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The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is a United States Space Force installation and defensive bunker located in unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado, next to the city of Colorado Springs, at the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, which hosts the activities of several tenant units. Also located in Colorado Springs is Peterson Space Force Base, where the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) headquarters are located. 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 Space Force Base and the complex, re-designated as an Air Force station, is used for 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 the Federal Emergency Management Agency (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 of granite on five 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 underground Department of Defense facility certified to be able to sustain a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP). There are 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 1.2 miles. 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 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. Support area The complex has its own power plant, heating and cooling system, and water supply. The 21st Mission Support Group ensures 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 requires, and a 1,500,000-gallon reservoir ensures that even in event of fire, there is enough water to meet the facility's needs. A reservoir of 4,500,000 gallon 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. The Command is a binational organization of Canadian (1 Canadian Air Division) and United States air defense command units, in accordance with NORAD Agreements first made on May 12, 1958.: 5, 16  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,: 18  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.: 20  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.: 20  The NORAD Combat Operations Center was fully operational April 20, 1966: 15  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,: 20  Combat Operations Command,: 19  and Delta I computer system, which recorded and monitored every detected space system.: 19  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.... Discover the David Lowe Tony Joel popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Lowe Tony Joel books.