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New WADS Center Opens:


Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

The Air National Guard has opened its refurbished and upgraded Western Air Defense Sector operations center at McChord AFB, Wash., after an 18-month effort that included installation of some 22 miles of fiber-optic cable and 10 miles of category 5 copper cables. WADS now covers airspace for about 72 percent of the US. The center’s original facility, built in 1958, was home to an element of USAF’s Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system. A 1st Air Force news release states that the more than $1.8 million renovation eliminated the SAGE-era green scopes and darkened control rooms, replacing them with state-of-the-art computer technology and software, including a “newly developed situation awareness system that gives WADS unprecedented tools and technology to assist state and local responders in dealing with natural disasters.”

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org