DISA’s Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network: What does that even mean?

By DISA Historian Anne Armstrong, Office of Strategic Communication and Public Affairs

Late in 1971, the Defense Communications Agency assumed control of the Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network.

Born of the Cold War, the MEECN was a network of hardware and software that allowed the Western Allies to respond to a nuclear attack by the former Soviet Union and its satellite nations. Its purpose was to provide reliable and secure communications from the National Command Authorities to the Strategic Nuclear Forces throughout the world.

During the 20th century, Europe and the United States had experienced two brutal world wars. Following the wars, the major powers settled into an uncomfortable peace that was constantly tested by the Soviet Union’s drive to expand communism and its influence against the United States’ drive to contain that growth. This balance often led to small wars and conflicts but the great threat hanging over everyone’s head was the massively destructive power of nuclear weapons.

One major concern in the West was the ability to communicate a response if the USSR should launch a nuclear attack which would, by all rights, wipe out any ability to communicate almost immediately. To counteract this threat, the United States began to develop systems of communication to survive such an attack. By 1971, the MEECN became operational and was placed under the authority of the DCA. The MEECN was, in fact, a subsystem of a program already being deployed by DCA, the World Wide Military Command and Control System.

Originally, the MEECN consisted of a dedicated overlay of routine communications to limit the complexity of the systems. The network employed ground radio and aircraft to relay messages and missiles with high-frequency radio capability. However, it was also critical that the messaging be resistant to jamming. With engineering expertise and thorough equipment knowledge, DCA was able to provide interoperability and highly controlled security with the greatest level of user confidence. To be clear, the MEECN was a specifically dedicated system to reliably relay single direction, emergency communications in the event of a nuclear attack.

Within 20 years of DCA assuming control of the MEECN, world events would cause drastic changes to the Cold War, but DCA continued to maintain the MEECN. In November 1989, the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union unfolded when the Berlin Wall fell in Germany. By 1991, the Cold War was officially over, and the United States with its Western allies emerged victorious.

Also, in 1991, the DCA underwent a dramatic reorganization and adaptation to a new, more critical mission – to support the Warfighter in combat. Although renamed the Defense Information Systems Agency and now with a combat support mission, DISA continues to be responsible for the MEECN. While the Soviet Union represented a nominal threat, over the course of the Cold War, several other nations around the globe had developed nuclear technology. Ironically, while the Soviet threat diminished, rogue state threats increased. The need for the MEECN continued unabated.

Today, DISA has adapted the MEECN to the rapidly changing nature of modern technology and the needs of the Defense Department and the Warfighter. The present MEECN utilizes much more than ground radios, missiles equipped with high frequency radios, and the hopes of aircraft relays. DISA’s MEECN employs satellite technology, the untold benefits of the internet, fiber optics and immense bandwidth expansion. Interestingly, the satellites used in the modern MEECN are from the Defense Communications Satellite System which was another DCA project only recently adopted by the United States Space Force.

The threat of a nuclear strike is never zero and, in the event of an attack, the United States and its allies are prepared to maintain command and control through the MEECN. DISA’s continued development of the system remains a priority in the constantly changing global political climate. To that end, the MEECN still provides the highest level of confidence in communications for Western survivability.

Check out the DISA History Minute about the MEECN.

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