UAC

The UAC is an acronym that appears as part of a logo on various textures in the Doom games and stands for the "Union Aerospace Corporation", a fictional multi-planetary conglomerate (possibly a megacorporation) that operates facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, where Doom takes place. The facilities on the two moons were used by the military to conduct various classified projects, including experimental inter-dimensional travel through teleporters (called "gateways"). This project grew unstable, and project "volunteers" began to suffer from a violent form of progressive homicidal insanity culminating in a sudden, explosive death. The story of the games begins after distress messages sent from the moons reach Mars, where the protagonist is stationed.



Not much detail is given about the UAC's activities given the sketchy nature of the plot of the games, but it is made clear that before the invasion took place the UAC had been researching technology used for teleportation as a major contractor to the military, which may explain why their facilities were guarded by marines (such as the player character).

As is evident during progress in the games, the populations of the UAC facilities are either killed or possessed by the hellish invaders unleashed by the teleportation experiments. In Doom II, which takes place on Earth, there are occasional UAC logos throughout the levels, indicating that the protagonist enters various areas owned by, operated by, or associated to the UAC on Earth.

Both games include crates of various sizes containing unknown materials which are marked with the UAC logo. A clear sign that the UAC develops military technology is the "UAC rockets" label on the boxes of rockets the player may pick up as ammunition for the rocket launcher.

The UAC logo is composed of two flattened spherical shapes with a smaller triangular space between them. The acronym is often written beneath the shapes using the customary rounded font of the games.

The UAC in Doom 3


With Doom 3, a retelling of the original Doom, the story is given greater depth of detail through the player's interaction with human characters, PDAs, cut scenes, and scripted events. The intro to Doom 3 describes the UAC as the largest corporate entity in existence with unlimited government funding and the ability to operate outside legal and moral obligations.

The facilities where the experiments take place and the marine battles the invaders are in Mars instead of its moons. Increased focus is placed on the importance of the UAC research being conducted (specifically research under the guidance of Malcolm Betruger) by a division called "Delta Labs". Like in the original games, a great deal of the UAC's research seems to be focused on teleportation, although experimentation with species retrieved from beyond the teleporters is also seen.

In Doom 3, the UAC on Mars was secretly aware of the existence of Hell even before the invasion. On the orders of Betruger, Delta Labs sent teams through the portals to capture demons for study.

In Doom 3 the UAC logo has a roughly triangular shape, with the acronym written near the bottom or base, although a logo fashioned after the original appears frequently on some machinery, and is seen exclusively in the older Mars caverns areas.

In the aftermath of the events of Doom 3 the UAC covers up the truth about demon invasion on Mars and blames the destruction of the facility on a mechanical accident. Then, two years after the events of Doom 3, they send another science team to Mars to investigate a mysterious transmission coming from the abandoned Site 1 dig site.

The UAC in Doom (2016)
The UAC in Doom (2016) functions much like it's predecessors, except it's main goal and export is Argent energy, extracted from Hell for use in solving energy crises afflicting humanity, with the teleportation technology and other technology such as weaponry and other items being secondary to this objective, though research into Hell itself is pursued by the UAC despite known risks like in Doom 3.

While the actual owners of the UAC were left ambiguous in the classic games and Doom 3, Samuel Hayden is explicitly confirmed as the director of the UAC in Doom (2016), while Dr. Olivia Pierce is both Hayden's protege and an analogue to Dr. Malcom Betruger from Doom 3.

The UAC greatly resembles the "techbase" levels of the classic games initially, though demon corruption partially or completely warps portions of it's facilities, again as depicted in all preceding games, though even the unaffected portions of the UAC facilities have lava style traps derived from furnaces and forge areas, especially as depicted in early areas visited by the Doom Slayer.

The UAC's primary facilities are supposed to be central to Mars, though it's confirmed they exist on the Martian moons like Phobos and Earth, given the megacorp reach it has similar to previous games.

Curiously, while previous incarnations of the UAC had a clear divide between civilian and military personnel, access to weaponry is segregated according to employee levels in Doom (2016), indicating a clear merger of military and civilian roles in regards to whom is trusted with military ordinance in a rank based system.

Another curious aspect is that while the UAC was never implied to be anything other a purely secular based megacorp that discovered Hell as an incidental to other goals in prior games, Hell is explicitly known and identified and attempts to harness the Argent Energy of Hell knowing full well what it is derived from are a conscious goal of the UAC. Given the corrupting influence of Hell is both well known and a studied phenomenon, the UAC curiously seems to have slowly subverted by it's continued exploitation of Hell, as it's holographic support system and various company memos indicate a form of religious cult or at least the trappings of one were growing inside the corporate structure before the events of the game. Even more curiously, Samuel Hayden was somewhat aware of this, but apparently chose to ignore it so long as it did not become a serious problem for the primary goals of the corporation.

The UAC in the Doom movie
The UAC has a role in the Doom movie as well, but their ambitions and scientific work deviate somewhat from those in the games, as they focus on genomic research, even though teleportation is also used as a form of transportation between Earth and Mars. It should be noted, however, that genomic research was mentioned in Doom 3. The genomic research in the movie focuses on a 24th chromosome which makes humans exceptionally strong and enduring and enhances or exacerbates their moral inclinations. In the movie the UAC operates on Mars and the brunt of the action takes place in the "Olduvai Research Station".

UAC websites
For the promotion of Doom 3, id Software created a bogus UAC website. The "trajectory" mentioned on the site had two meanings. Within the context of the game, it represented the estimated arrival time to Mars of the shuttle that carried Swann, Campbell, and the player's Marine. In respect to the game as a product, it was actually a countdown to its release date. The site currently redirects to the id Software website (since early December 2005) but an archived copy can be accessed at the Internet Archive.

On the official website for Doom RPG, there were links to a website, convincingly designed in the style of a large business company's home site. Many of the links led to Access Denied pages to give an impression of confidentiality, but it displayed some information on the fictional history of the UAC.

It was stated that the UAC was founded in 2015 by Thomas Kelliher, and is, at the time of Doom RPG, a global leader in energy, defense, aerospace, and bioresearch sectors. It expanded from a media conglomerate into aerospace by buying out and combining most of the then-floundering commercial aerospace industry, and made a name for itself in the field of outer space exploration by mounting a joint expedition to Mars in 2025. Statements by the company indicate that it controls territories on Earth and acts, to a large extent, as a de facto government, with its capitol in Washington, D.C., where a monument to Thomas Kelliher has been built. The company is under the control of his son Ian at this time, who is stated to be expanding the scope of quantum physics research on the currently underground Martian colony.

Trivia

 * The preliminary Doom Bible includes a fictitious military entity called the "UAAF" (which stands for "United Aerospace Armed Forces") that employs the player characters, although the UAC is also mentioned. The acronym "UAC" is not clarified, and is used primarily to mark a clean "Star Wars Imperial or 2001" style in the facilities built by an interstellar construction company named "StarStruct, Inc." Details of what specific role the UAC itself plays in the events are sketchy, however. The UAC and the UAAF operate on a fictional planet or moon called Tei Tenga, not on Mars and its moons.


 * Official or custom levels depicting UAC facilities are often called "techbase" or "UAC base" levels by fans. The word "base" is commonly used for military facilities, and appears in the core Doom games in E1M9: Military Base from Doom (which incidentally does not display any UAC logos) and MAP10: Refueling Base from Doom II.