SAGE as vaporware

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Mon Aug 9 21:12:55 2004

> It would be a much better article if it contained references
> supporting the claims, rather than just assertions without any backup.

For one, Nike and SAGE were not really competition.

Second, SAGE wasn't super easy to jam. The first datalinks worked on the
tactical UHF band (still in use today) of 225-400 MHz. Radios in this band
are pretty frequency agile - anyone that saw the AN/ARR-39 Datalink
Receiver control box I had at VCFeast would see that the channels could be
changed quite quickly - probably quicker that the jammers could retune.
Later datalinks worked on FM, and were tougher to jam.

I wouldn't call SAGE vaoprware - certainly things like the gap-fillers
were intensely usefull, even without the computers. SAGE mostly failed to
meet its specs due to the ICBM, however, it still was a fine way to
integrate an air defense.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Mon Aug 09 2004 - 21:12:55 BST

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