Semi-Automatic Ground Environment - Deployment

Deployment

A massive building program started along with continued work on the computer systems and communications, with the first groundbreaking at McChord AFB in 1957. The buildings were huge above-ground concrete bricks that were often placed near cities without the residents being aware of what they were. The first SAGE Division became operational in Syracuse, New York in January 1959, and by 1963 the system was already complete with 22 Sector Direction Centers and three similar Combat Centers. When NORAD was set up another site was added at CFB North Bay in Canada, although in this case the entire SAGE system was buried approximately 700 feet (210 m) underground in what became known as "the hole".

The total engineering effort for SAGE was immense. Total project cost remains unknown, but estimates place it between 8 and 12 billion 1964 dollars (60–90 billion 2011 dollars), more than the Manhattan Project that developed the nuclear bomb that SAGE defended against.

The SAGE system was operational until 1983, when it was replaced by newer systems and airborne control. The North Bay system ran until 1983 when it was dismantled and sent to The Computer Museum in Boston. In 1996 the remainder was moved to Moffett Federal Airfield for storage and is now in the collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

Questions about the ability of the SAGE system to actually handle a "hot war" situation were continuous. On one occasion SAC was able to penetrate the defenses, and on other occasions huge flocks of seabirds were tracked as a potential bomber attack. A more serious problem was that by the time the system was fully operational, the USSR had already started deploying ICBMs, making SAGE largely useless. However, beginning in the early 1960s SAGE technology was successfully adapted to civilian Air Traffic Control in the US and elsewhere. Until very recently Air Traffic Control Centers strongly resembled SAGE centers in their architecture, equipment and operation.

To protect against the possibility of SAGE sites being disabled and possibly rendering the defense impotent, the Air Force also developed the Back Up Interceptor Control System (BUIC), a sort of mini-SAGE located at some of the radar sites that normally fed the SAGE system.

In peacetime SAGE was, for all intents, an air traffic control system and it influenced the design of the FAA's automated control systems. The system also gave IBM valuable insight, and it was not long after that the CEO of American Airlines met one of the IBM people involved in SAGE by accident on a flight, and soon the two companies were developing the SABRE airline reservation system.

Other major SAGE developments included:

• CRT-based real-time user interface
• use of wide-area communications via modems
• The installation, operation, and logistic support of over 100 long range radar stations located throughout the US as part of the Air Defense Command