Year built 1959 | ||
Coordinates (now 3390 S Pacific Av, San Pedro) Materials Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System (1960) | ||
The Fort MacArthur Direction Center (DC) was the U.S. Army Air Defense Command Post (AADCP) for the Project Nike batteries of the Los Angeles Defense Area. It was located at Fort MacArthur on the eastern Palos Verdes Peninsula, in the San Pedro community of Los Angeles, California.
Contents
Purpose
The Cold War Direction Center−DC provided radar netting ("electronic umbrella") for integrating the area's Integrated Fire Control (IFC) sites (16 sites for Hercules missiles until 1968). The DC had High Frequency Crosstell communication with the 1959-1966 SAGE Master Direction Center at Norton Air Force Base (DC-17) for coordinating Army intercepts of targets penetrating through the larger USAF Los Angeles Air Defense Sector defended by ground-controlled aircraft.
History
In World War II, Fort MacArthur had a Harbor Entrance Command Post and a Harbor Defense Command Post for US seacoast defense of shipbuilding factories (e.g., CalShip, Todd Pacific), "giant aircraft factories" (Douglas, Hughes, Martin, Northrop), the Huntington Beach Oil Field, and the San Pedro Bay harbor (Port of Los Angeles & Port of Long Beach) which made the Los Angeles metropolitan area a target for attack.
During the Korean War, the fort's L-43 Lashup Radar Network site provided 1950-2 radar surveillance for the area. The 669th Radar Squadron was assigned to the Army Installation on January 1, 1951. On February 16, 1960, Lt Col James L McCallister was the Missile Director for the defense area.
Operations
The Fort MacArthur Direction Center began in 1960 with an AN/FSG-1 computer that was the last of 10 installed and which replaced an Interim Battery Data Link (IBDL). The Army dedicated the DC's Missile Master nuclear bunker with an Antiaircraft Operations Center ("Blue Room") on December 14, 1960, prior to the USAF/FAA ARSR-1C radar opening in 1961 at San Pedro Hill AFS. Fort MacArthur's 47th Artillery Brigade operated the DC, and the vacuum tube AN/FSG-1 was replaced on January 31, 1967, with a solid-state Hughes AN/TSQ-51 Air Defense Command and Coordination System. On November 15, 1968, the 19th Artillery Group (Air Defense) replaced the 47th Artillery Brigade in command of the DC and its batteries. The 19th Group deactivated July 1, 1974, after Project Concise ended Nike operations, the tennis courts next to the bunker remain at the former site of the AADCP's building 554, and the Missile Master nuclear bunker (building 550) was razed c. 1985.