ACE High

Allied Command Europe Highband, better known as ACE High, was a fixed service NATO radiocommunication and early warning system dating back to 1956. After extensive testing ACE High was accepted by NATO to become operational in 1964/1965. The frequency supportability and frequency assignments were provided in accordance with the NATO Joint Civil/Military Frequency Agreement (NJFA). The system was designed to be a combined UHF troposcatter/microwave radio system, providing long-range communications in the form of telephone, telegraph and data traffic in the NATO chain of command. Its combined services produced over 200 channels and equipment was in place to multiplex them to contain up to 12 different calls each. There used to be 49 troposcatter links augmented by 40 Line Of Sight Microwave terrestrial stations, located in nine different NATO countries from northern Norway through central Europe to eastern Turkey. The transmitters broadcast at 832.56 - 959.28 MHz producing an average transmitting power of 10 kilowatts. History NATO had been established in 1949 with then a supreme command (SHAPE) near Versailles, France, and the regional headquarters (RHQ) Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) at Kolsås, Norway (responsible for Denmark, Norway and the UK), Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) at Laffaux, France (responsible for Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands) and Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) at Naples, Italy (responsible for Italy, Greece and Turkey). Supreme command, the three RHQ's and all subordinated units used various communication systems to establish contact: high frequency radio networks, VHF beaming transmitters and civil or military landlines. All systems had their weakness in equipment reliability; in the maximum amount of data transferred; in encryption possibilities and in unauthorized data interception. So in the early 1950s there existed an urgent need for a reliable, foolproof long distance European communications network.