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Editor's Note Times PublisherRobertBryan, along with a number of other Alabama newsmenrecently spent three days at Colorado Springs, Colorado where thev toured NorthAmerican Air DefenseCommand’s Cheyene Mountain Complex, the Air Force Academy, and visitedAerospace Defense Command Headquarters. The newsmen were welcomed and entertainedduring their stay by General Thomas K. McGlt;Lt.Commander of the U. S. AirForce Aerospace Defense Command, Gen. MeGehee is a native of Greenville, Ala.NORaD -the North American Air Defense Command - is a two-nation, four-service military organization chargedGEN. McGEHEEw ith defending both Canada and the United States against air attack.To do the job, the command has available an internationalteam of specialists, provided by armed services of both thepartner nations. Members ofthe U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force and the Canadian Armed Forces servein NORAD. They are stationed at locations all across NorthAmerica and at many widely separated points throughout theworld.They man radar outposts scanning sky and space for signs of hostile action,squadrons of supersonic fighter■»interceptors, ground-to-air missile batteries, and the command posts that would direct the defensive battle forNorth America.The forces made available for NORAD operational control are supplied by NORAD component commands: The U.S. Army Air Defense Command, U.S. Air Force Aerospace Defense Command, and the Canadian Forces Air Defence Command.The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps also have personnel on the NORAD staff and make some units available to thecommand. In addition, the commander in chief of theAlaskan Command, a separate U.S. unified command, is responsible to the commander in chief of NORAD for air defense of Alaska.Thus, all forces on North America concerned with air defense are under operational control of a single chief.The Army Air Defense Command contribution to NORAD includes Nike Hercules and Hawk surface-to-air missiles and the firedistribution systems established in eacji defense area to coordinate their battleactions. The Active Army issupported in its role by the Army National Guard, whose Nike Hercules units are anintegral part of the around-the-clock air defense.The Army Air Defense Command’s nation-wide task organization provides the terminal defense against air attack for cities in the U.S.U.S. Navy space watchers are active in NORAD. The Navy’s Space Surveillance System is part of the NORAD Space Detection and Tracking System. In addition, Navy and the Marine Corps jet fighter interceptors would be available as augmentation forces in anemergency.The bulk of NORAD’s fighter-interceptor squadrons are provided by the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Defense Command. This organization, the largest component command inNORAD, also contributes the surface-to-air Bomarc missileand a large number of radar squadrons, as well as early warning airborne radars. ADC also is active in space detection with the Ballistic Missile EarlyandWarning System Spacetrack, providing information to NORAD on ballistic missiles and orbiting space objects. The Air National Guard also provides fighter-interceptor squadrons on fulltime assignment to NORADthrough the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Defense Command.In the weapons field, the Canadian Forces Air Defence\A/ICommand provides fighter-interceptor squadrons equipped with CF-101B Voodoo aircraftand two surface-to-air Bomarc missile squadrons. Thecommand also contributes heavily in the air surveillance and in detection andidentification functions.A Canadian Baker-Nunncamera is among the devices supplying data on satellite traffic to NORAD’s Space Defense Center.In an emergency, the regular fighter-interceptor squadrons in the NORAD system would beaugmented by available fighter aircraft of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, other U.S. Air Force commands, the Air National Guard, and interceptor training units of the Canadian Forces Air DefenceCommand. All these forces arehighly mobile and constantly practice dispersal and forwardbase deployment. ,The NORAD mission has beenbroken down into three basicactions: detect, identify, and, ifnecessary, destroy.watch thethe NorthDETECTIONNORAD must whole area over American continent from justabove the ground to beyond the earth’s atmosphere. For this it has three different surveillance systems, all feeding information into the NORADCombat Operations Center at Colorado Springs.Manned-Bomber Surveillance:First is the manned bomber surveillance network. The populated areas of Canada and the United States are coveredby a network of radars. Farther north, on the edge of the continent, is the Distant Early Warning Line, which extends from western Alaska across thetop of the continent and on to Greenland.Ballistic Missile Warning: Asecond NORAD detectionsystem is the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.BMEWS sites are at Thule,Greenland; Clear, Alaska; and at Fylingdales Moor, England. The huge radars at the BMEWS sites can detect a missile as far as 3,000 miles away. The system will provide a warning of 15 to 20 minutes of the approach of a missile attack. Such warning is transmitted automatically and displayed in NORAD’s Combat Operations Center. BMEWS data also are transmitted toAir CommandStrategic headquarters, the and NationalPentagon,Defencethirdheadquarters at Ottawa.Satellite Detection: Asurveillance system is the Satellite Detection - and Tracking System. This network of radar, radio, and optical sensors concentrated in the northern hemisphere supplies the NORAD Space Defense Center with information on earth-orbiting satellites.IDENTIFICATIONDetection of aircraft must befollowed by rapid and accurate identification. Because the enemy can choose the time and place of an attack, NORAD must know the identity of aircraft over or approaching the continent at all times.Stringent rules have been imposed on all air traffic penetrating or operating within air space designated as Air Defense Identification Zones. These zones are established around the coasts and borders and the northern extremities of the NORAD area of responsibility. The principal method of identification is Dased on flight plan correlation. Information obtained from inflight amendments and position reports is compared with an actual radar track of an airborne object. If the information on the flight and the track correlate within established criteria, the track may be identified as “friendly.” If the flight plan information and track do not match, or if there is any doubt, the flight is categorized as “unknown,” and interceptors may be scrambledBLANKET RADAR COVERAGEMrifir OctonMEXICOCUBAElectronic Guard Against Surprise AttackThese are the lacings of the electronic network covering air approaches to North America. All are tied to the North American Air Defense Command’s underground Combat Operations Center at Colorado Springs, Colo. At three sites near the top of the world, high-powered radar antennas of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System reach out 3,000 miles to give the alert of an intercontinental ballistic missile attack. Against the manned bomber threat, NORADemploys the Distant Early Warning Line, extending across the top of the continent, and a system of radars uarding sea approaches to the U.S. and the populated areas of Canada. Between Florida and Cuba, early warning aircraft bolster ground-based radars. Stretched across thesouthern U.S. is the U.S. Naval Space Surveillance System, one of the satellite detection and tracking nets reporting data on earth-orbiting space objects to NORAD’s Space Defense Center.Every Christmas
Newspaper Details
Cullman Times Democrat
Cullman, Alabama, US
Thu, Nov 26, 1970
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 03 Jun 2022
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