physics

Post-Attack Command and Control System

Post-Attack Command and Control System is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Post-Attack Command and Control System rather than just read about it. In short: The Post Attack Command and Control System (PACCS) was a network of communication sites (both ground and airborne) for use before, during and after a nuclear attack on the United States. PACCS was designed to ensure that National Command Authority would retain exclusive and complete control over American nuclear weapons.

Key takeaways

Post-Attack Command and Control System belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Post-Attack Command and Control System to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Post-Attack Command and Control System from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Post Attack Command and Control System (PACCS) was a network of communication sites (both ground and airborne) for use before, during and after a nuclear attack on the United States. PACCS was designed to ensure that National Command Authority would retain exclusive and complete control over American nuclear weapons. Among other components, it included Strategic Air Command assets such as the Looking Glass aircraft and mission, and various hardened command and control facilities. Belief by the Soviet Union in the reliability of PACCS was a crucial component of the American mutual assured destruction doctrine, ensuring a long-term stalemate.

History The Strategic Air Command headquarters staff, under the direction of General Thomas S. Power assessed the feasibility of placing a continuous command and control element in an airborne mode. The purpose of such a system would be to use the aircraft as a platform for specially installed communications equipment to ensure delivery of command directives to SAC strike forces in the event ground-based headquarters were destroyed. The original plan envisioned an aircraft, crew, and command and control team on 15-minute ground alert. This was later changed to a continuous airborne alert posture. The functions of this PACCS Airborne Command Post kept expanding until it became a true alternate command and control system, complete with force status monitoring, initiation or relay of launch/execution directives, a battle staff, communications to support an alternate CINCSAC, and limited capabilities to reconstitute and replan residual resources. PACCS, in later variants, included an Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) capability, which provided an alternate means for execution message delivery to missile combat crews and a back-up launch control center, forcing the Soviet Union to target each missile silo, rather than just the launch control centers, to incapacitate the Minuteman force.

Components

Airborne E-4B National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP) 1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron - Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska EC-135 Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) "Looking Glass" 2d Airborne Command and Control Squadron - Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska 4th Airborne Command and Control Squadron - Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota 22d Air Refueling Squadron - March Air Force Base, California; West Auxiliary Command Post (West AUXCP) Ground Entry Point - Lamar, Colorado 99th Air Refueling Squadron - Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts; East Auxiliary Command Post (East AUXCP) Ground Entry Point - Plano, Illinois 913th Air Refueling Squadron - Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; Central Auxiliary Command Post (Central AUX) Ground Entry Point - Lyons, Nebraska EB-47L 4362d Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Lincoln Air Force Base, Nebraska 4363d Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio 4364th Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho 4365th Post Attack Command and Control Squadron - Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York

Ground Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana (Second Air Force (later Eighth Air Force) Command Post) Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts (Eighth Air Force Combat Operations Center, aka "The Notch") March Air Force Base, California (Fifteenth Air Force Command Post) Grissom Air Force Base, Indiana Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska (Strategic Air Command Headquarters) Headquarters Emergency Relocation Team (HERT) - Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant, Grand Island, Nebraska

Communications Survivable Low Frequency Communications System - VLF/LF Alpha and Bravo Nets - High Frequency Green Pine Emergency Rocket Communications System

Gallery

See also Airborne Launch Control Center Survivable Low Frequency Communications System (SLFCS) AN/URC-117 Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN) Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network (MEECN) AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS) Alternate Reconstitution Base (ARB) Cold War Game theory Continuity of government

References

External links WWABNCP/PACCS patches

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Post-Attack Command and Control System

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Post-Attack Command and Control System claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Post-Attack Command and Control System before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Post-Attack Command and Control System ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Post-Attack Command and Control System

In research: Post-Attack Command and Control System appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Post-Attack Command and Control System in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Post-Attack Command and Control System is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Continuity of government in the United States, Equipment of the United States Air Force, Telecommunications equipment of the Cold War, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Post-Attack Command and Control System outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Post-Attack Command and Control System in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Post-Attack Command and Control System means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Post-Attack Command and Control System out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Post-Attack Command and Control System in simple terms?

Why does Post-Attack Command and Control System matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Post-Attack Command and Control System?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Post-Attack Command and Control System.