98198. Mountain Nerve Center Remains Relevant to Warfighting

By Douglas J. Gillert

American Forces Press Service



	COLORADO SPRINGS -- Beneath the pine-studded granite

mass of Cheyenne Mountain lie 15 buildings as tall as three

stories. They rest on 1,319 springs that weigh 1,000 pounds

each and are designed to cushion the original vacuum-tube

computers against the shock of an earthquake or a nuclear

explosion. Rock bolts -- 115,000 of them ranging from 6 to

32 feet in length -- prevent the mountain from imploding on

the vast, high-tech cavern.

	DoD built the hidden fortress in the early 1960s, when

the fear of a Soviet nuclear attack was frighteningly real.

Inside Cheyenne Mountain were placed the computers and

telephones and people who would watch for incoming missiles

and notify the president if and when an attack on North

America occurred.

	Theirs was a doomsday scenario: In the event of such an

attack, the giant double-sets of doors at either end of the

access tunnel would swing shut and seal the underground

command post and its inhabitants from a world possibly gone

mad. Inside, there's enough food and water to sustain

hundreds for 30 days. By then, so the scenario goes, the

attack would be over and they could go outside to see what

remained of the civilization they were charged to defend.

	Thirty-three years after the complex began operations,

a cold Rocky Mountain wind blows and swirls snow around the

north entrance, or portal. You have to go through a security

police checkpoint and radar detector to get this far. Then,

you're moved by bus to the inner sanctum.

Although the complex remains fully operational, in

1998, Cheyenne Mountain, the stuff of science fiction and

Hollywood, is a popular tourist attraction. It is host to

more than 19,000 visitors annually.

	But what of its relevance to today's military? The

Soviets no longer pose a viable threat. Why does DoD

maintain this mysterious complex? Has the complex, in fact,

remained relevant to DoD operations for the '90s and beyond?

	"Absolutely," said Air Force Col. Gary Shugart, chief

of staff of the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center. "For

example, during Desert Storm, the [operations center] warned

American commanders and the Israelis of each incoming Scud

missile."

	Space-based communications satellites the complex

monitors detected targets before strikes and damage done

after strikes, and they provided commanders weather

information vital to combat operations planning and

execution, added Marine Maj. Jolene Hollingshead. And

stationary, radar-laden, hot-air balloons patrol the

southern U.S. border to detect illegal drug traffickers, an

increasing responsibility for DoD.

	Much of what goes on inside Cheyenne Mountain is

updated from 1960s operations. Some 1,250 people from all

the service branches and the Canadian armed forces staff

three separate elements: the North American Aerospace

Defense Command, U.S. Space Command and Air Force Space

Command.

	Their tasks are divided into work centers with varying

responsibilities. Each resembles what you'd imagine a

military operations center to look like, only smaller than

Hollywood usually depicts. Bright, back-lit maps of North

America, and some of the entire planet, reflect the watchful

gazes of duty officers whose ranks go as high as four stars.

The maps also reflect the constant flow of information

brought down from satellites by tracking stations and sent

by hardened microwave towers and fiber optics into the

bowels of Cheyenne Mountain.

	Heavy logbooks marked "Secret" and banks of telephones,

including the red one that links the NORAD-U.S. Space

Command commander in chief to the president, surround

computer suites in the tightly packed Combined Command

Center. Here, senior officers, including the CinC, Air Force

Gen. Howell M. Estes III, watch, wait and worry about

aircraft and missiles that could be targeted against North

America.

Another screen on the high walls shows the location of

the president, vice president, Canadian prime minister and

other senior government and military leaders. If one duty

officer lifts the beige phone from his console to sound a

warning, everyone here and in the work centers takes the

call and responds as necessary. Somebody always is on duty

inside Cheyenne Mountain.

	The NORAD Battle Management Center tracks nearly 3

million aircraft a year to prevent any overflight by hostile

aircraft and to detect cruise missile threats. Relevant? The

center tracked 670 "unknowns" in 1997, many of them

suspected drug traffickers. The center tracks these "UFOs,"

then turns such information over to other agencies, such as

the Drug Enforcement Administration, for action.

	The Missile Warning Center detects missile and rocket

launches anywhere on Earth and determines whether they

threaten North America or U.S. and Canadian troops stationed

overseas. Relevant? Twenty nations now have the capability

to launch ballistic missiles, according to Air Force Col.

Tim Kelly, director of the NORAD Space Operations Center.

	The Space Control Center detects, identifies, tracks

and catalogs all manmade objects in space, down to the size

of a six-inch bolt. Relevant? "More than 8,000 manmade

objects currently orbit Earth," Hollingshead said. Most of

these objects travel in near-earth orbit, at a speed of

17,000 miles per hour. "A small piece striking the space

shuttle at that speed would be catastrophic," she said.

	Maybe operations like this could be conducted someplace

else -- someplace more easily accessible, for example, than

the side of a mountain some 7,100 feet above sea level. But

DoD built the complex for just $142 million, and the General

Accounting Office estimates it would cost $18 billion to

duplicate today. It operates on an annual budget of only

about $175 million, Shugart said. And with today's interests

in cost efficiency, the complex operates without air

conditioners or heaters! The cave's natural temperature

stays between 50 and 55 degrees, while the compound's

computers generate the heat required to keep building

thermostats at 70 to 72 degrees.

	With Global Positioning System devices becoming common

in everything from Humvees to Harriers, Cheyenne Mountain

sensors are as relevant as ever, Shugart said. And, should

the United States follow through with plans for a ballistic

missile defense system, this ageless mountain conclave will

serve as its nerve center.



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A bus lumbers toward the tunnel entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs, shuttling workers back and forth from the secretive and heavily fortified compound. Inside, photos are strictly prohibited, while some 1,250 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, civilians and Canadian armed forces personnel work in the 15-building complex. Douglas J. Gillert

Before any vehicles can enter the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, they must pass a rigorous security police check inside a "cage" that prevents the vehicle from moving forward or back. This pickup truck was denied further access for unknown reasons, and within a few minutes the driver sped back down the mountainside toward nearby Peterson Air Force Base to rectify the problem. Douglas J. Gillert

Enjoying an unusually warm spring morning, military and civilian employees walk toward their jobs at the far end of the tunnel entrance to Cheyenne Mountain. Inside, they'll enjoy office temperatures of 70-72 degrees, warmed by heat generated by the complex's computers. Douglas J. Gillert