Joint War Room

The National Military Command Center (NMCC) is a Pentagon command and communications center for the National Command Authority (i.e., the President of the United States and the United States Secretary of Defense). Maintained by the United States Air Force as the "DoD Executive Agent" for NMCC logistical, budgetary, facility and systems support; the NMCC operators are in the Joint Staff's J-3 (Operations) Directorate. "The NMCC is responsible for generating Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) to launch control centers, nuclear submarines, recon aircraft and battlefield commanders".

Description
The NMCC includes several war rooms, uses more than 300 operational personnel, and has the U.S. end of the 1963 Moscow–Washington hotline. Data into the NMCC includes warning "on the size, origin, and targeting of an attack" (e.g., from the NORAD/NORTHCOM Command Center). The NMCC's Crisis Management Automated Data Processing Systems are under control of the J-3 Command Systems Operations Division.

History
World War II Pentagon construction allowed a central military installation for the Navy and War Departments to communicate with theater commands, and CONUS air defense was based on warning data compiled by local Aircraft Warning Corps information centers for processing GOC observations and radar tracks to coordinate ground-controlled interception (cf. Battle of Los Angeles). As requested by Gen. Spaatz, a fall 1947 AAF "war room" was establishment in the Pentagon ("operational early in 1948"). Strategic Air Command began using the telephonic Army Command and Administrative Net (ACAN) in 1946 until switching to the 1949 USAF AIRCOMNET "command teletype network" (the independent Strategic Operational Control System (SOCS) with telephones and teletype was "fully installed by 1 May 1950".)

1950 Air Force Command Post
The Air Force Command Post (AFCP) was "hastily set up" on June 25, 1950, to replace the 1948 war room when the Korean War began. On the Pentagon's floor, the AFCP served "as a reception point for radio messages between [General] Vandenberg and his FEAF commanders during Air Staff after-duty hours." After a direct telephone line was installed in mid-July 1950 between CONAC headquarters and the 26th Air Division HQ ("the beginning of the Air Force air raid warning system"); in August "President Truman had a direct telephone line installed between the Air Force Pentagon post and the White House."

Moved to a "more permanent" Pentagon facility in early 1951, the 2nd AFCP location had "a communications center [and] war room, which prepared status displays" (an "Emergency Air Staff Actions Office [was] incorporated into the command post early in 1952"). Alternate AFCP sites in 1951 were at Langley AFB (primary) and Maxwell AFB (secondary). Radar tracks from the 1952 Permanent System radar stations relayed to the Air Defense Command command center at Ent AFB, Colorado, would be assessed; and suspicion or confirmation of attack would be relayed to the AFCP and SAC headquarters. The "Pentagon would pass the warning to the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the JCS"; and the SOCS allowed "relay [of] their orders to the combat forces".

1953 JCS annex
An annex established c. 1952-3 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff was "operated by the Air Force as an adjunct to the AFCP" and received reports from Joint Coordination Centers in Buckinghamshire, England, and Pershing Heights, Tokyo. After ADC built a new Ent AFB blockhouse in 1954, the 1957 NORAD collocated operations in the Ent command center (later into the 1963 Chidlaw Building and in 1966, Cheyenne Mountain). In 1955 the National Security Council designated the AFCP as the "national air defense warning center", and planning for the end of the decade was for expanded SAC command and control. The GOR for the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS, Electronic Systems Division 465L System) was published on February 11, 1958; SAC's QOR for the National Survivable Communications System (NSCS) was issued September 13, 1958; and in September 1960 the "installation of a SAC display warning system" included 3 consoles in SAC's underground center at Offutt AFB (cf. 1958 Bare Mountain bunker.) The AFCP was connected to the Alert Network Number 1 on July 1, 1958, as 1 of 29 transmit/receive stations.

1960 Joint War Room
The Joint War Room (JWR) activated in 1960 had been started in August 1959 during the SAGE deployment (in December 1960, the AFCP reverted to a USAF mission when its "joint and national responsibilities" ended.)  The September 1960 Winter Study Group and the October 1960 WSEG Report 50 recommended "interlocking the various fixed command posts" into a "coupled command system" with mobile centers and a "bomb alarm system". The subsequent National Defense Communications Control Center (NDCCC) opened on March 6, 1961 as part of the National Communications System (NCS) framework "encompassing all federal assets" including approximately "79 major relay stations scattered around the globe" (cf. the NORAD CMC's 427M NCS). (the Final Report of the National Command and Control Task Force (Partridge Report) "was completed on 14 November 1961.) Development of the USAF's "separate, austere Post-Attack Command and Control System (PACCS)" began in July 1961 and in 1962, "the SACCS was expanded to become" the Worldwide Military Command and Control System (WWMCCS).

1962 NMCC
The NMCC was begun in early 1962 (opened early October) when the JCS area with the Joint War Room was expanded from ~7000 sqft to ~21000 sqft by 1965 (the Pentagon's "Navy Flag Plot" coordinated the Cuban Missile Crisis blockade.) The NMCC was initially considered an "interim" location until the Deep Underground Command Center (DUCC) could be completed below the Pentagon (never built). The NMCC had "direct communications with MACV headquarters in Saigon" during the Vietnam War.

1972 upgrade
The WWMCCS "ADP upgrade program" included 1972 computer installations (e.g., 2 COC "Data Net 355 computers") and c. mid-1972, additional NMCC expansion enlarged it to ~30000 sqft and included the Joint Operational Reporting (JOPREP) system. In 1977, the NMCC was 1 of 6 initial sites of the WWMCCS Intercomputer Network (WIN) developed from a 1971-7 experimental program with testing and use by the JCS. The Command Center Processing and Display System (CCPDS) replaced NMCC UNIVAC 1106 computers c. 1977 with "dedicated UNIVAC 1100/42 computers" for console and large screen displays. By 1981 as part of the WWMCCS Information System (WIS), the NMCC received data "directly from the Satellite Early Warning System (SEWS) and directly from the PAVE PAWS sensor systems".

The NMCC at 38.87111°N, -77.05556°W (tbd side of the Pentagon) coordinated responses to the 2001 September 11 attacks (AA Flt 77 struck the west side) and other events. By 2008, the NMCC had the NMCC Alert Center for intelligence fusion in the National Operations and Intelligence Watch Officer Network.

Cultural references

 * Movies portraying the Pentagon war room include the Fail-Safe (1964 film) and 1964 Dr. Strangelove ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!".)