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NORAD marks 50th anniversary

The thought that Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers could fly over the Arctic Circle loaded down with nukes was a pretty scary idea in 1958. So scary, in fact, that American and Canadian politicians came together to set up what’s now known as the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

NORAD turned 50 on Monday, marking its anniversary with a Golden Jubilee Ball at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo. The celebration also includes the opening of the new NORAD-U.S. Northern Command Command Center at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., on Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will join Canada’s defense minister, Peter Gordon MacKay, and NORAD commander Gen. Victor Renaurt for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the command center, which is part of a plan to create more remote sites outside of NORAD’s operations center, which is dug into Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD spokesman Maj. Brian Martin said.

Fifty years since an era when schoolchildren ducked under desks during nuclear drills, NORAD has changed to meet the current threat. Pointedly criticized for its inability to respond faster to al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, NORAD now tracks all air traffic, not just military traffic, and continues to adapt to the post-9/11 mission.

Once the Russian military collapsed in the early 1990s, NORAD also adapted to help protect U.S. and Canadian borders from drug smugglers. NORAD also changed its name to include “aerospace” instead of “air” after intercontinental ballistic missiles became a threat in the 1960s; NORAD set up space-based radars to detect ICBM launches across the globe.

The command stood up on Sept. 12, 1957, but the official agreement between the two countries wasn’t signed until May 12, 1958.