27th Air Division The 27th Air Division was a USAF numbered air division and the geographic Air Defense Command region controlled by the 27th AD . Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command ( ADC ) ' s Tenth Air Force , at Luke Air Force Base , Arizona . It was inactivated on 19 November 1969 . Norton AFB . Activated as the 27 Air Division ( Defense ) on September 7 , 1950 , the unit was assigned to ADC for most of its existence , the division ' s initial air defense area was southern California and later southern Nevada ( and a small portion of Arizona by 1953 ) . In May 1958 , the 27th AD directed a hostile intercept of a " declared unknown " aircraft ( without proper IFF ) , but the " interceptor pilot remembered . . . that opening bomb bay doors was to be considered a hostile act only after declaration of an Air Defense Emergency or Warning Yellow or Red " ( the SAC B - 47 was on an RBS bomb run near the Los Angeles Bomb Plot . ) The 27th AD was designated 1 of 23 NORAD divisions effective June 10 , 1958 , by NORAD General Order 6 . Rocky Mountain Division . The " 27th Air Division ( Rocky Mountain ) " was to transfer to the midwest with command of 2 NORAD sectors ( Reno and Denver Air Defense Sector s ) during deployment of SAGE . In addition to a hardened Air Defense Direction Center at Stead Air Force Base for the Reno sector ; NORAD ' s July 25 , 1958 , SAGE Geographic Reorganization Plan identified the Super Combat Center / Direction Center ( SCC / DC ) nuclear bunker for the division was to be at Denver , Colorado ( cf . the bunkers later planned for Cheyenne Mountain and in a Cripple Creek mine ) . The division ' s general area was west - to - east from the western Nevada state meridian ( near the Sierra Escarpment ) to the Great Plains near Oakley , Kansas ; and north - south from mid - Wyoming to just south of the Four Corners latitude . Existing Permanent System radar stations in the planned Rocky Mountain Division included the Fallon , Tonopah , and Winnemucca AFS s ( the atomic - powered " SAGE feeder station " in the Black Hills NF became operational in 1962 ) ; and facilities and cities to be protected by the division included the Salt Lake City military installations west of the Rockies and planned Titan missile launch complexes and assembly plant at the Colorado Front Range . The Reno sector was activated February 15 , 1959 , and the AN / FSQ - 7 at Stead AFB was replaced by Backup Interceptor Control at Fallon Naval Air Station by 1970 . In February 1959 , the Los Angeles Air Defense Sector was activated during deployment of SAGE as a subordinate unit of the 27th AD . However , the Denver SCC / CC was cancelled on March tbd , 1959 ; so instead of moving from the Southwest United States to the Zone of Interior ( and the 28th Air Division then taking over as the Southwestern Air Division ) , the 27th Air Division was inactivated on October 1 , 1959 ( command transferred to the subordinate Los Angeles Air Defense Sector ) . Luke AFB . Reactivated in January 1966 at Luke AFB , the 27th AD consolidation the Los Angeles and Phoenix Air Defense Sector s , and the division assumed the additional designation of 27th NORAD Region after activation of the NORAD Combat Operations Center at Cheyenne Mountain , Colorado . The Norton AFB SAGE Direction Center closed in June 1966 ( the Luke AFB DC was 1 of 6 still open in 1970 ) . When the 27th AD was inactivated in 1969 , command of its components transferred to the 26th Air Division ( March AFB CA ) , and a 1987 reorganization placed sites " under the Southwest Air Defense Sector of the 25th Air Division . " Lineage . Assignments Stations Components . Sector Wings Groups Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron Fighter Squadrons Radar squadrons Vol II