Experimental SAGE Subsector explained

The Experimental Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Sector (ESS, Experimental SAGE Subsector[1] until planned Sectors/Subsectors were renamed NORAD Regions, Divisions, and Sectors)[2] was a prototype Cold War Air Defense Sector for developing the Semi Automatic Ground Environment. The Lincoln Laboratory control center in a new building[3] was at Lexington, Massachusetts.

ESS Computer System

The network's Direction Center was completed in a new 1954 building (Building F,) with prototype peripherals and a single IBM XD-1 computer,[4] a successor to Lincoln Lab's Whirlwind I computer (WWI).[5] In 1955, Air Force personnel began IBM training at the Kingston, New York, prototype facility,[6] and the "4620th Air Defense Wing (experimental SAGE) was established at Lincoln Laboratory"—its "primary mission was computer programming".[7]

ESS had a capacity of 48 tracks and used a pre-SAGE ground environment in a "prototype intercept monitor room [at] MIT's Barta building" with "track situation displays, which geographically showed Air Defense Identification Zone lines and antiaircraft circles [and] each console also had a 5-inch CRT for digital information display. Audible alert signals were used, with a different signal for each symbol on a situation display."

Radar stations

Initial service test models of the Burroughs AN/FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitting Set were placed with radars at South Truro and West Bath, Maine; followed by Texas Tower#2 (TT2) in the Atlantic Ocean, which provided a "triangular pattern with overlap" radar coverage[8] (TT2 later had a connection from the XD-1 via the GE G/A Data Link Output Subsystem through North Truro Air Force Station.)[9] By August 1955, 13 radar stations were networked by the subsector, e.g.:

Required by 21 November 1955 were 44 consoles: 38 for the operations floor, 3 on the computer floor for display maintenance, and 3 near the maintenance console (program checkout).[20] WWI was connected to the Experimental SAGE Subsector to verify crosstelling (collateral communication) with the ESS DC, and WWI was also used for a Ground-to-Air (G/A) experiment using a transmitter of the GE G/A Data Link Output Subsystem on Prospect Hill, Waltham, MA sending data to simulated airborne equipment at Lexington. Transmissions from the WWI SAGE Evaluation (WISE) computer system to XD-1 and back were without error by December 1955 when operational software specifications were frozen.[21] Operating procedures for the ESS external sites were complete in March 1956,[22] and

System Operation Testing

From November 15, 1955, to November 7, 1956, three System Operation Tests were conducted which used voice "Ground-to-Air" communication from the Barta control room to aircraft outfitted with SAGE receivers[23] (F-86 interceptors modified to F-86L models in "Project FOLLOW-ON".) Test teams included employees of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Western Electric-ADES, IBM, the RAND Corporation, and Lincoln Labs' Division 6, Division 3, & Division 2 (Division 6 had been created for ESS support.)[24]

The North Truro P-10 AN/FST-2 was moved to Almaden Air Force Station (M-96)[25] and on August 7, 1958, control of an airborne BOMARC missile that had malfunctioned transferred from the "Experimental SAGE Sector" to a Westinghouse AN/GPA-35 Ground Environment system and the missile crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.[26] By December 31, 1958, ADC Manual 55-28 described the Model 3 SAGE System.[27]

1959 Experimental Testing

"To prove out the revised SAGE computer program" for Automatic Targeting and Battery Evaluation and ADDC-AADCP crosstelling, a "SAGE/Missile Master" test was conducted beginning in September 1959 with communications between the ESS XD-1 and Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System equipment at Fort Banks[28] planned for the CONAD Joint Control Center at Fort Heath[29]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Data Reliability of Three Bell A1 Magnetic Tape Recording Systems . https://web.archive.org/web/20150103070657/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD0419183 . dead . January 3, 2015 . Defense Technical Information Center . 2015-05-18.
  2. 1958 . January–June.
  3. Book: Wildes . Karl L. . Lindgren . Nilo A. . 1985 . 1986 . A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982 . MIT Press . registration . 299 . 2014-08-07 . The first experimental subsector was a square approximately 400 nautical miles on a side and centered at Sourh Truro, Massachusetts. A new building was constructed at Lincoln Laboratory to house the XD-1 computer [which] was received from IBM in January. 9780262231190 .
  4. Web site: Introduction . Ed-Thelen.org. (p. 7)
  5. Web site: 1998 . Vigilance and Vacuum Tubes: The SAGE System 1956-63 . SAGE Talk Transcript . Ed-Thelen.org . 2013-02-16 . the Whirlwind computer, which was a digital version of the ASCA, was about five million dollars, in dollars … For the 1949 fiscal year, MIT requested 1.5 million dollars for the Whirlwind project. … one [SAGE computer] was at Lincoln Lab, …the XD-1, and the other one was at Kingston, the XD-2. So we used both those sites for development. … The XD-1 was a simplex system…not duplex … the original vacuum-tube computers—the last one was finally taken down in 1983, still operating. … IBM got…about 500 million dollars…to build the 56 computers..
  6. Edwards . Benj . January 24, 2013 . …World's First Computer Art… . . 2013-02-16 .
  7. Schaffel . Kenneth . 1991 . Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960 . . General Histories . . 0-912799-60-9 . 283 (pdf) . 2011-09-26 .
  8. https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/40551/MC665_r15_M-3832.pdf?sequence=1 |quote=ADES JPO initial Burroughs service test models of FST-2…would be placed at South Truro and Bath, respectively, in order to have an operational experimental subsector containing two heavy radars by 1 April 1956 [and] the third FST-2 on Texas Tower #2 [for] a triangular pattern providing overlap. XD-1 display system External Environment of XD-1…XD-1 Direction Center
  9. synopsis (MC665_r14_6M-3797.pdf) . Biweekly Report For Period Ending 23 March 1956 . Lincoln Laboratory Division 6 . Memorandum 6M-4263 . 2014-08-02.
  10. Web site: Display site. radomes.org. 2015-05-18.
  11. Web site: Pinetree Line Miscellaneous - Radar Equipment. 67.69.104.76:84. 2015-05-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20140815204636/http://67.69.104.76:84/Pinetreeline/misc/equip/misc12aa.html. 2014-08-15. dead.
  12. Web site: Download Mozilla Firefox Optimized for Yahoo. northamericanforts.com. 2015-05-18.
  13. Web site: Download Mozilla Firefox Optimized for Yahoo. northamericanforts.com. 2015-05-18.
  14. https://archive.today/20140806141358/http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/abandoned-radar-site-13.kml
  15. Web site: Recent photos of Scituate (MA) Experimental SAGE Subsector (ESS) Radar Site. radomes.org. 2015-05-18.
  16. Web site: MITRE Radar Test Sites South Truro, Cape Cod, MA; Jug Handle Hill, West Bath, ME; Montauk LI, NY. radomes.org. 2015-05-18.
  17. Web site: West Bath MITRE AN/FPS-31 Radar Test Site. wikimapia.org. 2015-05-18.
  18. Web site: MIT Lincoln Laboratory: History: SAGE Radars (part 3). ll.mit.edu. 2015-05-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20130312152819/http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/earlywarningradars3.html. 2013-03-12. dead.
  19. Web site: Bath Independent, May 10, 1956. 10 May 1956. newspaperarchive.com. 2015-05-18.
  20. Web site: http://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/40520/MC665_r15_M-3857.pdf?sequence=1. dome.mit.edu. 2015-05-18.
  21. Book: Johnson, Stephen B. . The United States Air Force and the culture of innovation 1945-1965 . Google Books . Air Force History Support Office . 159 . 9781428990272 .
  22. Memorandum 6M-4071 "Requirements for Operating Procedures for External Sites in the Experimental SAGE Subsector (ESS)" by M. DiCarlo-Cottone. (cited by Lincoln memo 6M-3797)
  23. Book: From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer. MIT Press. 9780262264266. 374. 2015-05-18. 2000-10-10.
  24. Book: The United States Air Force and the culture of innovation 1945-1965. Stephen B. Johnson. DIANE Publishing. 9781428990272. 151. 2015-05-18.
  25. Cite NORAD Historical Summary |year=1956-7 |quote=Project FOLLOW-ON provided the third improved model -the F-86L --which was an F-86D with modernized electronic gear and wings with slatted leading edges. … Project FOLLOW-ON was to make the F-86D compatible with the new [pre-SAGE] AN/GPA-37. … Eleven squadrons were meeting Project FOLLOW-ON schedules by 30 June 1957.
  26. McMullen . R. F. . 15 Feb 1980 . History of Air Defense Weapons 1946–1962 . ADC Historical Study No. 14 . Historical Division, Office of information, HQ ADC . 312 .
  27. http://www.airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/461/733.xml |quote=SAGE SYSTEM DESCRIPTION, MODEL 3, ADCM 55-28 COMPLETED AND PUBLISHED
  28. Cite NORAD Historical Summary |year=1958 |period=July–December
  29. Web site: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/4298/bab9742.0001.001.pdf?sequence=5. deepblue.lib.umich.edu. 2015-05-18.
  30. lst Ind, (ADC to CONAD, "Site Adaptation Plans for CONAD Joint Direction Centers,"22 Oct 1957), CINCNORAD to C/S USAF, 1 Nov 1957 [cited by the NORAD Historical Summary for 1957 July–December)</ref>—a "SAGE ATABE Simulation Study" (SASS) was also completed 1959–60 by [[MITRE Corporation]].[29]

    References

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