Posted on 04/08/2015 2:49:04 PM PDT by Teflonic
The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is one of the icons of the Cold War - a self-contained and sufficient town buried under the Rockies meant to be impervious to a Soviet nuclear barrage.
It was home to the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), scanning the skies for Russian missiles and the military command and control center of the United States in the event of World War Three.
The high tech base entered popular culture with appearances in the 1983 Cold War thriller War Games and 1994's Stargate - which imagined the complex as a clandestine home for intergalactic travel.
It shut down nearly ten years ago as the threat from Russia seemed to subside, but this week the Pentagon announced that Cheyenne Mountain will once again be home to the most advanced tracking and communications equipment in the United States military.
The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command's sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said.
The Pentagon last week announced a $700 million contract with Raytheon Corporation to oversee the work for North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command.
Admiral William Gortney, head of NORAD and Northern Command, said that 'because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain's built, it's EMP-hardened.'
The Cheyenne mountain bunker is a half-acre cavern carved into a mountain in the 1960s that was designed to withstand a Soviet nuclear attack. From inside the massive complex, airmen were poised to send warnings that could trigger the launch of nuclear missiles.
But in 2006, officials decided to move the headquarters of NORAD and US Northern Command from Cheyenne to Petersen Air Force base in Colorado Springs. The Cheyenne bunker was designated as an alternative command center if needed.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I worked there in the early 70's and it is still hard to describe to people.
A half-acre footprint seems about right but the buildings are three-stories high so it seemed bigger.
The quarter-mile tunnel to get in also makes it seem much larger.
They also have a "lake" for a water supply.
It gives me an ominous feeling to read this after just reading the announcement about; “U.S. Military Prepares Martial Law Drills called Operation Jade Helm” in many U.S. cities. My city is included in this operation.
While I hate all the idiotic “green” regulations on businesses and products, it seems it would be prudent to places some EMP hardening requirements on certain civilian electronics. Maybe not coffee makers and toasters and other non necessary electronic items, but why not on all auto electronics, gas stations, switching electronics for electric and gas pipelines, hospital equipement, banking and ATM electronics, telecom systems, airlines, trains, etc. We should also make sure that our manufacturing facilities have EMP hardened electronic devices so that we can continue with manufacturing and replacement of parts in the even of a strike like that.
The military has some EMP hardened electronics, it seems it would be only prudent for the same to happen in certain civilian electronic applications. We could make it so that an EMP might be a big hassle, a mess, but not something that would have the potential to bring our country to its knees and be completely overrun by our enemies.
Maybe because every foreign power has had a shot at installing surveillance devices there by now?
Worried about an EMP attack...
Thanks for sharing your first hand experience with the place, seems like a very interesting place to work.
Because you cannot trust Obama to defend the country.
Obviously to film a movie.
thanks Obama!
*sigh*
Maybe they’re concerned about their ability to keep Santa Claus safe? CM is where they track him from.
P.S. It’s much larger than the article indicates.
The idea that they are preparing for a “likely strike” is very much a speculative statement. The very same thing can happen (i.e., Cheyenne Mountain) with the military preparing for an “unlikely strike” but it still having an outside “possibility”.
They have to prepare for the “unlikely” in order to not be caught by surprise and to preserve their capability of following up. This can all be from what China is doing, what North Korea is doing, what Russia is doing ... and then ... what Iran is doing (and that being the last on the list).
It’s always been a dangerous world.
An EMP attack that transports the US back to the Stone Age would be a greenie’s dream come true.
Yea, more like a half-acre per level.
Yea, more like a half-acre per level.
I was thinking along the same lines regarding Jade Helm. Is Colorado one of the states listed as a participant of the exercise? I also wonder when they plan to have the base operational again.
I was there at the time to look into building machines that could tunnel vertically, the thinking was if the silos got knocked out then they could put missiles way under ground and if attached the machines would tunnel up and they could launch missiles. Never did though
“Maybe because every foreign power has had a shot at installing surveillance devices there by now?”
LOLZ!!!
Half an acre would be 21,780 square feet.
Yes, I agree, this kind of news does set off the tin-foil antenna just a little bit.
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