The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is a military
installation and defensive bunker located
in unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado,
next to the city of Colorado Springs, at the
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, which
hosts the activities of several tenant units.
Also located in Colorado Springs is Peterson
Air Force Base, where the North American Aerospace
Defense Command (NORAD) and United States
Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) headquarters
are located.
== Overview ==
Formerly the center for the United States
Space Command and NORAD, the Complex monitored
the air space of Canada and the United States
for missiles, space systems, and foreign aircraft
through its worldwide early-warning system.
Since 2008, NORAD and the United States Space
Command have been based at Peterson Air Force
Base and the complex, re-designated as an
air force station, is used for flight crew
training and as a back-up command center if
required.The military complex has included,
in the past, many units of NORAD, U.S. Space
Command, Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM),
Air Force Systems Command, Air Weather Service,
and Federal Emergency Management (FEMA). The
complex's communication center is also used
by the nearby U.S. Civil Defense Warning Center.
== Facilities ==
=== 
Main chambers ===
The complex was built under 2,000 feet (610
m) of granite on 2 hectares (5 acres). Fifteen
three-story buildings are protected from movement,
e.g. earthquake or explosion, by a system
of giant springs that the buildings sit on
and flexible pipe connectors to limit the
operational effect of movement. A total of
more than 1,000 springs are designed to prevent
any of the 15 buildings from shifting more
than one inch. The complex is the only high-altitude
Department of Defense facility certified to
be able to sustain an electromagnetic pulse
(EMP). There is a large quantity of cots for
most of the personnel, including suites for
high-ranking officers within the bunker. Amenities
include a medical facility, store, cafeteria,
and fitness centers inside and outside the
mountain.
=== Blast doors ===
The bunker is built to deflect a 30 megaton
nuclear explosion as close as 2 kilometers
(1.2 mi). Within a mountain tunnel are sets
of 25-ton blast doors and another for the
civil engineering department. The doors were
built so that they can always be opened when
needed. Should a nuclear blast hit the building,
they are designed to withstand a blast wave.
There is a network of blast valves with unique
filters to capture airborne chemical, biological,
radiological, and nuclear contaminants.
=== Outdoor ===
Outside of the military complex are the parking
lots, a heliport, a fire station, and outdoor
recreational facilities. The recreational
amenities include Mountain Man Park, picnic
areas, a racquetball facility, softball field,
sand volleyball court, basketball court, a
putting green, and horseshoe area. A military
gate limits NORAD Road usage from the State
Highway 115 interchange.
=== Support area ===
The complex has its own power plant, heating
and cooling system, and water supply and it
is the job of the 21st Mission Support Group
to ensure that there is a 99.999% degree of
reliability of its electricity, water, air
conditioning, power, and other support systems.
The threats, in descending order of likelihood,
that the complex may face are "medical emergencies,
natural disasters, civil disorder, a conventional
attack, an electromagnetic pulse attack, a
cyber or information attack, chemical or biological
or radiological attack, an improvised nuclear
attack, a limited nuclear attack, [and] a
general nuclear attack." The least likely
events are the most hazardous.There is more
water produced by mountain springs than the
base needs, and a 1.5-million-gallon reservoir
ensures that even in event of fire, there
is enough water to meet the facility's needs.
A reservoir of 4.5 million gallons of water
is used as a heat sink. There is a "massive"
reservoir for diesel fuel and a "huge" battery
bank with redundant power generators.
== History ==
=== Construction and systems installation
===
The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
was established and activated at the Ent Air
Force Base on September 12, 1957. This command
is a bi-national organization, of Canadian
and United States Air Defense Command units,
in accordance with NORAD Agreements first
made on May 12, 1958. In the late 1950s, a
plan was developed to construct a command
and control center in a hardened facility
as a Cold War defensive strategy against long-range
Soviet bombers, ballistic missiles, and a
nuclear attack.In 1957, the Strategic Air
Command began construction in New England
inside Bare Mountain for a hardened bunker
to contain the command post for the 8th Air
Force, which was located at nearby Westover
Air Force Base, Chicopee, Massachusetts. This
underground facility was nicknamed "The Notch"
(or formally as the 8th AF "Post-Attack Command
and Control System Facility, Hadley") and
was hardened to protect it from the effects
of a nearby nuclear blast and designed so
that the senior military staff could facilitate
further military operations. Four years later,
construction at Cheyenne Mountain was started
to create a similar protection for the NORAD
command post. Cheyenne Mountain was excavated
under the supervision of the Army Corps of
Engineers for the construction of the NORAD
Combat Operations Center beginning on May
18, 1961, by Utah Construction & Mining Company.The
Space Defense Center and the Combat Operations
Center achieved full operational capability
on February 6, 1967. The total cost was $142.4
million. Its systems included a command and
control system developed by Burroughs Corporation.
The electronics and communications system
centralized and automated the instantaneous
(one-millionth of a second) evaluation of
aerospace surveillance data. The Space Defense
Center moved from Ent AFB to the complex in
1965. The NORAD Combat Operations Center was
fully operational April 20, 1966 and The Space
Defense Command's 1st Aerospace Control Squadron
moved to Cheyenne Mountain that month. The
following systems or commands became operational
between May and October, 1966: The NORAD Attack
Warning System, Combat Operations Command,
and Delta I computer system, which recorded
and monitored every detected space system.
By January 4, 1967, the National Civil Defense
Warning Center was in the bunker.
=== Operations and improvements ===
==== 
Air Defense Command satellite systems ====
System Development Corporation updated Air
Defense Command satellite information processing
systems for $15,850,542 on January 19, 1973.
The improvements were primarily to the Space
Computational Center's displays and application
software, which was updated to provide real-time
positioning of orbiting space systems for
the NORAD Combat Operation Center. The first
phase, which established a system integrator
and modernized the communications to a major
data processing system, was completed in October
1972.
==== Ballistic Missile Defense Center ====
The Ballistic Missile Defense Center (BMDC)
BW 1.2 release was installed in February 1974
in the Combat Operations Center, under the
command of CONAD. The Safeguard command and
control system, operated by the commander,
communicated warnings, observation data, and
attack assessment to the Combat Operations
Center. It was also designed to release nuclear
weapons.
==== Combat Operations Center ====
By 1978, five operating centers and a command
post resided within the NORAD Combat Operations
Center. The Space Computational Center catalogued
and tracked space objects. The Intelligence
Center analyzed intelligence data. Data was
consolidated and displayed in the Command
Post by the System Center. The Weather Support
Unit monitored local and global weather patterns.
The NORAD Commander's wartime staff reported
to the Battle Staff Support Center.
==== Space Defense Operations Center ====
The Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC),
established on October 1, 1979, consolidated
United States Air Force satellite survivability,
space surveillance, and US ASAT operations
into one wartime space activities hub at the
NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Space surveillance
and missile warning functions were performed
by the Core Processing Segment (CPS) using
Worldwide Military Command and Control System's
Honeywell H6080 computers at the SPADOC Computational
Center (SCC) and NORAD Computer System (NCS).
A third computer was operational backup for
SCC or NCS. By 1981, the H6080 failed to meet
the requirements for timely computations.
SPADATS was deactivated about 1980, although
some of its logic continued on in SPADOC systems.
==== Cheyenne Mountain Complex Improvements
Program (427M) ====
NORAD had a series of warning and assessment
systems that were not fully automated in the
Cheyenne Mountain complex into the 1970s.
In 1979, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex Improvements
Program 427M system became fully operational.
It was a consolidated Cheyenne Mountain Upgrade
program for command center, space, ballistic
missile, and space functions, developed using
new software technology and designed for computers
with large processing capacity. There were
three major segments of the 427M system: the
Communication System Segment (CSS), NORAD
Computer System (NCS), and Space Computational
Center (SCC). The 425L Command and Control
System, Display Information Processor, Command
Center Processing System, and other hardware
were replaced by the NORAD Computer System
(NCS). The new system was designed to centralize
several databases, improve on-line display
capabilities, and consolidate mission warning
information processing and transmission. It
was intended to have greater reliability and
quicker early warning capability. The Command
Center Processing System's original UNIVAC
1106, re-purposed for Mission Essential Back-up
Capability (MEBU), was upgraded to the more
robust UNIVAC 1100/42. The 427M system, intended
to modernize systems and improve performance,
was initially "wholly ineffective" and resulted
in several failures of the Worldwide Military
Command and Control System (WWMCCS) system.In
1979 and 1980, there were a few instances
when false missile warnings were generated
by the Cheyenne Mountain complex systems.
For instance, a computer chip "went haywire"
and issued false missile warnings, which raised
the possibility that a nuclear war could be
started accidentally, based upon incorrect
data. Staff analyzed the data and found that
the warnings were erroneous and the systems
were updated to identify false alarms. Gen.
James V. Hartinger of the Air Force stated
that "his primary responsibility is to provide
Washington with what he calls 'timely, unambiguous,
reliable warning' that a raid on North America
has begun." He explained that there are about
6,700 messages generated on average each hour
in 1979 and 1980 and all had been processed
without error. An off-site testing facility
was established in Colorado Springs by NORAD
in late 1979 or early 1980 so that system
changes could be tested off-line before they
were moved into production. Following another
failure in 1980, a bad computer chip was updated
and staff and commander processes were improved
to better respond to warnings.The Cheyenne
Mountain Upgrade (CMU) of November 1988, designed
to consolidate five improvement programs,
was not installed because it was not compatible
with other systems at Cheyenne Mountain and
it did not meet the defined specifications
according to deficiencies identified during
testing. The five improvement programs were
the CCPDS Replacement (CCPDS-R), CSS Replacement
(CSS-R), Granite Sentry upgrade, SCIS, and
SPADOC 4. SPADOC 4 was for upgrading the SCC
with primary and backup 3090-200J mainframes),
and SPADOC 4 block A achieved initial operating
capability (IOC) in April 1989. The CSS-R
"first element" achieved IOC on April 12,
1991; and the 427M system was replaced c. 1992.
The CSSR, SCIS, Granite Sentry, CCPDS-R, and
their interfaces were tested in 1997. Testing
of Granite Sentry nuclear detonation (NUDET)
data processing system found it to be inadequate.
==== Joint Surveillance System ====
The Joint Surveillance System (JSS), developed
under an agreement with the Canadian government,
became fully operational in seven Region Operations
Control Centers (ROCCs) on December 23, 1983.
The Joint Surveillance System was implemented
to replace Semi-Automatic Ground Environment
(SAGE).
==== Survivable Communications Integration
System ====
In 1986, Congress approved development of
the Survivable Communications Integration
System (SCIS) to communicate missile warning
messages simultaneously over many forms of
media, but it was subject to delays and cost
overruns. By 1992, the project was estimated
to be delayed to 1995 and cost projected to
increase from $142 million to $234 million.
==== Other systems ====
By 1992, the U.S. Space Command Space Surveillance
Center (SSC) was the data analysis and tracking
center for Baker-Nunn camera images and Cheyenne
Mountain was connected to the AN/URC-117 Ground
Wave Emergency Network (GWEN) communication
site in Pueblo, Colorado. By 1995, the AN/FPS-129
HAVE STARE (Globus II) radar in Norway had
been upgraded to "relay data to Cheyenne Mountain",
and by October 1995 the 1st Command and Control
Squadron (1CACS) in the bunker was providing
space collision avoidance data to the Cheyenne
Mountain Operations Center's space control
center.In June 1993, the Cheyenne Mountain
Complex Operations Center had the USSPACE
and NORAD Command Center, NORAD Air Defense
Operations Center (ADOC), NORAD/USSPACECOM
Combined Intelligence Watch Center (CIWC),
USSPACECOM Space Defense Operations Center
(SPADOC), USSPACECOM Space Surveillance Center
(SSC), AFSPACECOM Weather Operations Center,
and the AFSPACECOM Systems Center within its
facility.Plans to house the USSPACECOM and
NORAD command centers in the same location
began by July 1994. A $450 million upgrade
was made to the missile warning center beginning
in February 1995. The effort was part of a
$1.7 billion renovation program for Cheyenne
Mountain.The Combatant Commander's Integrated
Command and Control System (CCIC2S) program
began in 2000 with a Lockheed Martin contract
"to upgrade all of the mission systems within
Cheyenne Mountain, which included the space
surveillance systems" for delivery in 2006.
The portion of CCIC2S modernizing "attack
warning systems within Cheyenne Mountain [was
to] cost more than $700 million from fiscal
years 2000 to 2006", and the delayed CCIC2S
upgrades for space surveillance were superseded
by systems for the Joint Space Operations
Center's Space C2 program and Integrated Space
Situational Awareness program.By 2003, consoles
for the Ground-Based Mid-Course Defense (GMD)
had been contracted for Cheyenne Mountain,
and the planned 18 month Cheyenne Mountain
Realignment to move Command Center operations
to Peterson AFB was complete by May 13, 2008.
On August 3, 2011, a ribbon cutting was held
for the January 2010 – June 30, 2011, Missile
Warning Center renovation funded by USSTRATCOM.Over
the years, the installation came to house
elements of the North American Aerospace Defense
Command (NORAD), U.S. Strategic Command, U.S.
Air Force Space Command and U.S. Northern
Command (USNORTHCOM). Under what became known
as the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center
(CMOC), several centers supported the NORAD
missions of aerospace warning and aerospace
control and provided warning of ballistic
missile or air attacks against North America.
=== Peterson and Vandenberg Air Force Bases
===
On July 28, 2006, the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate
was re-designated as the Cheyenne Mountain
Division, with the mission to assist in establishing
an integrated NORAD and USNORTHCOM Command
Center within the headquarters building at
Peterson Air Force Base. The Unified Space
Vault and the Space Control Center were moved
from Cheyenne Mountain to the Joint Space
Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force
Base about October 2007.In 2006, NORAD relocated
to a basement in the Peterson No. 2 building
at the nearby Peterson AFB. Northern Command
and Space Command and Canadian military defense
partners relocated at Peterson. The Cheyenne
Mountain complex is maintained by a skeleton
crew and no longer operates on a 24/7 basis.
The complex is on "warm standby", meaning
it is only staffed when required.On the fiftieth
anniversary of the NORAD agreement—May 12,
2008—the Command Center located within Cheyenne
Mountain Complex was officially re-designated
as the NORAD and USNORTHCOM Alternate Command
Center. The Cheyenne Mountain Division of
NORAD and USNORTHCOM was re-designated as
the J36 branch within the NORAD and USNORTHCOM's
Operations Directorates.
=== NORAD Alternate Command ===
Since 2002, the complex has been classed as
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and has
been used in crew qualification training,
while the former command function has been
redesignated as the "NORAD and USNORTHCOM
Alternate Command Center" since 2008 after
all the original functions of the complex
were removed to Peterson Air Force Base. The
complex is maintained by the 21st Mission
Support Group which provides support and maintenance
for the 'NORAD/USNORTHCOM's training, exercise
and alternate command center functions, U.S.
Strategic Command's Missile Warning Center,
Detachment 2 of the 17th Test Squadron, Air
Force Technical Applications Center's research
laboratory, the Defense Intelligence Agency's
Western Continental United States Regional
Service Center'. At its peak the Cheyenne
complex had 1,800–2,000 personnel; only
210 remain and the site's satellite dishes
and antenna masts are now owned and used by
commercial communication businesses.
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station is owned
and operated by Air Force Space Command. NORAD
and USNORTHCOM now use just under 30% of the
floor space within the complex and comprise
approximately 5% of the daily population at
Cheyenne Mountain. The Cheyenne Mountain Complex
serves as NORAD and USNORTHCOM's Alternate
Command Center and as a training site for
crew qualification. Day-to-day crew operations
for NORAD and USNORTHCOM typically take place
at Peterson Air Force Base.
=== Migration of NORAD communications to Cheyenne
Mountain ===
In early 2015, Admiral William Gortney, commander
of NORAD and NORTHCOM, announced a $700 million
contract with Raytheon to move systems into
the complex to shield it from electromagnetic
pulse attack, with additional work to be done
at Vandenberg and Offutt. According to Adm.
Gortney, "because of the very nature of the
way that Cheyenne Mountain's built, it's EMP-hardened.
And so, there's a lot of movement to put capability
into Cheyenne Mountain and to be able to communicate
in there".
== Units ==
Electronic Systems Division Detachment 10
at Ent AFB became the Cheyenne Mountain Complex
Management Office (CMCMO) in 1963, the year
the Chidlaw Combined Operations Center began
operations; and on February 15, 1980, ESD
Detachment 2 was established at the "Cheyenne
Mountain Complex" (Det 2 became the AFSC focal
point during the Cheyenne Mountain Upgrade.)
Aerospace Defense Command organizations in
the bunker became a specified command when
the major command ended in 1980; e.g., the
J31 unit of HQ NORAD/ADCOM subsequently manned
the Space Surveillance Center in the same
room as the Missile Warning Center (separated
by partitions). The "HQ Cheyenne Mountain
Support Group ... was activated at the Cheyenne
Mountain Complex" in October 1981 to support
the Aerospace Defense Center's operation of
the NORAD combat operations center". In 1983
the Foreign Technology Division had an operating
location at the bunker and in 1992, an airman
of the "1010th Civil Engineering Squadron
at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base" developed
a 3-D AutoCAD model of the bunker "to zoom
in on a specific room".By 1995 a "missile
operations section" supported the missile
warning center, and in 2001 the 1989 1CACS
at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station
was renamed the 1st Space Control Squadron.
On June 24, 1994, when the "Joint Task Force
— Cheyenne Mountain Operations organization
was brought online to take responsibility
for the installation", Brig. Gen. Donald Peterson
was the commander of the JTF, which was renamed
the "U.S. Space Command Cheyenne Mountain
operations center" by March 1995 (the unit
had an exercise branch in June 1996). On July
28, 2006, the Cheyenne Mountain Realignment
redesignated the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate
to the Cheyenne Mountain Division. Circa 2004
the bunker included the 17th Test Squadron's
Detachment 2 and AFTAC's research laboratory,
in 2008 Detachment 1 of the 392d Training
Squadron operated the Cheyenne Mountain Training
System (CMTS), and in 2011 the installation's
721st SFS was expanded.
== In popular culture ==
WarGames (1983) is set partly at the command
center. In the Terminator series, it was used
as the installation site for Skynet. In Independence
Day (1996), and Independence Day: Resurgence
(2016), aliens destroy the installation.
In games, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of
Steel (2001) uses the complex for cryogenic
stasis after a nuclear war, and Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare 2 uses video footage of the
base.
In novels, the bunker is destroyed in The
Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), and is also
referred to as being destroyed during the
'Final War' of nearly a millennium earlier
in the Honorverse, is infiltrated in For Special
Services (1982), and serves as the seat of
government for the United States after the
alien invasion in Footfall (1985). It is an
early command center for the human resistance
in L. Ron Hubbard's novel, Battlefield Earth:
A Saga of the Year 3000 (1982). The bunker
is the site of a biosphere that houses the
main characters during an apocalyptic alien
invasion in Nicholas Sansbury Smith's Orbs
series.
In television, Stargate SG-1 Stargate Command
is located at Cheyenne Mountain. There is
now a broom closet in the real Cheyenne Mountain
Complex called "Stargate Command". The bunker
is also a setting in the series Jeremiah.
Episode 7 of the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
OVA features the Cheyenne Mountain Complex
being controlled by the Earth Federation.
In an episode of South Park season 4, episode
12, "Trapper Keeper" sets off to Cheyenne
Mountain to absorb the secret military base's
computer.
== See also ==
Kosvinsky Kamen – a potential Soviet/Russian
counterpart
Mount Yamantau – a potential Soviet/Russian
counterpart
North American Aerospace Defense Command
Raven Rock Mountain Complex
Aerospace Defense Command
United States Space Command
Related Colorado Springs military installations
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station
Peterson Air Force Base
Ent Air Force Base
Chidlaw Building
== Notes
