NORAD Control Centers (NCCs) were

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

"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 wa ...

by both USAF

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

(ADC) and Army Air Defense Command (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 Centers and

Army Air Defense Command Post An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

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 ...

- 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 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 Nor ...

/ NIKE

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 or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

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. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy once again divided Fire Island into two islands. Together, these two isl ...

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,

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

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Malmstrom AFB, Glasgow AFB, Minot AFB, 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 ...

." USAF/Army collocation in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

, and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

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. For example, the 635th Radar Squadron 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, Seattle, Washington, Magnolia neighborhood of northwest Seattle, Washington. The Air Force inac ...

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

Mill Valley Air Force Station Mill may refer to: Science and technology * Factory * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Paper mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * Sugarcane mill * Textile mill * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmet ...

was the San Francisco Defense Area NORAD Control Center after the " 40th Artillery Brigade Air Defense Command Post" was established in September 1961 with a Martin AN/GSG-5 Battery Integration and Radar Display Equipment (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 in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010 United States Census, 2 ...

Computerized centrals

Military installations with hardened NCCs included 9 JUSS stations with partially underground Missile Master nuclear bunkers housing Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense Systems and over 20 bases with above ground SAGE Direction Centers built for .overpressure and containing AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Centrals (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 Centrals 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. (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 for the first seven Joint Surveillance System Regional Operations Control Center (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 Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

, work=General Histories , publisher= Office of Air Force History , isbn=0-912799-60-9 , access-date=2011-09-26 , url-access=registration aptions of p. 198, 208, & 265 photos/ref> 1959 establishments in Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command Command and control in the United States Department of Defense