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{{Short description|Former US nuclear communications network}}
[[File:PACCS peacetime orbit areas 1972.PNG|thumb|
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 warfare|nuclear attack]] on the United States. PACCS was designed to ensure that [[National Command Authority (United States)|National Command Authority]] would retain exclusive and complete control over US [[nuclear weapon]]s. Among other components, it included [[Strategic Air Command]] assets such as the [[Operation Looking Glass|Looking Glass]] aircraft and mission, and various hardened [[command and control]] facilities.<ref name=PACCShistory>{{cite web |url=http://www.sac-acca.org/paccs.htm |last1=Ogletree|first1=Greg|title=A History of the Post Attack Command and Control System (PACCS)|date=n.d.|publisher= |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120910090836/http://www.sac-acca.org/paccs.htm |archivedate=September 10, 2012 |accessdate=May 14, 2014}}</ref>
The belief by the [[Soviet Union]] in the reliability of PACCS was a crucial component of the US [[mutual assured destruction]] doctrine, ensuring a long-term [[stalemate]].
▲[[File:PACCS peacetime orbit areas 1972.PNG|thumb|right|Peacetime Orbits of PACCS aircraft (c. 1972)]]
==History==
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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 crew]]s and a back-up [[Launch control center (ICBM)|launch control center]], forcing the [[Soviet Union]] to target each missile silo, rather than just the [[Missile launch control center|launch control centers]], to incapacitate the [[LGM-30 Minuteman|Minuteman]] force.<ref>Strategic Air Command: "Weapon Systems Acquisition 1964-1979", 28 Apr 1980</ref>
==Components==
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===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 [[Post Attack Command and Control System Facility, Hadley|"The Notch"]])<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.westoveryesterday.com/TheNotch.html |title=Westover Yesterday: "The Notch and Grayson: Eighth Air Force's alternative command posts", no date |access-date=2010-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115201511/http://www.westoveryesterday.com/TheNotch.html |archive-date=2017-11-15 |url-status=
* March Air Force Base, California ([[Fifteenth Air Force]] Command Post)
*[[Grissom Air Force Base]], Indiana
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*[[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]]
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==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[
{{USAF system codes}}
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