Post-Attack Command and Control System: Difference between revisions

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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 sole, 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==

The [[Strategic Air Command]] headquarters staff, under the direction of General [[Thomas S. Power]] conducted 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 insureensure delivery of command directives to [[Strategic Air Command|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.