The Weapons Room

This is the Weapons Room, where the actual control of the air battle happens. The physical description I'm going to give the reader is what I remember from Fertile Control, 20th Norad Region, Fort Lee, Virginia. This is the one I remember the best. The layout of others may be slightly different but they all had the same function and general charactertistics.

Physical security was always a primary concern to the Air Defense System. The Sage Block Houses were always within a controled area which restricted the access to the building but within the block house, there were several priority one areas. Access to these rooms were further restricted on a need basis. These sections included the Weapons Room, Intelligence Vault and the Communications Center. The methods of access control and the level of entry restriction varried with each section.

Entry to the Weapons Room was by cipher lock. This was a chanable combination lock on the door to the room. The combination was limited to the personnel who worked in the room and staff personnel requiring access in the function of their duties.

In the center of the room was the control dias.

The right half contained the EA (Emergency Actions) Pit. This is where emergenncy action messages were received from Norad and other agencies. It was located there to allow dessimination of the messages to the Senior Director (SD) and Battle Commander (BC) as quickly as possible.  Emergency action messages included changes in the level of alert, physical security warning messages (Helping Hand and Covered Wagon messages), nuclear control orders and other messages changing the weapons readiness, employment and deployment.

The first scope on the left side of the control dias was the SD/SDT position. The Senior Director  was the senior weapons controller in the control center. He was responsibile to the BC for maintenance of the air picture as well as insuring the engagment of all hostile objects within the region. The SD coordinated all actions with the BC. Remember that all positions in the Weapons Room have a technician position to assist them with the exeption of the FTT (Forward Tell Technician)

The scope next to the SD belonged to the Senior Weapons Director (SWD). The SWD coordinated with the SD and the four Weapons Directors (WD). The SWD assigned the radio frequencied to the Intercept Directors (INDs) through the Tactical Channel Assignment Pannel (TCAP). He also issued the scramble and air borne orders to the WDs. The SWD also monitored flight safety and coordinated these issues with the WDs.

Next to the SWD was the FTT. In the automatic mode the Q-7 computer forward told all Hostile, Special, Yoke and Interceptor tracks to the Q-8 computers at the Region Control Centers (RCC). When the it was determined that the RCCs were unnecessary ans closed, the Q-7 told these tracks directly to Norad. When the traffic density dictated due to the data load foreward tell was switched to manual. The FTT then manualy selected priority tracks for forward tell. This reduced the data load for the system.

Off each corner of the weapons dias sat four lone scopes. These were the WDs scopes. The WD/WDT was responsibile for flight safety, assigned fighters to the scopes on his Weapons Team, issued scramble/airborne orders to the Combat Alert Center (CAC) at the fighter squadrons and coordinated airspace requests with FAA, the other WDs and other using agencies. They also began the coordination of the handoff of fighters between adjacent regions. The coordination between adjacent region was not requiired. The handoff could be accomplished through the two computers but in the interest of flight safety they were normally coordinated by voice. The weapons teams were numbered one through four. Team four had the special function of Faker Monitor Team. Through the use of exercise SIF codes they could track live Faker tracks and provide flight safety. The faker sif codes were suspressed to all other scopes in the controller center.

Behind the WDs were four series of five scopes each. These were the scopes used by the Intercept Directors (INDs). At this point it should be mentioned that the title Intercept Director was the title used on the scopes. The term chnged from Intercept Directors to Weapons Controllers later. They were responsibile for the sucessful control of the intercept from handoff to Return to Base (RTB) handoff.