The Associated Press provides more detail on the reported plans of the North American Aerospace Defense Command to shut down Cheyenne Mountain:
Military may scale back operations at secretive base
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- The military is studying whether to dramatically scale back work done at the secretive Cheyenne Mountain complex, the heavily fortified underground installation that has been a Cold War-era icon for 40 years.
Details of the study were reported Friday by The Gazette newspaper, which said it was provided anonymously.
The Cheyenne Mountain center helps monitor North American skies, oceans and space for threats. [Influence Peddler Note: It is best known for tracking Santa.] It was built at a time the United States feared a Soviet nuclear attack.
The study was commissioned in February by Adm. Timothy Keating, chief of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.
It outlines plans to move Cheyenne Mountain's missile defense and air defense missions to the Peterson base, missile warning to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, home of Strategic Command, and the space mission to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Air Force Space Command confirmed that "plans are currently being developed to move the 1st Space Control Squadron to Vandenberg AFB."
"At this time, however, it is uncertain when that move will take place or what the costs will be," Space Command said.
The $100,000 study, originally slated for June release, has been delayed by at least a month, military spokesman Michael Perini told the newspaper. He said the study would not result in closing Cheyenne Mountain.
"There is no talk at this point of dismantling any portion of the command center at Cheyenne Mountain," Perini's statement said. But it said the center could be placed on "warm standby" status, a term that will be defined by the study.
A former senior government official familiar with the study told the Gazette it suggests moving 150 people, about a third of the Cheyenne Mountain work force, to Peterson to achieve "substantial savings." The official asked not to be named for fear of damaging his continuing relations with the military.
Over the past several years, a building at Peterson AFB was expanded to accommodate a NORAD operations center that has since become a joint facility shared with Northern Command, the new homeland defense arm created in 2002. U.S. Space Command became part of Strategic Command.
This truly marks the end of an era, folks: the Cold War isn't coming back. All my friends who studied guns and bombs in undergrad will have to find new lines of work.
By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News July 29, 2006
U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley said Friday he has grave concerns about the military's decision to move surveillance operations out of Cheyenne Mountain, southwest of Colorado Springs.
Hefley, a Republican whose district includes Colorado Springs, said the military has spent more than $700 million to modernize Cheyenne Mountain since Sept. 11, 2001.
Surveillance crews from both the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command will be transferred from the mountain to nearby Peterson Air Force Base, the military announced Friday.
"This unlikely move by NORAD and USNORTHCOM disappoints a great many of us who agreed to renovations in order to counteract worldwide terrorism," Hefley said Friday.
"We have dedicated enormous sums of money to the facility itself as well as to the advanced technologies needed for quick responses in the event of a national crisis."
Sen. Wayne Allard said the decision to move the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center should have been made in coordination with the Colorado congressional delegation.
"We want to review the decision report that was used to change the location of NORAD to make sure that our concerns are addressed," said Allard, a Republican. "I plan on working with the entire delegation to get this documentation before the plan moves forward."
About 230 Cheyenne Mountain surveillance crew members and an undetermined number of support staff members would move to Peterson during the next 18 months under a plan announced Friday.
No job losses are expected, and - in the long run - the consolidation is expected to cut operational costs, said Michael Kucharek, chief spokesman for NORAD and the Northern Command.
NORAD was founded by the United States and Canada in 1958 to monitor and defend North American airspace. Excavation and construction of the Cheyenne Mountain complex began in May 1961 and took nearly five years to complete.
"It was really designed for the Cold War, when we were worried about a nuclear strike from Russia or China on the U.S. homeland," Kucharek said. "And while those countries are still there, we think the threat has shifted."
Surveillance crews inside Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center work around the clock to provide warnings of missile launches and to monitor air traffic. Those crews will now move to Peterson, home of the Northern Command. "The change will enable the two commands to work more effectively together to fulfill their homeland defense missions, while acknowledging their distinctiveness," Lt. Gen. Eric Findley, NORAD deputy commander, said Friday.
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