In the winter of 1960 a panel of distinguished scientists (1) investigated the status of the Command and Control Systems of the United States Air Force.  The Air Force at this time was the leading agency in detecting and responding to a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.  The study was initiated because many people felt that the existing Command and Control System was incapable of a timely response to a nuclear attack and that the existing systems would not provide commanders with a post-attack response system.  The report that was issued is known as the Winter Study.

One of the key issues identified by the Winter Study Group was the need for a survivable communications system to link all of the Air Force systems together.  The Winter Study called for a system “to increase both the efficiency of peace time communications and to reduce the vulnerability of communications under harassment and in wartime.”  The system would be “A separate, highly survivable, backbone communication network to maintain at least a portion of the basic operational command functions during and after an enemy attack”.

At this time (1961), the only technology that could fill this task was the Bell System’s L-Carrier system.  The cables between the main stations would be buried 4 feet below the ground and the right of ways clear-cut and monitored by aircraft to insure security.  The main stations were hardened and buried in the ground and located away from large population areas.  The AUTOVON switches were located in the main stations and were programmed to redirect lines of communications around cables or main stations that were taken out by enemy action.  Alternate buried cable routes provided redundant paths and main stations were cross-connected by existing microwave and non-hardened cable routes.  As a bonus, the buried main stations provided the Air Force hardened locations for the Ground Entry Point (GEP) connections to the Airborne Command Post System, as well as locations for nuclear detonation sensors.

(1) The group consisted of representatives of: MIT, Bell Telephone, Raytheon, MITRE, Space Technologies Laboratory, Lincoln Laboratory, IBM, Hughes Aircraft, and the Air Force