CIC: Combat Information Center

The ship's informational nerve center: CIC, or, Combat Information Center.

NPS Photo/Messing

Quick Facts

Location:

USS CASSIN YOUNG

For centuries, “combat information” aboard ships came largely from what the crew could see with their own eyes. Then in the beginning of the 1900s, radio, RADAR, and underwater sound detection equipment meant that every ship collected a massive amount of information all at once. By the 1930s, the U.S. Navy began to organize rooms specifically to collect, organize, and then transmit information. This room became the “Combat Information Center,” or, CIC. CIC, however, is just one central element to a larger 4-deck “stack” of critical information and navigational needs.

Inside CIC itself are RADAR operating stations, charts, and circuits to all the other operations and communications stations. The crew inside Combat Information Center took in, verbally, all sightings from lookouts, RADAR operators, and underwater sound operators. Furthermore they took in other communications coming from inside and outside the ship, as well as the navigational data about the course and speed of the ship. With this data, the CIC crew filtered and evaluated everything happening around them. They disseminated critical information to the Bridge and the Commanding Officer, gunnery crews, as well as other ships and aircraft. In short, they constantly maintained giving a real-time picture of everything happening relative to the ship.

Above CIC on the next level is Radio Central and the Chart Room. Inside Radio Central, an officer decoded sensitive cryptographic information, while radiomen managed voice and Morse code communications between ships and aircraft. In the Chart Room, the ship's navigator plotted the course of the ship and ensured the ship avoided hazardous waters.

On the next deck above is the Bridge and the Sonar Room. The Bridge served as the operational center of command. The Commanding Officer or the designated Officer of the Deck traditionally commanded from this station and issued orders. Inside the Sonar Room, technicians constantly screened for underwater threats from submarines.

Immediately below CIC is IC (Internal Communications) and Plot. This compartment houses the most vital and technologically advanced equipment on the entire ship: All internal communication and alarm circuits, the ship's gyroscopic compass, and the Mark 1A naval gun targeting computer, used to target and track a ship or aircraft.

Under fire, in rough seas, along other ships, or completely alone, this "stack" of operation and communication stations required a great deal of determination and skill.