North American Aerospace Defense Command
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North American Aerospace Defense Command |
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|---|---|
 Badge of command |
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| Lineup | May 12, 1958 (Directorate 1961) |
| Country | United States / Canada |
| Armed forces | United States Armed Forces / Canadian Forces |
| Armed forces | United States Air Force / Royal Canadian Air Force |
| Branch of service | Air traffic control ( aerospace warning and aerospace control ) / counter-terrorism |
| Type | Joint establishment of the United States Air Force and the Canadian Forces Air Command |
| Peterson Air Force Base (also the seat of USNORTHCOM ) | Colorado Springs , Colorado , United States |
| equipment | Satellites , radar and other reconnaissance systems |
| Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command (qua office also Commander, US Northern Command ) | |
| Commanding general | General Lori J. Robinson , United States Air Force |
| Deputy Commander | Lieutenant General Pierre St-Amand, CMM, CD (Canadian Forces Air Command) |
| Chief of Staff ( Chief of Staff ) | Major General Peggy C. Combs, United States Army |
The North American Aerospace Defense Command ( NORAD ; German North American Air Defense Command ) is a joint facility of the United States and Canada that the space monitor and from attack by ICBMs to warn (ICBM).
structure
The facility is run by a commander appointed directly by the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Canada. At the same time, this commander is also the commanding general of the higher regional command US Northern Command ( NORTHCOM ), which is responsible for the North American continent. The headquarters are on Peterson Air Force Base ( Colorado ). The central coordination point for all sensor data is located in Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado). There are three regional control centers; they are located at Elmendorf Air Force Base ( Alaska ), Tyndall Air Force Base ( Florida ) and Canadian Forces Base North Bay near Trenton , Ontario (Canada).
Traditionally, the commander is an American and his deputy is a Canadian.
assignment
NORAD is the central command post for air defense and early warning of the American and Canadian air forces in CONUS . At the same time, it is also responsible for space surveillance and tracking of launched ICBMs.
Monitoring includes space debris left over from rockets, as well as tracking, validating and warning of attacks on North America by aircraft , rockets or spacecraft.
As the highest operational command of air defense, NORAD is the superior command post of Air Force North , the Air Force component command of NORTHCOM, which leads the 1st Air Force (1st Air Fleet) of Air Combat Command .
history
background
In the early 1950s, the threat of long-range Soviet bombers armed with atomic bombs in North America increased , prompting the governments of the United States and Canada to cooperate in the defense of the airspace of North America. They agreed to jointly establish and use a number of radar stations on America's northern border in order to be able to detect a Soviet attack over the North Pole early on. The first radar systems were put into service in 1954, were located in southern Canada near the border with the United States and were called the Pinetree Line . Due to technical deficits, however, additional systems had to be built. In 1957 the Mid-Canada Line was built, which was about 480 km north of the Pinetree Line and mostly ran along the 55th parallel . With its Doppler radar systems, it was also able to detect low-flying aircraft. The third line was called the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) and was also completed in 1957. This was a network of 57 stations along the 70th parallel. All three radar lines allowed a warning time of three hours before a bomber attack for all major cities. Attacks over the Pacific or the Atlantic would have been detected by AWACS aircraft, ships and airships of the US Navy or by sea-based radar systems. The management and management of this complex system became a great challenge.
Facility
On August 1, 1957, the United States and Canada announced that they would set up a joint command, the North American Air Defense Command . Operations began in Colorado on September 12, 1957. The formal agreement between the two governments was signed on May 12, 1958. In the early 1960s, around 250,000 people were already involved in work at NORAD.
renaming
When the Sputnik shock hit the USA at the end of the 1950s and thus the possibility of attacks with ICBMs was given, both states became aware of the need to expand their surveillance measures. A space surveillance and missile warning system was then set up to track, track and identify missile launches around the world. This expansion of tasks led to the name being changed to North American Aerospace Defense Command .
In 1963 the Air Force began to be downsized and the now obsolete radar systems were switched off. Two underground nuclear-safe operations bases have been established: the first in Cheyenne Mountain , Colorado, and a second in North Bay , Ontario . In the early 1970s, the realization grew that if nuclear weapons were used, both the attacked and the person who carried out the nuclear first strike would be destroyed (see Balance of Terror ). This led to a reduction in the air defense budget and a realignment of NORAD's goals towards maintaining space security in peacetime. This was followed by a significant reduction in air defense systems until the 1980s.
According to a study by the USA and Canada, called the Joint US-Canada Air Defense Study (JUSCADS), from 1979, aerial surveillance with the help of the Distant Early Warning Line had to be carried out by an improved radar line in the Arctic , the North Warning System (NWS), be replaced. In addition, NORAD should be allocated more modern fighters and more use of AWACS aircraft should be approved. These recommendations were approved by the governments in 1985. In addition, the new United States Space Command was founded in September 1985, which was planned as a support to NORAD.
Redefinition of the order
After the end of the Cold War , NORAD's goals had to be redefined. In order to avoid cuts, support began in 1989 to support anti-drug operations, e.g. B. by radar tracking of small aircraft. The Distant Early Warning Line systems in the Cheyenne Mountains were replaced by radars from the North Warning System between 1986 and 1995 .
In 2006 NORAD was officially relocated from the underground bunker in Cheyenne Mountain to Peterson Air Force Base . The bunker in Cheyenne Mountain was switched to “warm standby” status ( Alternate Command Center , in reserve for immediate readiness). It is also used by NORAD for training purposes. With this measure one wants to be able to react faster and more flexibly in crises. The tasks have developed in the direction of airspace control and counter-terrorism.
List of NORAD commanders and vice commanders
List of NORAD commanders
The commanders of NORAD are generals and admirals of the US armed forces .
| No. | Surname | Beginning of the appointment | End of appointment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | General Earle E. Partridge (USAF) | September 12, 1957 | July 30, 1959 |
| 2 | General Laurence S. Kuter (USAF) | August 1, 1959 | July 30, 1962 |
| 3 | General John K. Gerhart (USAF) | August 1, 1962 | March 30, 1965 |
| 4th | General Dean C. Strother (USAF) | April 1, 1965 | July 29, 1966 |
| 5 | General Raymond J. Reeves (USAF) | August 1, 1966 | July 31, 1969 |
| 6th | General Seth J. McKee (USAF) | 1st August 1969 | September 30, 1973 |
| 7th | General Lucius D. Clay, Jr. (USAF) | 1st October 1973 | 29th August 1975 |
| 8th | General Daniel James, Jr. (USAF) | 1st September 1975 | 5th December 1977 |
| 9 | General James E. Hill (USAF) | December 6, 1977 | December 31, 1979 |
| 10 | General James V. Hartinger (USAF) | January 1, 1980 | July 30, 1984 |
| 11 | General Robert T. Herres (USAF) | July 30, 1984 | 5th February 1987 |
| 12 | General John L. Piotrowski (USAF) | February 6, 1987 | March 30, 1990 |
| 13 | General Donald J. Kutyna (USAF) | April 1, 1990 | June 30, 1992 |
| 14th | General Charles A. Horner (USAF) | June 30, 1992 | September 12, 1994 |
| 15th | General Joseph W. Ashy (USAF) | September 13, 1994 | August 26, 1996 |
| 16 | General Howell M. Estes III. (USAF) | August 27, 1996 | August 13, 1998 |
| 17th | General Richard B. Myers (USAF) | August 14, 1998 | February 22, 2000 |
| 18th | General Ralph E. Eberhart (USAF) | February 22, 2000 | November 5, 2004 |
| 19th | Admiral Timothy J. Keating (USN) | November 5, 2004 | March 23, 2007 |
| 20th | General Victor E. Renuart, Jr. ( USAF ) | March 23, 2007 | May 19, 2010 |
| 21st | Admiral James A. Winnefeld, Jr. ( USN ) | May 19, 2010 | August 3, 2011 |
| 22nd | General Charles H. Jacoby , Jr., USA ( USA ) | August 3, 2011 | 5th December 2014 |
| 23 | Admiral William E. Gortney , USA ( USN ) | 5th December 2014 | May 13, 2016 |
| 24 | General Lori J. Robinson ( USAF ) | May 13, 2016 | May 24, 2018 |
| 25th | Terrence John O'Shaughnessy (USAF) | May 24, 2018 | - |
List of Vice NORAD Commanders
The Vice Commanders of NORAD are generals of the Canadian Forces (CF) or the Canadian Defense Ministry (CD) .
| No. | Surname | Beginning of the appointment | End of appointment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Air Marshal Roy Slemon (RCAF) | September 1957 | August 1964 |
| 2 | Air Marshal Clarence Rupert Dunlap (RCAF) | August 1964 | August 1967 |
| 3 | Air Marshal William R. MacBrien (RCAF) | August 1967 | January 1969 |
| 4th | Lieutenant-General Frederick R. Sharp (CD) | January 1969 | September 1969 |
| 5 | Lieutenant-General Edwin Reyno (CF) | September 1969 | September 1972 |
| 6th | Lieutenant-General Reginald J. Lane (CD) | September 1972 | October 1974 |
| 7th | Lieutenant-General Richard C. Stovel | October 1974 | September 1976 |
| 8th | Lieutenant-General David R. Adamson | September 1976 | August 1978 |
| 9 | Lieutenant-General Kenneth E. Lewis | August 1978 | June 1980 |
| 10 | Lieutenant-General Kenneth J. Thorneycroft | June 1980 | May 1983 |
| 11 | Lieutenant-General Donald C. MacKenzie (CF) | May 1983 | August 1986 |
| 12 | Lieutenant-General Donald M. McNaughton (CF) | August 1986 | August 1989 |
| 13 | Lieutenant-General Robert W. Morton (CD) | August 1989 | August 1992 |
| 14th | Lieutenant-General Brian L. Smith (CF) | August 1992 | August 1994 |
| 15th | Lieutenant-General JD O'Blenis (CF) | August 1994 | August 1995 |
| 16 | Lieutenant-General LWF Cuppens (CF) | August 1995 | April 1998 |
| 17th | Lieutenant-General GC MacDonald (CF) | April 1998 | August 8, 2001 |
| 18th | Lieutenant-General Kenn R. Pennie (CF) | August 8, 2001 | July 14, 2003 |
| 19th | Lieutenant-General Rick Findley (CF) | July 14, 2003 | August 2, 2007 |
| 20th | Lieutenant-General Charlie Bouchard (CF) | August 2, 2007 | July 10, 2009 |
| 21st | Lieutenant-General Marcel Duval (CF) | July 10, 2009 | August 15, 2011 |
| 22nd | Lieutenant-General Alain Parent (CF) | 4th September 2012 | July 1, 2017 |
| 23 | Lieutenant-General Pierre St-Amand (CF) | July 1, 2017 | - |
Between 2004 and 2006, a new above-ground command center was completed on Canadian Forces Base North Bay . The operational operation of the new command center began in autumn 2006. Like the American NORAD facility in Cheyenne Mountain, the underground facility on the Canadian side of the base was given the status "warm standby", ie. H. placed in reserve with immediate readiness for use.
In the media
Norad Tracks Santa
Every Christmas, NORAD attracts public interest with the claim that it can follow Santa Claus on his way around the world. The tradition dates back to 1955 and stems from a typographical error in a phone number caused by a Sears store in Colorado. Children who called this number thought they were calling Santa Claus but got CONAD, the forerunner of NORAD, on the phone instead.
films and series
- NORAD plays an important role in the film WarGames . Because all US nuclear missiles are computer-controlled, the world is on the verge of nuclear war.
- In the series Stargate - Command SG-1 , the headquarters of the Stargate Command is located under NORAD.
- In the film White House Down , NORAD is hacked and an anti-aircraft missile is fired that destroys Air Force One and kills the newly sworn president.
- NORAD also plays an important role in the film Interstellar .
literature
- Paul Bracken: Command and Control of Nuclear Forces. Yale University Press, New Haven CT 1985, ISBN 0-300-03398-2 .
Web links
- Official homepage of NORAD (English)
- U-boat in the mountain - a visit to NORAD
- NORAD tracks Santa Claus (multilingual, requires the Flash Player )
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.norad.mil ( Memento from June 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) - Contact Us. Accessed June 16, 2019
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↑
"To accomplish the aerospace control mission, NORAD uses a network of satellites, ground-based radar, airborne radar and fighters."
- www.norad.mil - About. Accessed June 17, 2010 - ↑ /www.norad.mil ( Memento from July 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) About - Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Accessed June 16, 2019
- ^ Freiburg, Friederike: SPIEGEL ONLINE ( eng ) In: The silent end of the Superbunker . Retrieved October 20, 2006.
- ↑ Kleine Zeitung: Mysterious contrail is a mystery , viewed on November 11, 2010
- ↑ http://www.norad.mil/about/Santa.html ( Memento from December 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive )