AN/GPA-37 Course Directing Group

{{For|the "miniature SAGE" intercept system |General Electric AN/GPA-73 Air Weapons Control System}}

The GE AN/GPA-37 Course Directing Group{{r|IRIS903}} was a USAF Cold War air defense command, control, and coordination system for weapons direction (ground-controlled interception).http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/465/779.xml "Installation of AN/GPA-37 Automatic Ground Controlled Interception" During Air Defense Command's "Control Capability Improvement Program"http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/463/903.xml IRISNUM 00463903 to improve command guidance of manned aircraft, the AN/GPA-37 was "developed by the General Electric Heavy Military Electronic Equipment Department at Syracuse in conjunction with...Rome Air Development Center and the Electronics Research Laboratories of Columbia University."{{Cite journal |date=May 10, 1957 |title=Automatic G.C.I. |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%200616.html |journal=Flight Global |page=618 [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%200617.html & p. 619]}} Used to process radar data, the system was to "track a potential enemy aircraft and direct {{sic|intercepters{{Verify source|date=May 2013}} }} into a position from which they can make their automatic firing runs", the system included the:{{r|FlightGlobal}}

• AN/GPA-34 Converter Group for processing radar data,
• AN/GPA-23 Computing-Tracking Group with analog computer for "automatically providing the solution of the interception problem" (developed at Columbia University),{{r|Division6}}
• AN/GKA-1 Flight Control Group for "automatic communications between ground installation and intercepter" (e.g., "verbally to the pilot"),
• and for modified systems, AN/GPA-67 Time Division Data Link equipment** for input of the SAGE TDDL data stream into the Flight Control Group{{r|NORAD1958B}}{{rp|36}}

The Secretary of Defense concurred on October 30, 1956, for deployment of the AN/GPA-37{{r|NORAD1958B}} as an interim{{r|Condit}} "pre-SAGE semiautomatic intercept system"{{r|McMullin}} to Air Defense Direction Centers (ADDCs){{r|NORAD1958}}{{rp|11}} (e.g., in ADC's Zone of the Interior){{r|Division6}} prior to fielding the SAGE System with AN/FST-2, AN/FSQ-7, & AN/FSQ-8 equipment.

The forecast dates for NCCs with both AN/FSG-1 & AN/GPA-37 systems ranged from November 1959 for Fort Lawton (Seattle Air Defense Sector) to October 1960 Gibbsboro (Philadelphia).NORAD CONAD Historical Summary: January–June 1959 " Both CAA and AMB were incorporated in a new agency, the Federal Aviation Agency which officially began functioning on 31 December 1958 ... RCAF would be responsible for constructing the Ottawa SCC building and for insuring a beneficial occupancy date of 15 September 1961. The AN/FSQ-7A computer would be installed by IBM and by late 1962 RCAF personnel would man the SCC under the direction of the responsible test agencies. The SCC was scheduled to become fully operational on 1 July 1963. ... On 17 July 1959, USAF directed the BMEWS Project Office to prepare an engineering proposal for an interim BMEWS display facility. ... In a paper dated 11 February 1959, the JCS charged the Air Force Chief of Staff with responsibility for the [Cheyenne Mountain] COC project. ... site A, Cheyenne Mountain, in the "NORAD Site Investigation Feasibility Report," dated January 1959, prepared by the firm of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall und MacDon ald for the Army Corps of Engineers. ... The esti mated construction cost of the NORAD COC installation is $28,540,000. ... 19 May 1959 on re quirements of the NORAD Command Control System. ... National Space Surveillance Control Center...7 January with a directive to ARDC to build a research and development interim NSSCC at Han scom Field, Massachusetts. ... At NORAD Headquarters, a space surveillance control center committee was established on 12 February 1959. ... Maintain liaison with the ARDC Space Detection and Surveillance Filter Center being established at Laurence G. Hanscom Field ... ARDC Space Detection and Surveillance Filter Center being established at Laurence G. Hanscom Field ... "

After the planned Super Combat Centers for 10 underground air defense sites were cancelled in 1960,* the AN/GPA-37 was redeployed as the dispersed Back-Up Interceptor Control (BUIC){{r|NORAD1958B}} prior to development of BUIC II (Burroughs AN/GSA-51 Radar Course Directing Group). BUIC was for degraded SAGE operations when "a DC and the adjacent DC's were all out and responsibility had to be exercised by the division commander through the NORAD control center".{{r|NORAD1958B}} By 1959, the military technical school for the AN/GPA-73 was at Keesler Air Force Base.{{cite web |url=http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/discussionFrameset.asp?webtag=B36forum&ctx=&cacheTag=44-37&msg=1350.13 |title=General Discussion - Roll Call (1344 views) |date=December 28, 2012}}

In accordance with the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), the "AN/GPA-37" designation represents the 37th design of an Army-Navy electronic device for ground radar auxiliary system. The JETDS system also now is used to name all Department of Defense electronic systems.