What was a USAF launch complex during the state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc?
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Niagara Falls Air Force Missile Site The Niagara Falls Air Force Missile Site was a Cold War USAF launch complex for Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc surface-to-air missiles. Equipped only IM-99Bs (46 missiles: solid-state, solid-fuel booster), the site had 48 Model IV "coffin" shelters, after an initial design with a secure area of ~20 acre to have 28 shelters (the planned site had additional area for 84 "future shelters"). Launch control for the site's missiles was by central NY's "Hancock Field combined direction-combat center" (CC-01/DC-03) at Syracuse, New York. DC-03 was operational on December 1, 1958; (CC-01 was the "first SAGE regional battle post", beginning operations "in early 1959".)
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Cold War The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed.
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Bamboo Curtain The Bamboo Curtain was the Cold War political demarcation between the Communist states of East Asia, particularly the People's Republic of China, and the capitalist and non-Communist states of the region. To the north/northwest lay Communist China, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and others. To the south and east lay capitalist/non-Communist India, Japan, Indonesia, and others. In particular, following the Korean War, the Korean Demilitarized Zone became an important symbol of this Asian division (though the term "Bamboo Curtain" itself is rarely used in that specific context).
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Russian Alsos The Soviet Alsos or the Russian Alsos was an operation that took place during 19451946 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and whose objectives were the exploitation of German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, materiel resources, and scientific personnel for the benefit of the Soviet atomic bomb project.
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Wings Over Europe Wings Over Europe is a PC game (Combat / Flight Simulator) set during the Cold War era where the USSR has attacked NATO forces in West Germany and thus turned it into a ‘hot war’.
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Slovak Air Force (1939–45) The Slovak Air Force ("Slovenské vzdušné zbrane", or SVZ), between 1939 and 1945, was the air force of the short-lived World War II Slovak Republic. Its mission was to provide air support at fronts, and to protect Bratislava and metropolitan areas against enemy air strikes. These units supported Axis Powers offensives in Ukraine and Russian Central front under the lead of Luftwaffe in the Stalingrad and Caucasus operations.
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Vandenberg AFB Launch Complex 576A Launch Complex 576A, also known as Area 576, is a group of rocket launch pads at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The pads at the complex were used from 1959 until 1971 to launch SM-65 Atlas missiles. The site was also known as Complex ABRES. Pads in Area 576A include 576-A-1,2,3
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Class A airfield Class A airfields were World War II military installations constructed to specifications laid down by the British Air Ministry Directorate-General of Works (AMDGW). Intended for use by heavy bombers and transports, they were the standard air base design for the Royal Air Force as well as U.S. Army Air Forces units operating from the UK.
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NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment of Russia, China, and, historically, the former Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manner in place of the original designations, which either may have been unknown to the Western world at the time or easily confused codes. For example, the Russian bomber jet Tupolev Tu-160 is simply called Blackjack.
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French Forces in Berlin The French Forces in Berlin (French: "Forces Françaises à Berlin" ) were the units of the French Armed Forces stationed in Cold War-era West Berlin according to the agreements of the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference. The troops were the French counterparts to the United States' Berlin Brigade and the United Kingdom's Berlin Infantry Brigade in the city.
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Military liaison missions The military liaison missions arose from reciprocal agreements formed between the Western allied nations (the US, the UK and France) and the USSR shortly after the end of the Second World War. The missions were active from 1946 until 1990.
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Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 Site 43, also known as SK-3 and SK-4, is a launch complex at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. It consists of a two pads, Sites 43/3 and 43/4, and has been used by R-7 derived rockets since the early 1960s.
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V-2 rocket facilities of World War II V-2 rocket facilities were military installations associated with Nazi Germany's V-2 SRBM ballistic missile, including bunkers and small launch pads which were never operationally used.
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White Sands Launch Complex 36 White Sands Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) is a site at White Sands Missile Range used for launches of the Black Brant IX and Black Brant 9CM1. It was also used from May 1964 and January 1966 to launch the Little Joe 2 rocket for the Apollo Program.
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Maginot Barracks Maginot Barracks (French: "Caserne Maginot" ) in Verdun, France, is located near the west end of town, and has served as a military base for the French and American armies at different times over the past one hundred years. It became headquarters for ADSEC, the Advance Section of COMZ (Communications Zone) of the U.S. Army, shortly after World War II until 1967 when it reverted to French control after Charles de Gaulle's withdrawal from the military integration of NATO. The barracks was named for André Maginot, the Minister of War responsible for the Maginot Line, who had served as an enlisted man at Verdun in World War I.
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Formation of the Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc is a collective term for the former Stalinist puppet countries and colonies in Central and Eastern Europe. This generally encompasses the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact.
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Peterson Air Force Base Peterson Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force Base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, also having the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) headquarters. Developed as a World War II air support base for Camp Carson, the facility conducted Army Air Forces training and supported Cold War air defense centers at the nearby Ent Air Force Base, Chidlaw Building, and Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The base has been the location of the Air Force Space Command headquarters since 1987 and has had NORAD/NORTHCOM command center operations since the 2006 Cheyenne Mountain Realignment placed the nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex centers on standby.
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Operation Bolero Operation Bolero was the commonly used reference for the code name of the United States military troop buildup in the United Kingdom during World War II in preparation for the initial cross-channel invasion plan known as Operation Roundup, to be implemented in mid-1943, or for its lesser contingency alternative, Operation Sledgehammer, to be executed in the fall of 1942 in the event of German setbacks or to ease Axis pressure on the Eastern Front. ("Bolero" was the code name used in official communications to stand in for "United Kingdom" when describing the theater or movements.) What later became the Bolero plan – the buildup of a strategic air force in Great Britain in preparation for Roundup – was first submitted by Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Henry H. Arnold, to General George Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, on April 12, 1942, and set in motion a huge movement of men and material that laid the groundwork for Operation Overlord.
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Cheyenne Mountain Complex The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is a military installation and nuclear bunker located in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, which hosts the activities of several tenant units. Also located in Colorado Springs is Peterson Air Force Base, where the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) headquarters are located.
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Vandenberg AFB Probe Launch Complex C Probe Launch Complex C or PLC-C at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United States, is a launch complex which was used for six sounding rocket launches between 1971 and 1975. It was originally built as Launch Complex C or LC-C at the Point Arguello Naval Air Station, however no launches were made from the site whilst it was part of Point Arguello. Following the merger of Point Arguello into Vandenberg AFB in 1964, it was briefly designated PALC-C, and subsequently Probe Launch Complex C.
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Operation Dropshot Operation Dropshot was the United States Department of Defense codename for a contingency plan for a possible nuclear and conventional war with the Soviet Union and its allies in order to counter the anticipated Soviet takeover of Western Europe, the Near East and parts of Eastern Asia expected to start around 1957. The plan was prepared in 1949 during the early stages of the Cold War and declassified in 1977. Although the scenario did make use of nuclear weapons, they were not expected to play a decisive role.
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2002 Rome summit The 2002 Rome summit was an exceptional (and thus unnumbered) NATO summit of NATO and Russia at the level of Heads of State and Government. NATO Allies and the Russian Federation created the NATO-Russia Council, which replaced the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council. The summit was held in the Pratica di Mare Air Force Base outside Rome because of outstanding security requirements soon after the 9/11 attacks.