Boston Air Defense Sector


The Boston Air Defense Sector is an inactive United States Air Force Air Defense Command organization. Its last assignment was with the 26th Air Division at Hancock Field [Air National Guard Base|Hancock Field], New York.

History

BADS was established in 1956 at Stewart [Air Force Base], New York as the 4622nd Air Defense Wing pending completion of the new Semi Automatic Ground Environment Direction Center and Combat Center which became operational 15 September 1958. DC-02 was equipped with dual AN/FSQ-7 Computers. Early in 1957, the wing was redesignated as the Boston Air Defense Sector.
The mission of the BADS was to provide air defense over New England initially in an area covering southern Maine, southern New Hampshire, southern Vermont, Massachusetts, northern Rhode Island and Connecticut and part of New York. The day-to-day operations of the command were to train and maintain tactical units flying jet interceptor aircraft and operating radars and interceptor missiles in a state of readiness with training missions and series of exercises with Strategic Air Command and other units simulating interceptions of incoming enemy aircraft. From 1960 to 1962, BADS was also responsible for a squadron in Nova Scotia that controlled interceptors "manually".
The Otis Bomarc SAMs were directed from the Air Defense Direction Center at Hancock Air Force Base, Syracuse, New York. Continental Air Defense Command, in setting up the air defence command and control system in the area, had designated the Boston Air Defense Sector as 1 of 4 sectors in the 26th Air Division "effective April 1, 1958" DC-03 was operational on 1 December 1958; and the division was the 1st operational in the SAGE Air Defense Network — 1 January 1959
The radar network supporting BADS required near-total coverage, with radar beams overlapping and sites no more than 25 miles apart. Early gap-filling radars included two SCR-584 units at Scituate and Rockport, Massachusetts—these were World War II-era radars developed by the MIT Radiation Laboratory. Their initial performance was disappointing, requiring significant improvements before they could be used effectively. The SAGE system, which BADS relied on, was the direct impetus for the founding of MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The lab’s early work included not only radar netting but also the development of advanced radar data filtering and digital relay systems, which were first tested at Cape Cod and then implemented in the BADS region.
The Sector was moved on paper to Hancock Field, New York and was eliminated on 1 April 1966 due to a general reorganization of ADC. Most of its assigned units were reassigned to the 34th or 35th Air Divisions.

Lineage

Wings