Lincoln Lab is a large electromagnetic communications R&D center operated by MIT, and located on the edge of Hanscom Air Force Base, to which it is physically and financially connected. It was founded, off campus, in 1951 to continue research developed by the Rad Lab, the pioneering World War II radar lab at MIT. The lab is a leading developer of national missile detection systems (it developed the DEW line system and the SAGE system), and is one of the nation's pioneers in satellite communications, laser technologies, and advanced forms of radar, used mostly by military and intelligence organizations. More than 65 commercial companies and nonprofit labs have been spun off from Lincoln Lab.