Military Ground Control Centers, United States

Abstract

Abstract Current military space operations centers grew out of 1950s and early 1960s facilities and missions—some of those missions were quite different from those of today. The military is quite conservative when it comes to innovation and modernization. And nowhere is this more evident than in space operations. The watchword is evolutionary, not revolutionary. Thus, a facility, and even its hardware, has often been adapted from a previous mission in the same facility. Because the old mission, often critical to national security, must continue as new missions are brought on, old hardware and procedures are replaced only when new technologies and hardware are well proven. Similarly, organizations responsible for military space missions tend to be adapted from older, often quite different missions and organizations. In recent years, this is particularly evident in the U.S. Air Force's space organizations that are steadily being evolved out of and in a way that mimics air operations. Organizations such as the Air Force Space Command's 50th Space Wing, the operator of much of the Service's on‐orbit satellites, is organized exactly as a flying wing, complete with the assumption of a unit name. As this article unfolds, the reader should keep this conservatism and legacy in mind. The U.S. military currently maintains ground control centers for three related missions: early warning, space surveillance/space control, and on‐orbit satellite operations. Early warning and space surveillance/space control evolved from the North American Air Defense mission developed jointly by the United States and Canada in the 1950s, culminating in the construction of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) Combat Operations Center (COC) in the early 1960s. On‐orbit satellite operations centers have a different pedigree. Shrouded in secrecy during most of the Cold War, these facilities began as control centers for the United States space‐based intelligence collection mission. As such, they were originally developed and largely operated by the still secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). To understand current military operations centers, it is necessary to understand the history of these missions and organizations. This history is the focus of this article. The future of the military use of space is discussed.