Alternate National Warning Facility

Formerly Nike missile site W-93L.

The Alternate National Warning Center is located in a protected underground Regional Federal Center at the Olney Special Facility near Olney, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington, DC. The Center has access to warning information at the same time it is available at NORAD. Both the National Warning Center (NWC) and the Alternate National Warning Center are staffed 24 hours per day and serve as the primary control for the National Warning System (NAWAS).

In case of attack, the center would sound the alarm over the National Warning System to warning points operated on a 24-hour basis in over 1,200 localities.