View source for Strategic Automated Command and Control System

{{Redirect|SACCS|other uses|Strategic Air Command Control System}}
{{confusing|date=May 2016}}
[[File:Command Data Buffer configuration.png|thumb|250px|[[Command Data Buffer]] configuration in 1991, including part of the SACCS Replacement Keyboard (SRK), Line Printer Unit (LPU) and associated equipment rack (right edge of photo) in an underground [[missile launch facility]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}]]

The '''Strategic Automated Command and Control System''' ('''SACCS''') is a [[United States Strategic Command]] command and control system for [[intercontinental ballistic missiles]], nuclear-armed long-range bombers, and [[ballistic missile submarine]]s.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

==Background==
The [[ITT 465L Strategic Air Command Control System]] (SACCS) with its [[IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing System]]s attained operational capability on January 1, 1968. On October 6, 1975, it began to be replaced, when the SACCS original [[IBM 4020]] Military Computers were replaced by [[Honeywell 6080]] computers (remaining FSQ-31 components were entirely decommissioned in November.){{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}  The [[Strategic Air Command Digital Information Network]] was deployed to replace SACCS' "Data Transmission Subsystem and part of the Data Display Subsystem",<!--quotation from SACDIN article--><ref>	"Histories of Subordinate Units Reporting Directly to the Strategic Communications Division", 1 January - 31 December 1982, Vol 4 of 41	</ref> e.g., on November 5, 1986, "[[Martin Marietta Corporation]] technicians began installing SAC Digital Network (SACDIN) equipment in [[91st Strategic Missile Wing]] missile launch control centers<ref name=Clark>{{cite report |last=Clark |first=Major Rita F |date=1 May 1990 |title=SAC Missile Chronology 1939–1988 |url=http://www.siloworld.net/SAC/SAC%20Missile%20Chronology-6-4.pdf |publisher=Office of the Historian, HQ. SAC, Offutt AFB |accessdate=2013-09-26 |quote=1958…1 January Headquarters SAC established the Office of Assistant CINCSAC ([[SAC MIKE]]) at Inglewood, California. This position was designated to serve as an extension of Headquarters SAC and was responsible for working closely with the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division … 1966…17 April The first attempted launch of a Minuteman II ICBM by means of the [[Airborne Launch Control System]] (ALCS)}}</ref> (i.e., either a [[Hard User Terminal Element|HUTE]] rack or [[Missile Base Communications Processor|MBCP]] rack).{{r|TO21M}}   On February 20, 1987, "SAC declared initial operational capability for the [[SAC Digital Network]] when [it] operated successfully between the Headquarters SAC Command Center and the [[55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing]] Command Post, both located at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, and the [[351st Strategic Missile Wing]] Command Post at [[Whiteman AFB]], Missouri."{{r|Clark}}  SACDIN eventually "linked 135 locations and permitted two-way message communications with ICBM launch control centers for the first time,"{{r|Clark}} and the [[Ground Wave Emergency Network]] communication system had a Final Environmental Impact Statement issued in September 1987.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2046&page=11|title=Introduction {{!}} Assessment of the Possible Health Effects of Ground Wave Emergency Network {{!}} The National Academies Press|year=1993|doi=10.17226/2046|pmid=24967486|isbn=978-0-309-04777-7}}</ref>

==SAC Automated Command and Control System==
Strategic Air Command was disestablished in the early 1990s.

Despite the command's inactivation, the [[SAC Automated Command and Control System]]<ref>{{Cite report |last=Hutzler |first=Patricia L. |date=April 1990 |title=Defense Planning and Programming Categories: A Special Tool for Special Needs |number=Report FP802R1 |volume=3. Appendix E, Proposed Expanded DPPC Structure |url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a230860.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518190528/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a230860.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=May 18, 2014 |publisher=Logistics Management Institute |accessdate=2014-05-18}}</ref> continued using that name for several years. The former SAC C<sup>2</sup> system formed part of "[[United States Strategic Command|USSTRATCOM]] Command and Control" ([[Program Element|PE]] 0101316F)(except for the SACCS Data Processing System) .<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/nucwcost/definitions/010131606.htm|title=0101316F USSTRATCOM Command and Control|website=www.brookings.edu|access-date=2016-05-26|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061932/http://www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/nucwcost/definitions/010131606.htm|archivedate=2016-03-04}}</ref> 

The USSTRATCOM SACCS was later redesignated Strategic Automated Command and Control System with the same acronym.

By 1995, the [[Emergency War Order]] communication systems "..consist[ed] of the primary alert system (PAS), SAC digital network (SACDIN), [[Survivable Low Frequency Communications System]] (SLFCS), [[Air Force Satellite Communications]] System (AFSATCOM), [ICBM] Super High Frequency Satellite Terminal (ISST) and [UHF] voice radio communication systems."<ref name="TO21M">{{Citation|title=title tbd (Section I: Communications Systems Description)|date=November 1995|url=http://oscarzero.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/t-o-21m-lgm30f-1-22-21-nov-1995-section-1.pdf|number=T.O. 21M-LGM30F-1-22|quote=The single SACDIN cabinet at PLCCs is the communications processor set (HUTE rack). … SAC Digital Network System|format=[[Technical Order]]|accessdate=2014-05-12}}</ref> By 2011, the [[Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network]] was being modernized in the [[Nuclear Command and Control System]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2013/AirForce/stamped/0303131F_7_PB_2013.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518204855/http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2013/AirForce/stamped/0303131F_7_PB_2013.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-05-18|title=Article title}}</ref>  By February 2012, USSTRATCOM was using the [[Integrated Strategic Planning and Analysis Network]] (ISPAN), and the USSTRATCOM Replacement Facility Fit-Out (PE 0303255F) was to "include secure HEMP-Shielded Command and Control Center, mainframe computer data centers, multiple 24/7 mission operations centers, storage and maintenance areas, labs/workrooms, back-up generators, Uninterruptible Power Source, Technical Control Facility, Fiber Ring, [with funding] beginning in FY13."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120207-054.pdf |title=Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 President's Budget Submission |accessdate=2014-05-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141127022937/http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120207-054.pdf |archivedate=2014-11-27 }}</ref>

==Age of system and planned replacement==
A [[Government Accountability Office]] report on aging and outdated "legacy systems" used by the federal government published in 2016 noted that the SACCS was one of the oldest federal [[information technology|IT]] investments, running on 1970s-era [[IBM Series/1]] software and [[8-inch floppy disk]]s.<ref name="GAO-16-696T">David A. Powner, GAO-16-696T, [http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/677454.pdf Information Technology: Federal Agencies Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems], [[Government Accountability Office]] (testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives (May 25, 2016).</ref> The report noted that the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] "plans to update its data storage solutions, port expansion processors, portable terminals, and desktop terminals by the end of fiscal year 2017."<ref name="GAO-16-696T"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{citation|title=Private Line Data Systems: Special Data Networks|date=July 1965|url=http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/bsps/by-division-number/signaling-testing/doc_view/7980-314-411-504-i3|number=314-411-504 (SACCS Description and Service Maintenance section)|series=Plant Series|publisher=[[American Telephone and Telegraph Company]]|accessdate=2014-05-12|section=Strategic Air Command Control System (SACCS): Description and Service Maintenance}}

{{USAF system codes}}

[[Category:Equipment of Strategic Air Command]]
[[Category:Computer systems of the United States Air Force]]
[[Category:United States nuclear command and control]]