead , archive-date=December 1, 2012 , location=Champaign, IL , lccn=97020912 , publisher=U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories , access-date=2013-04-23 , quote=BUIC I reached initial operating capability in December 1962.⁵⁴ ... a Continental Air Defense Study (CADS) was completed in May 1963 that called for the replacement of SAGE centers by an improved BUIC IIand an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) sometime between 1966 and 1975. (Winkler cites the source at footnote 51 for the last SAGE Direction Center) --> 1959 establishments in Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command United States Army command posts United States Air Force command posts