Strategic Automated Command and Control System

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"SACCS" redirects here. For other uses, see Strategic Air Command Control System.
Command Data Buffer configuration in 1991, including part of the SACCS Replacement Keyboard (SRK), Line Printer Unit (LPU) and associated equipment rack (right edge of photo) in an underground missile launch facility.[citation needed]

The Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS) is a United States Strategic Command command and control system for intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-armed long-range bombers, and ballistic missile submarines.[citation needed]

Background[edit]

The ITT 465L Strategic Air Command Control System (SACCS) with its IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing Systems attained operational capability on January 1, 1968. On October 6, 1975, it began to be replaced, when the SACCS original IBM 4020 Military Computers were replaced by Honeywell 6080 computers (remaining FSQ-31 components were entirely decommissioned in November.)[citation needed] The Strategic Air Command Digital Information Network was deployed to replace SACCS' "Data Transmission Subsystem and part of the Data Display Subsystem",[1] e.g., on November 5, 1986, "Martin Marietta Corporation technicians began installing SAC Digital Network (SACDIN) equipment in 91st Strategic Missile Wing missile launch control centers[2] (i.e., either a HUTE rack or MBCP rack).[3] On February 20, 1987, "SAC declared initial operational capability for the SAC Digital Network when [it] operated successfully between the Headquarters SAC Command Center and the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing Command Post, both located at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, and the 351st Strategic Missile Wing Command Post at Whiteman AFB, Missouri."[2] SACDIN eventually "linked 135 locations and permitted two-way message communications with ICBM launch control centers for the first time,"[2] and the Ground Wave Emergency Network communication system had a Final Environmental Impact Statement issued in September 1987.[4]

SAC Automated Command and Control System[edit]

Strategic Air Command was disestablished in the early 1990s.

Despite the command's inactivation, the SAC Automated Command and Control System[5] continued using that name for several years. The former SAC C2 system formed part of "USSTRATCOM Command and Control" (PE 0101316F)(except for the SACCS Data Processing System) .[6]

The USSTRATCOM SACCS was later redesignated Strategic Automated Command and Control System with the same acronym.

By 1995, the Emergency War Order communication systems "..consist[ed] of the primary alert system (PAS), SAC digital network (SACDIN), Survivable Low Frequency Communications System (SLFCS), Air Force Satellite Communications System (AFSATCOM), [ICBM] Super High Frequency Satellite Terminal (ISST) and [UHF] voice radio communication systems."[3] By 2011, the Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network was being modernized in the Nuclear Command and Control System.[7] By February 2012, USSTRATCOM was using the Integrated Strategic Planning and Analysis Network (ISPAN), and the USSTRATCOM Replacement Facility Fit-Out (PE 0303255F) was to "include secure HEMP-Shielded Command and Control Center, mainframe computer data centers, multiple 24/7 mission operations centers, storage and maintenance areas, labs/workrooms, back-up generators, Uninterruptible Power Source, Technical Control Facility, Fiber Ring, [with funding] beginning in FY13."[8]

Age of system and planned replacement[edit]

A Government Accountability Office report on aging and outdated "legacy systems" used by the federal government published in 2016 noted that the SACCS was one of the oldest federal IT investments, running on 1970s-era IBM Series/1 software and 8-inch floppy disks.[9] The report noted that the Department of Defense "plans to update its data storage solutions, port expansion processors, portable terminals, and desktop terminals by the end of fiscal year 2017."[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Histories of Subordinate Units Reporting Directly to the Strategic Communications Division", 1 January - 31 December 1982, Vol 4 of 41
  2. ^ a b c Clark, Major Rita F (1 May 1990). SAC Missile Chronology 1939–1988 (PDF) (Report). Office of the Historian, HQ. SAC, Offutt AFB. Retrieved 2013-09-26. 1958…1 January Headquarters SAC established the Office of Assistant CINCSAC (SAC MIKE) at Inglewood, California. This position was designated to serve as an extension of Headquarters SAC and was responsible for working closely with the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division … 1966…17 April The first attempted launch of a Minuteman II ICBM by means of the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS)
  3. ^ a b title tbd (Section I: Communications Systems Description) (Technical Order), November 1995, retrieved 2014-05-12, The single SACDIN cabinet at PLCCs is the communications processor set (HUTE rack). … SAC Digital Network System
  4. ^ Introduction | Assessment of the Possible Health Effects of Ground Wave Emergency Network | The National Academies Press. 1993. doi:10.17226/2046. ISBN 978-0-309-04777-7. PMID 24967486.
  5. ^ Hutzler, Patricia L. (April 1990). Defense Planning and Programming Categories: A Special Tool for Special Needs (PDF) (Report). Vol. 3. Appendix E, Proposed Expanded DPPC Structure. Logistics Management Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 18, 2014. Retrieved 2014-05-18.
  6. ^ "0101316F USSTRATCOM Command and Control". www.brookings.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  7. ^ Article title [bare URL PDF]
  8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2014-05-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ a b David A. Powner, GAO-16-696T, Information Technology: Federal Agencies Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems, Government Accountability Office (testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives (May 25, 2016).
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