[MilCom] NORAD

[josh_75 at earthlink.net]

 Missile Crews to Leave NORAD Site, Report

Secretive complex in Colo. mountains used to monitor North American skies




July 28, 2006
The Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The military is virtually closing the secretive
defense complex carved into Cheyenne Mountain that for decades has
monitored North American skies for threats, a newspaper reported.

The Denver Post reported late Thursday that the North American Aerospace
Defense Command operations center will be moved to nearby Peterson Air
Force Base, which is home to the U.S. Northern Command created after the
Sept. 11 attacks.

NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian command, was set up in the 1960s to
monitor the skies for threats like missiles, aircraft and space objects.

Adm. Tim Keating, who commands both NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command,
said the government’s best intelligence “leads us to believe a missile
attack from China or Russia is very unlikely.”

That, along with the emergence of varied terrorist threats such as suicide
bombers, “is what recommends to us that we don’t need to maintain Cheyenne
Mountain in a 24/7 status. We can put it on ‘warm standby,”’ Keating told
the newspaper.

Keating was scheduled to make the announcement Friday. He said 230
surveillance crew members and an undetermined number of the support staff
will make the move within two years.

A SYMBOL OF THE COLD WAR

About 1,100 people work in the mountain, long a symbol of the Cold War.
Buildings inside it are mounted on springs to absorb the shock from a
nuclear blast, while the entrance is guarded by a vault-like door several
feet thick.

The complex includes banks of batteries and its own water supply.
Excavation on the site began in 1961.

Canadian crews stationed at Cheyenne Mountain will also make the move to
Peterson, Keating said.

Air Force Space Command, which monitors objects in space, is looking into
moving its operations out of the mountain to Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California, which would leave the mountain virtually empty.

Keating said he would like to keep the complex in usable shape, with the
goal of being able to bring it online in an hour.

Modernizing NORAD has cost more than $700 million since the Sept. 11
attacks, with the work still incomplete, according to a recent
congressional probe, and operating the complex costs about $250 million a
year.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14070502/