Advanced communications center
From Command and Conquer Wiki
The advanced communications center was an advanced GDI structure, a development of the regular communications center. It was a single story structure with most of its facilities, including the mainframe, command center and briefing room located on the subterranean level. The center had a massive antenna as an integral part of its workings shooting upwards from the structure as well as a massive satellite dish for relaying coordinates and other targetting data to the ion cannons in orbit. Additionally, the mainframes of the center allowed for downloading all the necessary blueprints and protocols for the construction and deployment of the MLRS and the MCV.
The center required massive amounts of power to function, as the amount of electronic equipment needed for its smooth operation prevented the installation of backup power systems. In a case of a power shortage, there was a communications blackout and the ion cannon positioning software lost their targeting data feed. During First Tiberium War GDI often used the small GS-2 ion cannon targeting device during raids, an hand-placed ULF beacon that transmitted its position via an encrypted relay line to the Advanced Communications Center mainframes, allowing even pinpoint precision strike, like Nod did with a similar device (the Retribution) and with its Shrine of Nod missile facility for nuclear missiles targeting.
By the Second Tiberium War the equipment needed to contact orbital satellites had been greatly miniaturized and GDI engineers created the compact ion cannon uplink upgrade that could be installed into an upgrade center, thus communications centers were no longer necessary.
