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Why is the military moving back into base deep under the Rocky Mountains?
Daily Mail ^ | 4/8/15 | James Nye

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 ...


TOPICS: Government; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: cheyenne; coldwar2; colorado; crimea; donetsk; military; norad; putinsbuttboys; russia; ukraine; vladtheimploder; wyoming
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I feel a sense of relief to see this supremely defensible command center coming back into use.


1 posted on 04/08/2015 2:49:04 PM PDT by Teflonic
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To: Teflonic
I feel a sense of relief to see this supremely defensible command center coming back into use.

I wonder why it is coming back now.

2 posted on 04/08/2015 2:53:07 PM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Teflonic

Why is the military moving back into base deep under the Rocky Mountains?

Obama ?


3 posted on 04/08/2015 2:54:36 PM PDT by molson209 (Blank)
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To: Teflonic
The Cheyenne mountain bunker is a half-acre cavern carved into a mountain

That seems a little on the small side to me. Is the cavern into the complex a half acre wide and the complex itself still yet larger?

4 posted on 04/08/2015 2:54:45 PM PDT by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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To: molson209

My tinfoil hat tells me they know something we do not.


5 posted on 04/08/2015 2:55:55 PM PDT by refermech
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To: Teflonic
"half-acre"

I suspect that it is a whole lot larger than this.

6 posted on 04/08/2015 2:56:05 PM PDT by Truth29
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To: Teflonic

I’m not sure what they thought they were gaining by moving out of there in the first place.
But, good to see that NORAD is content that Obama has made the world a safer place. Yep, they appear completely content with the Russian reset. They seem to be not at all worried about the Iranians or North Koreans firing an EMP device from a container ship. Whew, now I can sit back and relax knowing that the government will secure the borders, protect me and take care of me.


7 posted on 04/08/2015 2:57:07 PM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: Teflonic

Certainly not because Iran has said time and time again that they’re not trying to build high yield nukes but one they could use as an EMP over America.

And you could probably do that with a small number of centrifuges too...


8 posted on 04/08/2015 2:57:19 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: Teflonic
"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 . . ."

You may be happy that they are re-commissioning the base, but the fact that they ARE re-commissioning it - in an era of Obama military downsizing - is rather ominous. It suggests that they are taking the threat of an EMP attack seriously.

That's very much a good news/bad news situation - good news that they are taking it seriously, bad news that they seem to be preparing for a likely strike. The intelligence community may have reliable information that such an attack is already in the planning stages.
9 posted on 04/08/2015 2:57:22 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Teflonic

Why don’t we ask Col Jack O’neill or Major Carter....or General Hammond, or T’ealc or Daniel Jackson...their cover got exposed in a show called Wormhole Extreme!


10 posted on 04/08/2015 2:58:25 PM PDT by AndyTheBear
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To: refermech

Probably has something to do with the “historic agreement” we think we have with Iran.


11 posted on 04/08/2015 2:58:39 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: refermech
"My tinfoil hat tells me they know something we do not."

That's not tinfoil-hat speculation, it's almost certainly true.
12 posted on 04/08/2015 2:58:46 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Truth29

“I suspect that it is a whole lot larger than this. “

Just the stargate alone takes up more space than that.


13 posted on 04/08/2015 2:58:55 PM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: Teflonic
Why is the military moving back into base deep under the Rocky Mountains?

Because the idiot which was elected by a coalition of idiocy and evil, has now made it far more likely that nuclear weapons will hit American soil.

May his name be cursed forever.

14 posted on 04/08/2015 3:00:09 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: Teflonic

Recent declassification of EMP studies by the U.S. government has begun to draw attention to this dire threat. Rogue nations such as North Korea (and possibly Iran) will soon match Russia and China and have the primary ingredients for an EMP attack: simple ballistic missiles such as Scuds that could be launched from a freighter near our shores; space-launch vehicles able to loft low-earth-orbit satellites; and simple low-yield nuclear weapons that can generate gamma rays and fireballs.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/james-woolsey-and-peter-vincent-pry-the-growing-threat-from-an-emp-attack-1407885281 - April 2014


15 posted on 04/08/2015 3:00:15 PM PDT by McGruff (I'm thinkin)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

Probably talking about main control room being 1/2 acre.


16 posted on 04/08/2015 3:01:01 PM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: Truth29
I watched a documentary on the place years ago and the cavern is quite high, there are multistory buildings built on giant spring foundations:


17 posted on 04/08/2015 3:01:04 PM PDT by Teflonic
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To: thorvaldr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain_Complex

The complex was built under 2,000 feet (610 m) of granite on five acres.[13] Fifteen three-story buildings are protected from movement by an 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.[14] A total of more than 1,000 springs are designed to prevent any of the 15 buildings from shifting more than one inch.[14] The complex is the only high altitude Department of Defense facility certified to be able to sustain an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).[14] There is a large quantity of cots for most of the personnel and suites for "top brass" within the nuclear bunker. Amenities include a medical facility, store, cafeteria,[14] and fitness centers inside and outside the mountain.[8]

18 posted on 04/08/2015 3:01:06 PM PDT by Truth29
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To: Teflonic

Because we have a dumbass, chickenshirt President and we are in big danger.


19 posted on 04/08/2015 3:01:26 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: McGruff

When this topic came up a year or two ago, some Freepers were poo-pooing the very possibility of an EMP attack, and saying that preparing for such an event was just a way of justifying increased federal meddling in local utility companies.


20 posted on 04/08/2015 3:02:45 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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