Guide - Bentwaters Cold War Museum

Introduction
On behalf of the Bentwaters Aviation Society, welcome to the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, Hardened Wing
Command Post, now home to the Bentwaters Cold War Museum. This facility was used during
exercises and deployments to plan, coordinate and execute taskings as received from Higher
Headquarters. This building was also used during peacetime for the daily morning briefings.
This building is the only one of its type to be open to the Public in the UK, Europe and possibly, the
World. The Bentwaters Aviation Society was extremely fortunate in being able to re-create the Battle
Cab and Ops Room, as you see it today. When the base was closed, this entire building was stripped of
all equipment and fittings.
However, in the infinite wisdom of the U.S. Government, all command posts in USAFE are identical.
Luckily, the command post at RAF Alconbury, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire was still in a
serviceable condition. Society members were able to strip out the Alconbury command post and transfer
it to Bentwaters.
The Command Post went though a number of evolutionary changes though its operational life. The most
noticeable of these effected the generation boards in the Ops Room. The Perspex boards you see today
were in use from late-1978 (when the Command Post was first commissioned) until the late-1980s, when
they were replaced by white, magnetic boards. Months of research went into identifying A-10 tail
numbers and pilots for the generation boards in the Ops Room. The information they contain reflects the
late-1984 to early-1985 assignments.
The purpose of this guide is to detail the function of the Command Post and to provide some background
information into the reasoning behind the requirement for this type of building.
We hope you enjoy your visit to the Bentwaters Cold War Museum
The 81st Tactical Fighter Wing Command Post
Please look for the Information Point signs ( # ) in the museum before referring to the relevant text
The Command Post (CP) was a NATO standard type 3, which was identical throughout NATO. It is
made of steel reinforced concrete, and air-conditioned. It was also “over pressured” which means the air
pressure in the building was greater then outside. This prevented any chemical or biological agents from
entering the building when doors were opened, as the airflow was always to the outside.
1
When this was an active command post, there was an armed guard at the entrance where you
would present your identification and security clearance. The guard would pre-warn the internal post of
the visit.
The guard would release the lock on the blast door and entry was permitted.
You then turn right through the second blast door into the hallway,
2
As you entered the building, you passed the decontamination area on your left, which was used in
the event of NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) attacks. During exercises, personnel would simulate
the actions due to the cost of the actual chemical gear. In the event of actual use:
•
You would enter the first airlock, secure the door, remove all clothing and put in the chute on the
right. This was then tipped outside into secure containers and destroyed.
•
You would then take a shower, after which you would pick up a new set of clothing that was
hanging up in the ‘clean’ area.
Opposite the exit from the decontamination area, you will notice the little wooden hatch. The room
behind this hatch was the Message Centre (now the Bentwaters Room), where all classified messages
were sent and received. You would ring the Centre, they would open the hatch and you would pass your
message to them for transmission. All messages were encoded and encrypted for security.
3
You would then proceed to the “Cage” door. There was another armed guard behind the cage and
he would check your identification, security clearance and purpose of the visit. If all was in order, the
electronic lock on the cage would be released, allowing entrance, and you would now be in the
“entrapment area” of the active section of the command post.
4
The next step would be to proceed to the door with the one-way mirror, identify yourself and
business on the telephone handset on the left. You would be under constant CCTV surveillance. If
entry was approved, the electronic lock was released from the inside.
You will notice there is a keypad on the left that enabled the Senior Staff to enter the command post
using the classified combination. They still had to be recognised via CCTV prior to access.
Proceed through the door with the one-way mirror and turn left into the Battle Cab
5
There are three main areas within the command post, and each is detailed below:
• The EA (Emergency Action) Cell
•
The “Battle Cab” (Where you are now)
•
The “Pit” (Ops Room) which you can see through the windows, below.
The Command Post was divided into two main security areas:
•
The Secret area which included the entrances, hallway and the “Pit”
•
The Top Secret area that included the Message Centre, the EA Cell and the Battle Cab.
The EA Cell
This is the room directly across the hall from where you are now, which now has the airfield display.
This was the nerve centre of the command post when the base was active. It was manned 24/7, 365
days per year.
It served as the single point of contact for all incoming communications from Headquarters United States
Air Forces Europe (HQ USAFE), Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in Washington, and Major Commands
(MajComs).
All Secret, Top Secret and NATO plans were stored here, for ready access.
You will notice the red light above the door. Every shift, the plans were inventoried in the EA cell to
ensure nothing was missing. While this was being done, curtains were pulled across the windows and
the red light would flash. No entry to the cell was permitted at this time.
The EA Cell also controlled the CCTV and electronic door locks on the one-way mirror door and the
cage door.
The Battle Cab
This is the room you are in at the moment. It served two functions:
(1) A place for the senior staff to receive the daily SitRep (Situation Report) from the various
squadrons
(2) Where the Senior Staff (Wing Commander, Maintenance Commander, Logistics Commander
and Operations Commander) would direct the Wing war efforts.
Daily Briefing
The senior staff would receive the daily status of all areas of the base. This included number of
serviceable aircraft, fuel availability, spare part availability, security update, logistics, billeting and
food services.
Additionally, the Weather Squadron would give a weather briefing as shown on the projector on
the left wall of the “Pit”. The reason it shows Germany as well as the UK, is the 81st TFW had 8
aircraft at each of four Forward Operating Locations (FOLs). These aircraft were the initial
response force in the event of an attack by the Soviet forces. The remaining aircraft would follow
on to these bases, as well as two additional classified locations.
War / Exercise Operations
In the event of hostilities or an exercise, the EA Cell would receive the notification to recall the
base personnel. This was done by a flow chart starting with the Senior Staff and cascaded down
to every member of the wing. This is why you might have seen all the local roads filled at 0400 in
the morning!!!
All staff would respond to their squadron or wartime duty location. With regard to the Command
Post, hourly status reports on the number of people available, sick, on leave etc. would be fed to
the “Pit” and then relayed to the Senior Staff in the Battle Cab.
The Senior Staff would monitor these reports, as well as getting updated SitReps and directing
the Aircraft Generation, as shown on the status boards in the “Pit”
The main function of the wing in wartime was to deploy to designated Forward Operating
Locations (FOL) in Germany, leaving Bentwaters & Woodbridge available for follow-on forces
from the States.
All assigned aircraft had to be off the base within 24 hours of the recall!!
To enable the wing to prepare for deployment, all 120 A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft assigned to the
Twin Bases had to be generated. This is the process of inspecting, testing, fuelling, loading
weapons and launching the aircraft. This was controlled in the “Pit”
The “Pit”
Upon recall, personnel that were assigned a wartime duty in the command post would report to
the “Pit”. You can see that there are a number of consoles that would be manned by a
representative of that function. These included Operations, Supply, Security, Food and Lodging
Services, Weather, Communications, Personnel and Maintenance etc.
•
For example in the right front row, you can see the Maintenance and the Maintenance
Liaison consoles. These were connected to the Maintenance Job Control Centre on the
flightline side of the base. Job Control would receive aircraft status from the supervisors
on the flightline and would feed this constant aircraft status to the Maintenance Liaison.
The Maintenance position was the Maintenance Officer who managed problems before
they got out of hand.
81st TFW personnel at work in the “Pit” during an exercise at Bentwaters in 1989. (U.S. Air Force photo)
The other important function of the “Pit” was the tracking of the aircraft generation status on the
generation boards posted on the wall in front of you. These boards were for each squadron with the
assigned tail number and pilot.
Each of the blocks on the generation boards was an action that needed to be completed before the
aircraft could depart, and included the Operations and Maintenance actions. For example:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
As the recall progressed, the aircraft crew chief would go to their aircraft and start to preflight (inspect) the aircraft.
The aircraft would be fuelled with JP-8 (jet fuel) and LOX (liquid oxygen)
Weapons would be loaded per mission tasking.
Any problems or delays, i.e. delayed fuel or system faults would be relayed to
Maintenance Job Control and up the chain to the Maintenance Liaison.
Pilot Operations would conduct crew briefings, target identification, divert bases, etc.
When the aircraft was mission ready, the aircrew would step (be driven to the aircraft).
The crew would accept the aircraft from the crew chief and prepare for take off.
They would engine start and then taxi.
Finally if all went to plan, they would take off.
Each of these actions was plotted on the generation boards by board posters assigned to each
squadron, who walked on the boardwalk with radio headsets. Each of the console operators would
contact the appropriate poster and he/she would update the block(s) as each action was completed.
From the Senior Staff perspective, they could see the “Gods Eye” view of the entire generation, and
make command decisions if things were falling behind.
They would also update the base ThreatCon (threat condition) based upon constant intelligence. The
warning lights by the ceiling in the “Pit” would be activated as required.
Although not visible from the Battle Cab, there is an emergency escape hatch on the left of the Pit in
case the main exits were blocked by bomb damage. There is a similar one on the right side of the
command post (located in what is now the Bentwaters Room).
Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II of the 509th TFS/81st TFW. (U.S. Air Force photo)
History and Function of Hardened Command Facilities
The hardened command post grew out of a 1970 era NATO requirement for survivability after a nuclear
or conventional attack. The command facility was one piece of a pie that contained aircraft shelters,
maintenance facilities, squadron operations facilities, refueling and armament facilities.
The intent of the hardened Command Post (CP) was to provide a means for the command staff to
continue operations and function while under attack and afterwards. The CP was designed as a
universal facility that the local Wing Commander would configure, as he felt necessary. Two sets of
CP’s were actually designed, one for the UK and one for mainland Europe and Turkey.
Both CP’s were virtually identical and differed only in construction and minor layouts. Funding was
provided from the US, local assets and NATO. The UK facilities were started first. The planned order of
construction (on the US side) was Lakenheath, Alconbury, Bentwaters and finally Upper Heyford. This
order may have changed based on construction difficulties and delays. Although not hardened, USAFE
and Third Air Force (3AF) decided to upgrade and renovate the Mildenhall CP as well.
During the early 1970’s the USAFE Inspector General (IG) began uncovering numerous deficiencies in
the Command and Control structure due to unreliable or sporadic communications and the inability for
the Command Staff to communicate with subordinates. Fixes were implemented at the local level and
were either excellent, good or mediocre, depending on the assets, funding and expertise of local
personnel. The overall majority of the fixes fell in the good to mediocre category.
In 1974 the USAFE IG gave the 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (TRW) at Zweibrucken AB,
Germany an ‘Unsatisfactory’ rating on its annual IG inspection. Numerous items led to the unsatisfactory
rating with a lot of the causes traced back to insufficient, archaic, or nonexistent command and control
communications. The 2143rd Communications Squadron was tasked with correcting the problem.
Realising that the expertise was available in-house to accomplish the task but the lack of funding and
resources were not, the 2143rd Commander briefed the 26th TRW staff on what the recommended fixes
were, the level of resources needed and the funding required. After the briefing the 26th TRW
Commander tasked the entire Wing to get behind this project and find the funding necessary to
accomplish the tasking and get it done within the 90-day re-inspection time frame. Numerous regulations
were waived (particularly direct procurement from the US), the 2143rd Comm Sqn set up a dedicated
team and the 26th TRW provided the required local assets. The 90-day period was met. When the
USAFE IG performed it’s re-inspection the 26th TRW now received an ‘Excellent’ rating for Command
and Control.
Upon returning to HQ USAFE the IG team chief dispatched a memo to the USAFE Director of
Operations and Director of Communications recommending that they look at the Zweibrucken Command
Post as a possible model to correct the Command and Control deficiencies at other USAFE bases. Both
USAFE Directorates evaluated the Zweibrucken facility for its ability to meet USAFE’s operational
tasking as well as the Zweibrucken’s facilities engineering, documentation and follow-on support
compliance.
Being satisfied that the Zweibrucken facility was a sound and viable endeavour and that the design and
funding of CP communication should be dictated by HQ USAFE, the USAFE Commander created
Project Creek Standard to provide a standardised communications package for the newly created
hardened CP facilities and to upgrade the non-hardened facilities. The name “Creek Standard” was
created as follows. “Creek” was the codename assigned by HQ USAF for all projects relating to USAFE.
“Standard” was the USAFE project name assigned for the standardisation of all command and control
facilities within Europe.
Project Creek Standard was located at Zweibrucken AB, Germany with the original cadre of personnel
drawn from the 2143rd Communications Squadron. Creek Standard’s tasking was to design, engineer,
procure, pre-assemble, transport and then outfit the Command Post at each of the thirteen USAFE
Bases. Working with each individual Wing as well as the USAFE Operations and Communications
Directorates a final design and layout was conceived and approved. The outcome of the final design was
that over 90% of the console layout and communications requirements would be standardised at each
location so that personnel could move from base to base and not have to learn the equipment/operation
over again – plus the logistical support requirements would be minimised. The remainder of the layout
was designed around the particular mission of the base, i.e. the number of squadrons, the mission mix
(Fighter, Airlift, Reconnaissance) and minor facility layouts.
Late-1980s view of the front of the Command Post, adjacent to the 81st TFW HQ building.
An installation schedule was formulated, with Sembach AB Germany being the first upgrade installation.
Each Wing/Base was visited six months prior to the schedule installation to allow the individual Wings to
tailor the specific requirements of their operation. This visit lasted 4-5 days and comprised a USAFE
Operations individual, three Creek Standard personnel (team chief, radio technician and telephone
technician) and a host country representative when required. Once the USAFE Representative approved
the plan, the team returned to Zweibrucken to finalise the design and order material.
45 days prior to the scheduled installation, the host Wing was tasked to provide two technicians (one
radio and one telephone) to assist the Creek Standard team in the pre-assembly of the consoles and
equipment. Upon completion of the pre-assembly the consoles and equipment were transported to the
installation site. At the same time the next scheduled installation’s Wing was tasked to provide two
technicians to assist in the on-going installation. These same two personnel would also return with the
team to Zweibrucken to complete the pre-assembly of their Wing’s consoles and equipment. The intent
of this concept was to insure that the gaining Wing had trained personnel on-hand - when the Creek
Standard personnel left – who were capable of providing maintenance support as well as follow-on
training.
The Creek Standard team also travelled with a draftsman who completed the final documentation onsite. When the Creek Standard team departed a facility the local Communications Squadron was
provided with a complete set of Plant-in-Place records consisting of schematic diagrams for each
individual console position, block diagrams showing the interface between positions, layouts and
schematics for the equipment room showing the wall mounted connecting block configurations and
locations, the individual rack cabinet components and schematics for the rack mounted control
equipment. Also included was a detailed list of part numbers, NATO stock numbers, manufacturers
catalogues and 8 x 10 black and white photos/negatives of each room as well as a detailed file of 35mm
colour slides showing overall configurations and close-ups of individual console positions.
The actual installation took approximately 45 days. The Wing was tasked with running a 3-day exercise
at the completion of the CP installation to assure it was operationally capable.
View of the Eastern aspect of the Command Post pictured in early-1990.
Command Post Capabilities
Facility Layout
The hardened facility was laid out to accommodate a minimum number of staff and command
functions to facilitate the Wing’s ability to operate in a wartime or increased tensions environment. The
basic layout provided accommodations for the battle staff (lower forward area normally referred to as the
“Pit”) directly in front of the display boards; the Battle Cab, above and to the rear of the “Pit”; the
Emergency Actions (EA Cell), above and directly to the rear of the “Pit” and to the right of the Battle Cab;
the Disaster Preparedness Room – to the left of the “Pit”; The Plans Office to the left of the Battle Cab
with a walk-in safe; Equipment Room to the far right of the “Pit”; The Weather Room was located to the
left of the “Pit”.
Consoles
Metal consoles, in varying configurations were provided to facilitate the operation of the facility.
Each console was tailored to the function(s) that it would serve. The basic console was multiples of 3
different frame sizes bolted together with the required communications/operations panel secured to
individual turrets. After assembly a pre-designed table top or tabletops were attached to complete the
assembly. Positions were laid out so that an individual had a file drawer/cabinet either to the left or right
of his/her position. In some cases where augmentee positions were used, no file drawer/cabinet was
provided. The individual turret/communications/operations panel was designed specifically for the
position/function that it would serve. Wiring for the consoles either daisy chained to individual turrets
within the console, went directly to another console group/position or went directly back to the equipment
room.
AUTOSEVOCOMM (AUTOVON Secure Communications)
A secure communications facility usually mounted in a soundproofed telephone booth or specially
constructed soundproofed room. Location was usually in the Plans Room but was left to the discretion of
the local commander. Tasking from HQ USAF thru the responsible Engineering and Installations Agency
did the design and installation.
Internal Facility Intercom
A secure intercom system located in the equipment room and physically isolated from other
systems and equipment. Wiring was contained in metal conduit. Yellow Western Electric Trimline (to
designate secure) instruments were located in the Emergency Actions Cab, Battle Cab (on wall behind
the Wing Commander) behind the Mission Director position, Disaster Preparedness Cell, Plans room
and Weather Room. Depending on the Wing requirements, other instruments could have been located
elsewhere. The control equipment was a Western Electric 6A telephone system, usually equipped for 18
stations mounted in a steel communications rack. AC Power to the cabinet was isolated.
Secure VHF/UHF Communications
An on-console Crypto box was added in later years to provide secure UHF/VHF communications
between the CP and aircraft. This device was a USAF requirement and the responsible Installations and
Engineering Agency did the design and installation. The number of devices depended on the Wing’s
tasking, the number of Squadrons and whether secure communications was required for both UHF and
VHF.
Other Communications
Telephone System
Fire/Crash Alerting System
Internal PA System
Base PA System
Personnel Shelter (Bunker)
Telephone System
Hardened Shelter
Communications System
Radio Communications
• IBRS (Inter-Base Radio
System)
• HF (High Frequency)
• VHF (Very High
Frequency)
• UHF (Ultra High
Frequency)
‘Planted’ 81st TFW emblem situated in the area known as the “Colander.”
F-16 model situated in the “Colander” area adjacent to the Command Post in 1988. This model was donated to the
Imperial War Museum when the USAF withdrew from Bentwaters and is currently on display in the American Air
Museum at Duxford.
Contact Information
Bentwaters Cold War Museum
Building 134
Bentwaters Parks
Rendlesham
Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 2TW
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.bcwm.org.uk