SCHOOL THESIS

II.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
A. INTRODUCTION
In order to consider what role NORAD might play in military cyber attack
warnings, we first need a general understanding of several fundamental topics. This
chapter will briefly review the history of NORAD and its evolving military warning
missions. Next, cyber warfare components and several proposed definitions for what a
“cyber attack” might actually involve will be reviewed. Then, key U.S. and Canada
military organizations involved in military cyber warfare will be highlighted. Finally, the
chapter closes with a review of current military cyberspace attack conferences and the
military cyberspace attack assessment process.
B. TRADITIONAL NORAD WARNING MISSIONS
1. Early North American Air Defense Warning
With the beginning of the Cold War during the late 1940s, American defense
experts began planning a new, comprehensive air defense strategy they believed was
critical in defending the U.S. against attacks by long-range Soviet Union strategic
bombers. Led by the U.S. Air Force’s newly established “Air Defense Command”
(created in 1948), regional commands were charged with protecting various areas of the
U.S. from bomber attacks. 1
In August 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb under project
“First Lighting.” 2 The test shocked the Western powers, as the American intelligence
community had previously estimated the Soviets would not develop an atomic weapon
until 1953, at the very earliest. 3 It was now predicted the Soviet Union would soon have
the means to drop atomic weapons on the U.S. using long-range strategic bombers.
1 NORAD History Office, Brief History of NORAD, (Colorado Springs, CO: 31 Dec 2012).
2 Carey Sublette, “The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program,” The Nuclear Weapons Archive, last
modified 12 December 2007, http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/Sovwpnprog.html.
3 Ibid.
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