CFB North Bay - BOMARC

BOMARC

North Bay's Underground Complex was also the command and control centre for two CIM-10 BOMARC surface-to-air missile squadrons. (Both "BOMARC" and "Bomarc" were used in official documents and the public lexicon, although the former was the original acronym, derived from Boeing" and Michigan Aerospace Research Center, the two entities that created the missile system. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force cites BOMARC as correct. Moreover examples of "BOMARC" usage are listed in the attached citations.)

28 December 1961 to 31 March 1972, 446 Surface-to-Air Missile Squadron operated five miles (8 kilometres) north of the city, at the site of a former RCAF radio station. 15 September 1962 to 1 September 1972, 447 Surface-to-Missile Squadron operated from a newly constructed site at La Macaza, Quebec, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) northwest of Montreal. Each site was equipped with 29 BOMARC missiles; 28 for combat and a 29th for training purposes. The BOMARC was tipped with a 10-kiloton W-40 nuclear warhead (the bomb used at Hiroshima was 15 kilotons). In the event of a Soviet air attack on North America some or all of the 56 missiles would have been launched into the air raids, and their nuclear warheads detonated, to destroy as many of the bombers as possible, while crippling surviving aircraft such that they could not complete their missions.

The BOMARCs were deployed in the United States as well as Canada. While U.S. missiles were controlled strictly by American authorities, the Canadian BOMARCs were an international affair. The missiles were under Canadian government control, the warheads controlled by the United States. At each BOMARC site an area was designated U.S. only, for the maintenance and storage of warheads. Permission was required from both governments for a launch. To activate a missile for launch, a Canadian and American officer at the BOMARC site, and a Canadian and American officer in the Underground Complex simultaneously turned keys. To launch, the Canadian and American officers in the UGC, at separate consoles, pressed a button at the same time. The missile would then be guided by a controller at a SAGE console, in the UGC, until 10 miles (16 kilometres) from its target(s), then the BOMARC's homing system would take over and steer the missile until detonation. No BOMARCs were launched in Canada; squadron personnel from North Bay and La Macaza fired missiles (non-nuclear warhead) at the Santa Rosa Island Test Facility, Florida.

Due to the nuclear nature of the missiles all potential Bomarc personnel underwent Human Reliability Program tests to weed out those with "hidden idiosyncracies, repressions, emotional disturbances, psychosomatic traits and even latent homosexuality". Their "family, friends, past history, schooling, religion and travel experiences were also gone into".