NORAD and US Northern Command officials on Oct. 1 rechristened the two organizations’ headquarters building at Peterson AFB, Colo., in honor of two former commanders. Renamed the Eberhart-Findley Building, the facility bears the names of retired Gen. Ralph Eberhart, former NORAD-NORTHCOM commander, and retired Royal Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Findley, former NORAD deputy commander. The joint headquarters building is the first US combatant command head office to bear the name of a Canadian officer, according to a NORAD-NORTHCOM release. Eberhart led NORAD from February 2000 and then commanded both NORAD and NORTHCOM after the latter’s standup a little more than one year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He served as NORAD-NORTHCOM commander until Nov. 2004. Eberhart worked with Findley, who joined him in July 2003, to retool the Cold War air defenses to counter non-state terrorist threats. Findley served through 2007. The rechristening ceremony took place on NORTHCOM’s 10th anniversary.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…