National Military Command System


The National Military Command System was the federal government of the United States' Cold War command and control system that consisted of the National Military Command Center at The Pentagon, the Alternate National Military Command Center at Pennsylvania Raven Rock Mountain, 3 National Emergency Airborne Command Post aircraft on 24-hour ground alert, 2 National Emergency Command Post Afloat ships, "and interconnecting communications".

Background

The United States' Cold War command and control history included numerous developments such as the:
After initial planning May–July 1962, DoD Directive S-5100.30 "conceived" the Worldwide Military Command and Control System with five planned groups of C2 systems: the NMCS was the primary group and was to serve the President, the United States Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1962 ANMCC

The Alternate National Military Command Center was established on 1 October 1962 at Raven Rock Mountain Complex and included a joint War Room Annex, "Headquarters USAF Advanced" center, an Army communications complex to connect the ANMCC to several communications networks such as NORAD's Alert Network Number 1. The ANMCC subsequently had equipment of the IBM 473L Command and Control System.

1962 NMCC

The National Military Command Center opened at the Pentagon in early October 1962 to replace the Air Force Command Post as the Joint Chiefs' command post. The ANMCC included 473L C2 equipment, including several IBM computers. It was started in early 1962 when the JCS area with the Joint War Room was expanded from ~ to ~ by 1965 The NMCC was initially considered an "interim" location until the Deep Underground Command Center could be completed below the Pentagon. The NMCC had "direct communications with MACV headquarters in Saigon" during the Vietnam War.
;1972 upgrade: The WWMCCS "ADP upgrade program" included 1972 computer installations and additional NMCC expansion enlarged it to ~ and included the Joint Operational Reporting system. In 1977, the NMCC was 1 of 6 initial sites of the WWMCCS Intercomputer Network developed from a 1971-7 experimental program with testing and use by the JCS. The Command Center Processing and Display System replaced NMCC UNIVAC 1106 computers with "dedicated UNIVAC 1100/42 computers" for console and large screen displays. By 1981 as part of the WWMCCS Information System, the NMCC received data "directly from the Satellite Early Warning System and directly from the PAVE PAWS sensor systems".
The NMCC at coordinated responses to the 2001 September 11 attacks and other events. By 2008, the NMCC had the NMCC Alert Center for intelligence fusion in the National Operations and Intelligence Watch Officer Network.