1959 NORAD CONAD History Jul-Dec.pdf - US Northern Command

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A Department of Defense-prepared Continental Air
Defense Prog4am (see Chapter Four), dated 19 June 1959,
the samliJ elate as this operational ',}mployment plan, reduced
the number of hardened sites to six in the U. S.
and one in Canada. It provided that consideration would
be given to establishing three other SCC's in a soft
configuration in the southcentral and central areas of
the U. S.
Both of NORAD's Objective Plans, issued in 1958 and
1359, stated a requirement for this new computer in
hardened facilities. The NADOP 1961-1965 carried a requirement
for ten hardened SCC's by FY 1964 as the functional
centers of ten NORAD regions.
Cancellation of the SCC's. In a message to NORAD
on 9 D~cember 1959, Headquarters USAF advised that because
of budget limitations for FY 1961, the sce's at
the 27th (Denver) and the 33rd (San Antonio) Divisions,
and the direction center at Albuqu~rque would have to be
deferred. But the remaining SCC's were approved by the
Air Force and ware in the Air Forc~, program. However,
USAF also stated that the Office of the Secretary of Defense
had placed a hold order on all sec equipment pending
evaluation.
Then on 21 December 1959, NORAD learned from personnel
from the office of the Director of Defense Research
and Engineering, who visited NORAD Headquarters, that a
stop order had been plac~d on prod'Jction of the AN/FSQ-32
and that a decision was pending in OSD to eliminate the
entire SCC program. In messages t,) the JCS and cose by
NORAD following this 21 December (!f)nference, support was
urged for the HORAD/USAF/Canadian program of seven hardened
sec sites in the U. S. and on·: in Canada. This was
felt to be the minimum position, both messages stated,
and should be supported "since the:!ie super combat centers
are the key to maintaining centralized control of the air
defense forces and to accomplishin~ force commitment to
relatively large geographical a~eas during time of wa~ .. ~
* An OSD evaluation of the sec resulted in a recommendation
in January 1960 for cancellation of the sec
program. On 18 March 1960, the JCS advised NORAD that
they had approved cancellation of the sec ~rogram for the
u. S. This cancellation and its 1'1:sult8 w1ll be covered
in uent histor
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