Aerospace Defense Command - Overview

Overview

The mission of air defense is a major foundation of the United States Air Force. In 1916, Alexander Graham Bell warned about the possibility of airship raids on the United States. For the next 25 years, experts studied the problem of air defense and lay the foundation for the future.

The War Department established an "Air Defense Command" as part of the Army Air Corps on 26 February 1940. This command, operating under the control of the United States First Army Commander from 2 March 1940, to 9 September 1941, engaged in planning for air defense of the Continental United States.

Before the United States entered World War II, air defense was divided among the four GHQ Air Force districts later, First, Second, Third, and Fourth Air Forces based in the United States. Initially, there was a sizeable effort to defend the country from aerial attack. In mid-1944, when the threat of air attack seemed negligible, this air defense organization was disbanded.

Subsequently, no real air defense organization existed until the second Air Defense Command was established in 1946 as a major command of the Army Air Forces (AAF). However political issues within the Pentagon were not to be overlooked. There was concern within the Air Force that funds to create an "impenetrable air defense" would be obtained by siphoning money away from Strategic Air Command's mission of nuclear deterrence. Apart from the intramural disputes, The Air Force battles with the Army over control of Surface-to-Air missiles and other issues were particularly intense.

The initial mission of Air Defense Command was to stop a handful of conventionally armed piston engine-powered bombers on a one-way mission, flying a predictable course. The threat swiftly grew to the prospect of an attack by hundreds of turboprop and jet bombers armed with thermonuclear weapons and attacking from different directions. Meeting such a threat required the creation of a huge system. It consumed billions of dollars. It required leadership, foresight, and brilliant science.

In the early 1960s, however, aircraft air defense was overtaken by events, as USAF shifted its emphasis away from intercepting bombers and toward the detection of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)s. Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, concluded that the ICBM problem was so overwhelming that it rendered relatively inconsequential the threat of Soviet bomber attack. With the rise of the ICBM, emphasis on air defense against bombers went into a sharp decline. Air Defense Command was redesignated as Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM) in 1968 to reflect that fundamental mission change.

The Aerospace Defense Command declined after 1979 when its resources were divided between Tactical Air Command and Strategic Air Command. Under TAC, the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve gradually assumed more and more of the air defense mission. In 1980, ADCOM was inactivated. Some functions of the command passed to the Aerospace Defense Center, a direct reporting unit assigned to Headquarters, NORAD that inactivated on 1 October 1986.

Today, ADC's proud heritage is maintained by NORAD, Air Combat Command, the Air National Guard, and the Air Force Reserve.