Everything about Norad totally explained
North American Aerospace Defense Command (
NORAD) is a joint organization of
Canada and the
United States that provides aerospace warning and defense for
North America. It was founded on
May 12,
1958, as the
North American Air Defense Command. Its main technical facility has been the
Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center in
Colorado, and for this reason NORAD is sometimes unofficially referred to as
Cheyenne Mountain.
NORAD's headquarters facilities in Colorado are administered by the
U.S. Air Force under the command of the
721st Mission Support Group, part of the
21st Space Wing, headquartered at
Peterson Air Force Base.
NORAD's forces consist of the Alaskan NORAD Region/
Eleventh Air Force,
Canadian NORAD Region, and
Continental NORAD Region.
Mission
"In close collaboration with homeland defense, security, and law enforcement partners, prevent air attacks against North America, safeguard the sovereign airspaces of the United States and Canada by responding to unknown, unwanted, and unauthorized air activity approaching and operating within these airspaces, and provide aerospace and maritime warning for North America."
History
Formation
The growing perception of the threat of long-range
Soviet strategic bombers armed with
nuclear weapons brought the U.S. and Canada into closer cooperation for air defense. While attacks from the
Pacific or
Atlantic would have been detected by
Airborne Early Warning aircraft, Navy ships, or offshore radar platforms, the
Arctic was underprotected. In the early 1950s the U.S. and Canada agreed to construct a series of
radar stations across North America to detect a Soviet attack over the Arctic. The first series of radars was the
Pinetree Line, completed in 1954 and consisting of 33 stations across southern Canada. However, technical defects in the system led to more radar networks being built. In 1957, the
McGill Fence was completed; it consisted of
Doppler radar for the detection of low-flying craft. This system was roughly north of the Pinetree Line along the 55th parallel. The third joint system was the
Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), also completed in 1957. This was a network of 58 stations along the 69th parallel. The systems gave around three hours warning of bomber attack before they could reach any major population center.
The
command and control of the massive system then became a significant challenge. Discussions and studies of joint systems had been ongoing since the early 1950s and culminated on August 1, 1957, with the announcement by the U.S. and Canada to establish an integrated command, the North American Air Defense Command. On September 12, operations commenced in Colorado. A formal NORAD agreement between the two governments was signed on May 12, 1958.
Cold War and false alarms
By the early 1960s, about 250,000 personnel were involved in the operation of NORAD. The emergence of the
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and
submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) threat in the early 1960s was something of a blow. In response, a space surveillance and missile
warning system was constructed to provide worldwide space detection, tracking and identification. The extension of NORAD's mission into space led to a name change, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in March 2007.
From 1963, the size of the U.S. Air Force was reduced, and obsolete sections of the radar system were shut down. However, there was increased effort to protect against an ICBM attack; two underground operations centers were set up, the main one inside
Cheyenne Mountain and an alternate at
North Bay, Ontario. By the early 1970s, the acceptance of
mutual assured destruction doctrine led to a cut in the air
defense budget and the repositioning of NORAD's mission to ensuring the integrity of airspace during peacetime. There followed significant reductions in the air defense system until the 1980s, when, following the 1979
Joint US-Canada Air Defense Study (JUSCADS) the need for the modernization of air defenses was accepted—the DEW Line was to be replaced with an improved Arctic radar line called the
North Warning System (NWS); there was to be the deployment of
Over-the-Horizon Backscatter (OTH-B) radar; the assignment of more advanced fighters to NORAD, and the greater use of
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft from
Tinker Air Force Base in
Oklahoma or
Elmendorf Air Force Base in
Alaska. These recommendations were accepted by the governments in 1985. The United States Space Command was formed in September 1985 as an adjunct but not a component of NORAD.
Even though all equipment in Cheyenne Mountain was put through a rigorous inspection, on at least two occasions, failure in its systems could have potentially caused
nuclear war. On November 9, 1979, a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape but failed to switch the system status to "test," causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "
continuity of government" bunkers as well as command posts worldwide. A similar incident occurred on June 2, 1980, when a
computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in U.S. Air Force command posts around the world that a
nuclear attack was taking place. Both times,
Pacific Air Forces properly had their planes (loaded with nuclear bombs) in the air;
Strategic Air Command didn't and took criticism because they didn't follow procedure, even though the SAC command knew these were almost certainly
false alarms (as did PAC). Both command posts had recently begun receiving and processing direct reports from the various radar, satellite, and other missile attack detection systems, and those direct reports simply didn't match anything about the erroneous data received from NORAD.
Post-Cold War
At the end of the
Cold War NORAD reassessed its mission. To avoid cutbacks, from 1989 NORAD operations expanded to cover counter-drug operations, especially the tracking of
small aircraft. But the DEW line sites were still replaced, in a scaled-back fashion by the
North Warning System radars between 1986 and 1995. The Cheyenne Mountain site was also upgraded. However, none of the proposed
OTH-B radars are currently in operation.
Post-September 11, 2001 attacks
After the
September 11, 2001 attacks, NORAD was criticized for its inability to mount an effective and timely interception of the four rogue jetliners. In response, their mission evolved to include monitoring of all aircraft flying in the interior of the United States. NORAD oversees
Operation Noble Eagle using
fighter aircraft Combat Air Patrols (CAP) under command of
First Air Force and
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
E-3 Sentry aircraft under command of the 552nd
Air Control Wing. At U.S. request, NATO deployed five of its NATO AWACS aircraft to the U.S. to help NORAD in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
On
July 28,
2006, military officials announced that NORAD's day-to-day operations would be consolidated, for purposes of efficiency, in an ordinary building at
Peterson Air Force Base in nearby
Colorado Springs. The mountain will be kept only as a backup in "warm standby," though fully operational and staffed with support personnel should the need arise. NORAD officials stated that the same surveillance work can be continued without the security the facility provides. They emphasized that they're no longer concerned about a halt to their operations from an intercontinental nuclear attack.
Commanders
The Commander of NORAD is always American and simultaneously heads
USNORTHCOM,
while the Deputy Commander is always Canadian.
Recent commanders include:
Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., USAF (March 23 2007 – )
Adm. Timothy J. Keating, USN (5 November 2004 – March 23 2007)
Gen. Ralph E. "Ed" Eberhart, USAF (22 February 2000 – 5 November 2004)
Gen. Richard B. Myers, USAF (14 August 1998 – 22 February 2000)
Gen. Howell M. Estes III, USAF (August 1996 – 14 August 1998)
Gen. Joseph W. Ashy, USAF (September 1994 – August 1996)
Recent deputy commanders include:
Lt. General Charlie Bouchard, CF (August 2 2007 – )
Lt. General Eric A. “Rick” Findley, CF (July 14 2003 – August 2 2007)
Lt. General Ken R. Pennie, CF (August 8 2001 – July 14 2003)
Lt. General George MacDonald, CF 1998-2001
Lt. General Donald C. MacKenzie, CF 1983-1986
Lt. General Edwin Reyno, CF 1969-1972
Air Marshal Clarence Rupert Dunlop C.B.D., SS, Croix de Guerre, D.C.L., D. Eng, B. Sc, RCAF 1964-1967
Air Chief Marshal Roy Slemon, RCAF 1958-1964
In popular culture
NORAD comes to public attention at Christmas, when it tracks Santa Claus on his journey around the world delivering toys for the world's children for 53 years. This tradition started in 1955 when a local Sears store in Colorado misprinted the phone number and children thought they were calling Santa, but called CONAD (NORAD's predecessor) instead.
Cheyenne Mountain was one of the settings of the 1983 motion picture WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick as a teenager who hacked NORAD's main computer and almost started a nuclear war (more precisely referred to as "global thermonuclear war" in the movie).
Stargate Command is underneath NORAD in the Stargate universe.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Norad'.
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