''Tom Clancy's Op-Center'' is a novel series, created by

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...

and Steve Pieczenik, though the first 12 books were written by Jeff Rovin between 1995 and 2005. It was later rebooted in 2014, with subsequent books written by Dick Couch, George Galdorisi, and Rovin.

Main characters

These characters are in most or all stories from the main series: *Paul Hood: The Director of Op-Center and former Mayor of L.A. *General Mike Rodgers: Deputy Director of Op-Center and STRIKER Commander *Bob Herbert: Chief of Intelligence *Matt Stoll: In-house computer genius *Darrel McCaskey: The FBI Liaison *Lowell Coffey II: Op-Center's lawyer *Liz Gordon: Op-Center's psychologist These characters are in the stories from the reboot series: *Chase Williams: The Director of Op-Center and a former U.S. Naval Admiral *Aaron Bleich: Geek Programmer and Data Analyst *Roger McCord: Intelligence Director *Brian Dawson: Operations Director *Jim Wright: Domestic Crisis Manager *Richard Middleton: Planning Director *Hector Rodriquez: JSOC Liaison, Retired Army Sergeant Major *Sandee Barron: Helicopter Pilot *Mike Volner: JSOC Response Team Commander *Allen Kim: FBI CIRG Team Leader

List of Op-Center Novels

The books in the ''Tom Clancy's Op-Center'' series:

National Crisis Management Center (Op-Center)

Although familiarly called "Op-Center", the actual name of the largely autonomous agency is the "''National Crisis Management Center''". The charter of the NCMC, or Op-Center, is unlike any other in the history of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. They handle both domestic and international crises. Director Paul Hood reports to the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, and what had started as "an information clearinghouse with

SWAT A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...

capabilities" now has the singular capacity to monitor, initiate, and manage operations worldwide. The organization had its own paramilitary response team, called the Striker team, named by an Op-Center member who was a soccer fan, composed of members of the U.S. military special operations community. The series also mentioned organizations from England, whose response team was called Bengal, and Russia, with a team called Hammer. It is headquartered in an undistinguished, two-story building located near the Naval Reserve flight line at

Andrews Air Force Base Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force (USAF). In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form ...

that used to be a ready room, a staging area for crack flight crews. In the event of a nuclear attack, it would have been their job to evacuate key officials from

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

According to the 2014 reboot franchise, the NCMC was eventually disbanded after the Secretary of Defense and the

Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...

managed to convince the President of the United States to shut the organization down due to the effectiveness of the US Intelligence Community and Special Forces in the War on Terror (much to the disgust of Paul Hood and Mike Rogers). Years later however, terrorists blow up several NFL stadiums across the country and leave thousands dead or mutilated. It is determined in the resulting investigation that the inability of government agencies to prevent the attacks was due to a lack of information, as well as the inability to put the pieces together in time. In response, the President executes an emergency order that reboots Op-Center for the 21st Century. Retired Admiral Chase Williams is eventually named the new director and Op-Center's new headquarters is located in the basement of the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to support national se ...

; as its response team, Op-Center utilizes soldiers from the Joint Special Operations Command for overseas missions and a SWAT team from the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

's Critical Incident Response Group in order to respond to domestic emergencies.

Net Force

The third ''Op-Center'' novel, ''Games of State'', briefly alludes to the concept of a "Net Force". This concept was later expanded into its own ''

Net Force In mechanics, the net force is the sum of all the forces acting on an object. For example, if two forces are acting upon an object in opposite directions, and one force is greater than the other, the forces can be replaced with a single force tha ...

'' series, created by the same men as ''Op-Center'', but written by

Steve Perry Stephen Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and frontman of the rock band Journey during their most successful years from 1977 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 1998. He wrote/co-wrote ...

(and later cowritten with Larry Segriff). No direct connection has yet been drawn between the two series, however.

In other media

'' OP Center'' was a 1995 made-for-TV movie starring Harry Hamlin as Paul Hood, newly minted director of the "OP Center".Blockbuste
Tom Clancy's 'OP Center' (1995)
In ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' episode " Sweets and Sour Marge", it reveals that

Moe Szyslak Moe Szyslak ( ) is a recurring character from the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode " Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Moe is the proprietor and bartende ...

's favourite book is ''Tom Clancy's Op-Center''.

References

External links

Penguin (publisher)