6 Bases during the Cold War

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Landstuhl in Germany, Clark AFB in the Philippines, on Guam and at Bagnoliin Italy and Diego Garcia. The Navajo FLTSATCOM system consisted of sevensatellites parked in geosynchronous orbit all around the equator and providedworldwide coverage, except in the polar regions. These provided mostly for theU.S. Navy, communications by digitalized voice, teleprinter and other techniques,and operated at UHF. These satellites were also important hosts forAFSATCOM transponders. Indeed, according to one report, each host forAFSATCOM satellites had 23 channels, ten of which were allotted to the Navyfor command of its air, ground and sea force, 12 to AFSATCOM for nuclearrelatedcommunications, and one reserved for the National CommandAuthorities.35One particularly important function for FLTSATCOM – along with theDSC’s satellites – was the relaying of data from SOSUS and SURTASS (surveillancetowed array) hydrophone systems to the Central Shore Station orAcoustic Research Center at Moffett Field, California, “where it is integratedwith data from other sources and processed by the ILLIAC 4 computer complexto provide a real-time submarine monitoring capability.”36 There is also realtimetransmission of data and displays from ocean-surveillance satellites providedto U.S. surface and submarine fleets.FLTSATCOM utilized control or receiver sites. There were several in theU.S. at Norfolk, Wahiawa (Hawaii), Stockton, California and another atFinnegayan in Guam. Overseas, there were additional stations at Bagnoli, Italyand at Diego Garcia and an AN/MSC-61 system located at Exmouth, NorthwestCape, Australia.37According to the U.S. Defense Communications Agency, the European AU-TOSEVOCOM system consisted of about 225 wideband subscriber terminalshomed on four AN/FTC-31 switches and 16 SECORDS providing secure voiceservice. Another 85 subscribers were provided worldwide secure voice accessBases during the Cold War 117Table 5 Giant Talk/Scope Signal III stationsCountryLocationAscensionAzoresLajes, Cinco PincosGreenlandThuleGuamAnderson AFB, Barrigada, Nimitz HillJapanOwada, Tokorozawa, YokotaOkinawaKadenaPanamaHoward and Albrook AFBsPhilippinesClark AFB, Cubi Point, Camp O’DonnellSpainTorrejonTurkeyIncirlikU.K.RAF Croughton, Mildenhall, Barford St. JohnSource: SIPRI data, Harkavy, Bases Abroad, p. 164.İ 2007 Robert E. Harkavythrough 10 AUTOVON switches.38 Locations of the main switching center forthe AUTOVON network are listed in Table 6.One of the major U.S. uses of overseas theater communications was thatinvolved in the highly proliferated microwave/troposcatter systems used to linkU.S. and other allied forces within the European and Pacific theaters. This inturn involved a number of sub-systems, perhaps the best known of which wasthe NATO ACE HIGH system within Europe. According to Jane’s:ACE HIGH is an 80-voice-channel trophospheric scatter/microwave linksystem which dates back to 1956 when SHAPE developed a plan for anexclusive communications system which would comprise the minimumessential circuits of early warning and alert and implementation of the trip-Page 24Page 25
wire retaliation strike plan. The network extends from northern Norway andthrough Central Europe to Eastern Turkey.39All of the U.S. NATO allies hosted numerous troposcatter relay links – therewere some 40 in West Germany, six in Belgium, eight in Greece, 16 in Italy, 15in Turkey, and so on. (Earlier there were some 30 such links in France.)40 Thesetypes of link also ran from the continental U.S. via Greenland, Iceland, theFaeroes and the U.K. to Europe; indeed, they were originally designed as onelink in the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWs). In Iceland, it isreported that each such North Atlantic Relay System (NARS) installation consistedof four large “billboard” troposcatter antennas.41 Parts of the troposcatternetwork were modernized as the Digital European Backbone System (DEBS).The transmission, relay and reception of strictly military and diplomatic messagesdoes not exhaust the uses to which overseas facilities were put within thebroad domain of communications. Basing diplomacy also entered the news inconnection with broadcast communications. This took any of several forms, forinstance, the major powers’ use of foreign territories for clandestine radio118 Bases during the Cold WarTable 6 Location of the main switching centers for the AUTOVON networkCountryLocationJapanFuchu, AS, Camp Drake (moved to Yokota)OkinawaGrass Mountain or Ft BucknerPhilippinesClark AFBPanamaCorozalSpainHumosaU.K.Martlesham Heath, Hilingdon, RAF CroughtonFDR GermanySchoenfield; Fieldberg, Donnersberg, Pirmasens,LangerkopfItalyColtano, Mt. VergineGuamFinnegayanSource: Defense Communications Agency, “Defense Communications System/European CommunicationSystems: Interoperability Baseline,” Washington, DC, 1 February 1981; and Jane’s MilitaryCommunications (Macdonald: London, 1981).İ 2007 Robert E. Harkavytransmitters, particularly adjacent to rivals’ territories or those where civil warswere in progress. (In the 1987 U.S. Congressional Iran/“Contragate” hearings,information emerged about the CIA-run clandestine transmitters in CentralAmerica and in the Caribbean directed against Nicaragua and Cuba.) On a moreovert basis, this involved, at least as pertained to the U.S. side, the global transmissionnetwork of the government’s Voice of America (VOA). There wereSoviet, French and British counterparts.Access for VOA transmitters, even despite the absence of obvious militaryimplications, was not always a simple matter. Soviet and other nations’ sensitivitiesto radio-broadcast intrusion were such that a nation hosting a VOA facilityrisked a degree of displeasure.42For its short-wave broadcasts, the VOA had six main 500-kilowatt transmitters;additionally, a variety of some 100 antennas and relay stations in Asia, Africa andCentral America. The VOA had overseas radio stations in Antigua, Thailand,Botswana, Greece (two), West Germany, the Philippines (two), Costa Rica, SriLanka, Morocco, Belize and the U.K. (and later in Israel). In 1984–1985, as theCentral American crisis intensified, it was reported that Costa Rica and Belize hadagreed to host VOA broadcast relay stations – in addition, VOA had obtainedagreements to construct relay stations in Sri Lanka, Israel, Morocco and Thailand.Intelligence43During the Cold War the U.S. relied on a variety of technical methods for intelligencecollection (i.e., other than HUMINT) which involved the use of overseasfacilities. These involved the domains of imaging or photographic reconnaissance,signals intelligence, ocean surveillance, space surveillance and nucleardetonation and monitoring.44 Variously, cutting across these categories, thisinvolved fixed land-based facilities, air bases and naval facilities. In some cases,the utilization of foreign facilities for specific purposes was well-known, asPage 26
Page 2 and 3: This provided the U.S. access to a
Page 4 and 5: ecame a hot issue within Japan, and
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Page 8 and 9: eturn to the link here with aircraf
Page 10 and 11: which were in Fairbanks (Alaska), T
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Page 21 and 22: Ocean surface surveillance47The U.S
Page 23 and 24: each site, providing variable cover
Page 25 and 26: Pinetree LineCanadaBroughton Island
Page 27 and 28: that is, the Limited Test Ban Treat
Page 29 and 30: Missile Crisis.68At another level,
Page 31 and 32: Access for Soviet surface ships.Per
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Page 35 and 36: systems (an exception, of course wa
Page 37 and 38: Madagascar). There was also a signi
Page 39 and 40: Aden, Bahrain, Malta, Mauritius, Si

6 Bases during the Cold War

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