NORAD

Question 1

NORTHCOM MISSION

Answer 1

conduct homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests.

USNORTHCOM’s AOR includes air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. It also includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, portions of the Caribbean region to include The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The commander of USNORTHCOM is responsible for theater security cooperation with Canada, Mexico, and The Bahamas.

Question 2

US NORTHCOM HQ

Answer 2

USNORTHCOM’s headquarters located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Question 3

NORAD

Answer 3

The commander of USNORTHCOM also commands the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a bi-national command responsible for air & space warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning for Canada (CANR) , Alaska (ANR) and the continental United States (CONR).

Question 4

CONR

Answer 4

HQ at Tyndall AFB

CONR is divided into two sectors; the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) is located at McChord AFB, Washington, and the Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) is located at Rome, New York (the former Griffiss AFB).

The commander of CONR is also the commander of 1st Air Force.

The F-16 is the primary fighter used by CONR

Lead Agency for ONE

Question 5

ANR

Answer 5

11th Air Forces / Royal Canadian AF / AF Res

Alaskan Region Air Operations Center (RAOC) at Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage, Alaska.

The RAOC controls F-15 and F-22 fighters based at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.

Question 6

CANR

Answer 6

HQ - CFB Winnipeg

Canada East Sector and the Canada West Sector. Both Sector Operations Control Centers (SOCCs) are co-located at CFB North Bay, Ontario.

CF - 18s

Question 7

NORAD Crews

Answer 7

BATTLE STAFF (BC and MCC)

WEAPONS (SD and AWO / WD)

SURVEILLANCE (ASO AST / TT) TT performs the most fundamental job accomplished by NORAD: detecting aircraft within the air defense identification zone (ADIZ)

IDENTIFICARION (IDT)

INTERACE CONTROL (ICO - optasklink / ICT - LINK MX)

Question 8

NORAD Sensors

Answer 8

the ARSR-4 in the continental United States (CONUS) and the AN/FPS-117 in Alaska & Canada

Question 9

NORAD Sensor Design Requirements

Answer 9

Air Force was chiefly concerned with detecting cruise missiles in a jamming environment

FAA wanted an easy-to-use system that would keep airliners from flying into each other

both organizations wanted to extend the radar display from the traditional 200 nm to 250 nm

AUTONOMOUS - radar would have to function 24 hours a day, 365 days a year without on-site support

Question 10

NORAD Sensor AF Design

Answer 10

reduced sidelobes, enhanced sensitivity, and height accuracy

Question 11

NORAD Sensor FAA Design

Answer 11

azimuth accuracy and resolution, reduced false alarms, and detection of civil traffic even in heavy precipitation

Question 12

ARSR - 4 Bid

Answer 12

retrofitted to the existing FPS-6 towers; the unit price was just $7 million

Question 13

AN/FPS-117 Bid

Answer 13

too expensive at $29 million each. A big part of the cost came from the mass of the FPS-117; each would require the construction of a new tower to support the heavy planar array antenna.

Question 14

ARSR-4 Antenna

Answer 14

hybrid antenna consists of a conventional parabolic reflector, fed by an array of transistors instead of the traditional feed horn. It combines the virtues of the orthodox reflector (light weight, low cost) with those of the planar array (flexible beam shaping and low sidelobes) while eliminating most of their vices. It is called an array-fed aperture.

BW - 1.4°

Antenna polarity can be vertical (DFLT) or circular radar detects rain above a fixed threshold, circular polarity is automatically chosen in sectors of 11.25º. Additionally, the polarity can be manually selected in order to counter some forms of jamming.

5 rpm for a 12-second sweep

High Beam / Low Beam / Look Down Beam (A/R)

Question 15

ARSR-4 X-MIT

Answer 15

600 microwave transistors operating in the L-band

two different pulses in every cycle. The ARSR-4 transmits an 88 μsec pulse followed by a 58 μsec pulse 2 μsec later

FREQ AGILE fixed, batch-to-batch JATS-agile, batch-to-batch pseudorandom agile, pulse-to-pulse JATS, or pulse-to-pulse pseudorandom

JATS (DFLT)

Pseudorandom can be chosen for the harshest jamming environments.

Pulse-to-pulse frequency agility inhibits Doppler processing, resulting in a clutter-laden display

Question 16

ARSR-4 Receiver

Answer 16

The ARSR-4 can detect a 0.1 target (cruise missile or 1st generation stealth aircraft) at 92 miles, and a 1.0 target at 165 miles.

The receiver uses advanced pulse compression techniques to reduce the 88 and 58 μsec pulses to 1.4 μsec. This represents a range resolution of 1/8 mile.

Bird Flock Eval - range rate less than 12 knots (equally adept at eliminating sea clutter while still processing low aspect, low RCS targets such as cruise missiles)

Incoming target echoes are divided into nine channels based on their vertical angle of incidence +/- 3000 @ 175 miles

Question 17

ARSR-4 WX Station

Answer 17

the ARSR-4 continuously calculates the refractive index based on inputs from an automated miniature weather station co-located with the radar

measures temperature, dew point, and barometric pressure for its own use, automatically updating target height calculations with real-time data

Question 18

ARSR-4 IFF

Answer 18

ATCBI-6 is fully compatible with legacy Mark XII IFF systems, but adds a complete Mode S capability

USAF (MODES 2/3/C/(ADS M4))

FAA (MODES 3/C/S)

Question 19

AN/FPS-117

Answer 19

PLANAR ARRAY / VERTICAl POLARITY / 5RPM / 12 OVERLAPPING PENCIL BEAMS indvidually steered in EL / +/- 3000 at 100NM / L-BAND / Receiver is Solid State MTBF 1500 hours / BW 1.1° / 1.0 m²target at 160 miles / Mark XII (Modes 1,2,3,C, & 4)

Question 20

AN/FPS-124

Answer 20

unattended short range radar that fills in the gaps between certain FPS-117 radar sites in Alaska and far north Canada

L-Band

AESA

6 month MX cycle

Question 21

SWR503 Mk2

Answer 21

Raytheon Canada Limited. This is a surface wave radar used to detect boats and ships at ranges out to 200 miles from shore. It is a vertically polarized system operating below 20MHz

Question 22

DEFCONS

Answer 22

SET by NCAs of US and CAN

DEFCONS are directive in nature. They tell military commanders how to allocate their forces. (1 to 5 wartime to peacetime)

DEFCON 1 = Cocked Pistol

DEFCON 2 = Fast Pace

DEFCON 3 = Round House

DEFCON 4 = Double Take

DEFCON 5 = Fade Out

Question 23

LERTCONS

Answer 23

Alert Conditions (LERTCONS) represent NORAD’s intelligence estimate of the likelihood of an attack

Air Defense Warning Red = Apple Jack (an attack is imminent or taking place)

Air Defense Warning Yellow = Lemon Juice (an attack on the US or Canada is likely)

Air Defense Warning White = Snowman (an attack on the US or Canada is not likely)

Question 24

EMERCONS

Answer 24

Air Defense Emergency (BIG NOISE) is declared by CINC NORAD to inform the NCA, as well as subordinate commanders, that the US or Canada is under attack.

Defense Emergency (HOT BOX) is declared by certain overseas commanders (designated by the NCA), indicating that his or her forces are under attack

Question 25

Weapons Readiness States

Answer 25

• Weapons Free: Air Defense Artillery (ADA) may fire at any target not positively identified as friendly.
• Weapons Tight: ADA may be fire only at target(s) recognized as hostile.
• Weapons Hold: ADA may fire only in self-defense or in response to a formal order.

Question 26

Aircrew Alert States

Answer 26

Alert: Aircrews will be able to become airborne within the time specified by operational command directives.

Battle Stations: Aircrews will be in the aircraft, ready to start engines and take off in the minimum practical time.

Runway Alert: Aircrews will be on or near the runway with engines running, ready for immediate take off.

“Scramble” simply executes the alert

“Mandatory Scramble” requiring the aircrew to take off regardless of the hazard

**airborne orders **give the aircrew more warning and more control over their launch

flush. This tells all available aircrew to report to their aircraft immediately and take off as soon as possible. This is a survival effort to get jets off the runway and out of the way of an attack or natural disaster.