NORAD Beefs Up Capabilities to Monitor Domestic Air Traffic

(Old) NORAD Opcenter Buried deep beneath Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has monitored the skies above North America for more than 50 years. During the height of the Cold War, NORAD was the US and Canada’s early warning system for a Soviet 1st nuclear strike. Following 9/11, NORAD moved to improve its ability to detect and monitor aircraft originating from within the US and Canada. One of those efforts, funded by the US Air Force, is development of the Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F). BCS-F integrates data from civil air traffic sensors, as well as airborne, ground and naval sensors, into an integrated air picture that allows commanders to better monitor the North American airspace. BCS-F prime contractor ThalesRaytheonSystems in Fullerton, CA recently received an $8 million contract (FA8722-10-C-0001) to provide interim support for the program… The BCS-F has command and control nodes at NORAD posts in Alaska, New York state, Washington state, Hawaii, and Canada. Among other things, BCS is designed to help detect off-course aircraft like the ones that struck the World Trade Center in 2001. Using high-speed servers that correlate data from radar and flight control sources, BCS is intended to deliver […]