Air Defense Direction Center

Air Defense Direction Center
NORAD sector direction center (NSDC)[1]
command, control, and coordination military installation
Several Air Defense Direction Centers were located within SAGE "cube" blockhouses. This is the SAGE ADDC at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, circa 1958.
Country	United States

An Air Defense Direction Center^[2]:11 (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 aircraft from more than 1 site for ground-controlled interception ("weapons assignment").^[3] As with the World War II Aircraft Warning Service CONUS defense network, a "manual air defense system"^[4] was used through the 1950s (e.g., NORAD/ADC used a "Plexiglass [sic] plotting board" at the Ent command center.)^[5]:151 Along with 182 radar stations at "the end of 1957, ADC operated … 17 control centers",^[5]:223 and the Ground Observation Corps was TBD on TBD. With the formation of NORAD, several types of ADDCs were planned by Air Defense Command:

• Joint Direction Center,^[6]:22 a USAF ADDC collocated with an Army Air Defense Command Post, AADCP (together designated a "NORAD Control Center").
  • Alaskan Joint Direction Center, at 2 sites: Fire Island and Murphy Dome for the Alaskan Air Command Semi-Automatic Defense System (ALSADS)^[6]:49
• Semi-Automatic Direction Center^[7] (SAGE Direction Center),^[8] an ADCC (e.g., the "Duluth Sector Direction Center"^[9]) with a command, control, and coordination system that provided the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), e.g., AN/FSQ-7 or AN/GSA-51 (in 1958, NORAD "forecast full SAGE direction center capability" by January 1963.)^[6]:24
  • Combined Direction-Combat Center,^[5]:256 a USAF ADDC collocated with a SAGE Combat Center (e.g., DC-03 & CC-01 at Hancock Field for the Syracuse Air Defense Sector)
  • SCC Direction Center (SCC/DC), a USAF ADDC to be collocated with a planned Super Combat Center in a nuclear bunker (no SCCs, SCC/DCs, or above-ground DCs with AN/FSQ-32 were ever completed)^[6]
• Manual Direction Center, an ADCC without a SAGE CCCS, successors to the Manual Air Defense Control Centers of the Permanent System (cf. ADCCs with a "pre-SAGE semiautomatic intercept system")^[10]
• NIKE direction center, Army Project Nike AADCPs for coordinating surface-to-air missile fire from multiple batteris, e.g., W-13DC (at the Fort Meade radar station) through LA-45DC (Fort MacArthur Direction Center), 9 of which were within Missile Master nuclear bunkers.

Most ADDCs were replaced by Regional Operations Control Centers of the Joint Surveillance System (FOC on December 23, 1980).^[7]

References

1. Missile Master… (field manual), FM44-1, United States Army, February 1963, AN/FSG-1 … f. Utilizes reference track data from local radars and voice communications with the NORAD sector direction center (NSDC) … 22. Normal Tracking The S & E officers and the trackers monitor the SAGE reference track data … 34. General … The two surveillance and entry consoles…are separated by a channel status unit … "Missile Master organic radars:" … SAGE SELECTOR two-position switch: Selects SAGE 1 or SAGE 2 (primary or secondary SAGE DC) as the source of SAGE data. … 45. Range-Height Subsystem a. Equipment. The range-height equipment consists of two RHI consoles (fig. 15) and two antenna control units
2. Preface by Buss, L. H. (Director) (1 October 1958). North American Air Defense Command Historical Summary: January–June 1958 (Report). Directorate of Command History: Office of Information Services.
3. Lincoln Laboratory memorandum 6M-3797 which cites "6M-3788, "Weapons Direction Requirements," R. Nelson) … SAGE designation of targets directly to AA batteries … CAPE COD DIRECTION CENTER … Memorandum 6M-2926-3, "Lighting Requirements for AN/FSQ-7 Direction Centers," … 6M-3772…Requirements for Separate Rani-Air Training Command Direction Center Facility"
4. In Your Defense (digitized movie). Narrated by Colonel John Morton. Western Electric. Retrieved 2012-04-03. The System Development Corporation…in the design of massive computer programs … Burroughs…electronic equipment … Western Electric…assist the Air Force in coordinating and managing the entire effort…and design of buildings. …SAGE project office…Air Material Command
5. Schaffel, Kenneth (1991). Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960 (45MB pdf). General Histories (Report). Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-60-9. Retrieved 2011-09-26. A SAGE component, a 64 x 64 [4K] magnetic core memory … SAGE direction center. This installation is located at Stewart Air Force Base in New York state. …[Hancock Field] combined direction-combat center was located at Syracuse, New York. [captions of p. 198, 208, & 265 photos] NOTE: Schaffel's history uses the same name as "The Emerging Shield: The Air Defense Ground Environment," Air University Quarterly Review 8, no. 2 (spring 1956).
6. Preface by Buss, L. H. (Director) (14 April 1959). North American Air Defense Command and Continental Air Defense Command Historical Summary: July–December 1958 (Report). Directorate of Command History: Office of Information Services.
7. Del Papa, Dr. E. Michael; Warner, Mary P. (October 1987). A Historical Chronology of the Electronic Systems Division 1947-1986 (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 2012-07-19. so-called Semi-Automatic Direction Center System, later known as…Semi-Automatic Ground Environment System, in essence, the Lincoln Transition System.
8. Lincoln Laboratory Memoradum 6M-3797: The operational specifications for the SAGE Direction Center (Schaffel p. 208 also identifies the term)
9. Philips, Alan F. "20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War". Issues (Accidents) webpage. NuclearFiles.org. Retrieved 2013-05-04. At around midnight on October 25, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence. He shot at it, and activated the "sabotage alarm." … and the Klaxon sounded which ordered nuclear armed F-106A interceptors to take off. … The original intruder was a bear.
10. McMullen, R. F. (15 Feb 1980). History of Air Defense Weapons 1946–1962 (Report). ADC Historical Study No. 14. Historical Division, Office of information, HQ ADC. pp. 211, 306. the GPA-37 electronic heart of an advanced system of ground controlled interception which immediately preceded SAGE, and with SAGE itself. … The AN/GPA-35 was a pre-SAGE control system that would be used until SAGE was ready.