AFNWC’s NC3 Integration Directorate celebrates 10-year anniversary

  • Published
  • By Aimee Malone
  • Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center’s Nuclear Command, Control and Communications Integration Directorate marked its 10th anniversary Oct. 1.

Principally located at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, it is responsible for integrating the AN/USQ-225 weapon system across the Air Force. 

The directorate also advises Air Force Global Strike Command on the NC3 Weapon System’s technical architecture and informs key decisions regarding investment and modernization.

A 2015 study, the Nuclear Enterprise Review, called NC3 systems “fractured and ill-defined.” It also said responsibility for the communications systems had scattered to the individual weapon system owners, with no central oversight.

As a result, in May 2015, the Air Force established a task force to develop recommendations for its NC3 systems. The task force recommended these individual Air Force NC3 systems be assembled into a single system with one organization responsible for integrating the weapon system and overseeing its upkeep and modernization. As a result, on Oct. 1, 2015, the NC3 Integration Directorate formally stood up under AFNWC. 

Three months later, on Jan. 1, 2016, the NC3 Integration director was also designated as the Air Force program executive officer for NC3.
Then-Col. Alfonso LaPuma served as the first director of the NC3 Integration Directorate.

“I was honored to be a small part of the standup,” said LaPuma, principal engineer and communication systems and technologies adviser for the Information Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory. “As part of the initial cadre, we knew of the tremendous importance of the task we were given. It was then, and is now, a ‘cannot fail mission.’”

LaPuma said setting up the new directorate and weapon system was a difficult but rewarding task.

“We knew that there was an avalanche of work coming our way,” he said. “When I thought about what would happen if we failed, and what that would mean for family and friends and our country, it motivated me. I felt like I could never do enough.”

The directorate started with only eight people. It has since expanded to 600 military members, civilians and contractors in six divisions at 10 locations that integrate NC3 across multiple services, agencies and organizations, while also executing a portfolio of 29 acquisition and sustainment programs that make up the core of the NC3 weapon system. 

Scott Hardiman, director of the NC3 Integration Directorate and Air Force integrating program executive officer for NC3, has been part of the organization since it started. He served as its deputy director and deputy PEO before becoming director in 2021.

“Integration has always been our primary mission, but our greatest achievement is creating the foundation for modernization,” Hardiman said. “By defining the NC3 weapon system, we not only improved today’s management of this intricate enterprise but also charted a course for its future. NC3 underpins every leg of the nuclear triad, ensuring the president retains command and control under any circumstance, and in doing so, it sustains the credibility of U.S. deterrence.”

Its major accomplishments include the designation of NC3 as an official weapon system and the publication of Air Force Instruction 13-550, “Air Force Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3).” 

According to Hardiman, the NC3 team made significant strides in instituting disciplined systems engineering for the weapon system, including:
 
  • Defining boundaries and internal/external dependencies
  • Developing an overarching operational performance criteria document
  • Baselining its configuration
  • Creating a partial digital model
  • Establishing building codes to ensure performance and effectiveness
In addition, the team established relationships with a wide set of stakeholders to ensure their requirements are met. These stakeholders include every Air Force major command, combatant and regional commands, the Navy, the Space Force, the joint staff, multiple federal agencies and the White House.

Hardiman said the directorate’s past accomplishments set the stage for the future.

“As we mark this anniversary, our focus is not just on what we’ve accomplished, but on what comes next,” Hardiman said. “The future of NC3 modernization will define how the United States maintains credible deterrence in an era of global unrest and uncertainty, this directorate is proud to be leading that charge.”