New WADS Center Opens:

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.”