National Military Command Center

❌

Located in the Pentagon, the National Military Command Center houses the logistical and communications center for the National Command Authority of the United States of America. The facility, which is composed of several war rooms, is the principal command and control center of the Department of Defense. It is commonly referred to as the NMCC.

This center is not directly necessary to initiate a nuclear attack, but it essentially serves as a communications/operations center for nearby Washington, D.C., particularly with regard to maintaining the American end of the famous U.S.-Russian hotline ("Red telephone"). It coordinated the response to events such as the September 11 attacks, the attack on the USS Liberty, and Payne Stewart's plane crash.

The NMCC is responsible for generating Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) to launch control centers, nuclear submarines, recon aircraft and battlefield commanders worldwide.

The more than 300 people in the NMCC have responsibilities that are operational in nature, and thus it is not funded and maintained by the Joint Chiefs of Staff but by the US Air Force which provides logistical, budgetary, facility and systems support.

The JCS J-3 Command Systems Operations Division manages the operations of the J-3 information system facilities and maintains operational control of the Crisis Management Automated Data Processing System for the National Military Command Center.