NORAD and The Cheyenne Mountain Complex

hello and welcome back to another episode of mega projects i'm your host simon in this one uh i basically knew about this because i really liked the tv show stargate sg1 and all of the iterations of stargate i'm pretty sure that their base is at the cheyenne mountain complex but i'm not sure let's dive in [Music] this mountain contains a secret cheyenne mountain located in el paso county in colorado is the site of one of the most secretive and yet well-known military installations in the united states it was a place that electrified the imagination during the cold war as the spectre of a soviet attack loomed over the united states it was an attack that never materialized but if it had it would have been the north american aerospace defense command norad inside the cheyenne mountain complex that would have heard about it first norad is no longer primarily based in cheyenne mountain because they had to move out for the stargate people they now operate out of peterson air force base close by with the mountain complex held as a backup norad provides the united states and canada with an early warning system for its aerospace while maintaining air superiority along its borders should any foreign missile or unknown aeroplane approach norad is alerted which then triggers defensive protocols which we're going to go into later the military command complex buried deep inside cheyenne mountain has become the stuff of legend countless movies and tv shows that deal with the end of the world include it and despite it being completely off limits to most civilians its uses are now far from secretive [Music] a thing of norad like a gigantic shield a combination of radars aircraft and weapon systems that formed the basis of this enormous defensive setup norad was established and activated on the 12th of september 1957 at ent air force base which once laid close to colorado springs near to the cheyenne complex the nord agreements had been reached between the united states and canada some four months earlier to provide a defensive strategy against any potential soviet attack be that with long-range bombers intercontinental ballistic missiles or even in the event of a nuclear strike this was done through a series of large computers known as the semi-automatic ground system sage by compiling information from multiple radar sites sage which was used between the late 1950s and 1980s was able to compile a unified image of the entire area and direct an appropriate response sage was based on the doubting system which had been the first ground-controlled interception system used on a large scale covering the uk during world war ii it had more than proven its worth and is credited in no small part for britain's successful stubborn resistance during the battle of britain [Music] shire mountain was not the first mountain that the u.s had been chipping away at in 1957 the u.s government began construction of a hardened bunker within bear mountain in massachusetts known as the notch the bunker was designed to withstand a nuclear blast and from where governmental staff could direct a response on may the 18th 1961 nearly 2 000 miles away construction began on a similar facility inside cheyenne mountain in which norad would be based this area was chosen for several reasons colorado is a considerable distance from both coasts meaning a missile attack would take longer while this particular zone in colorado was the most seismically sound area in the state the government was also looking for a tough no-nonsense piece of granite with as few veins small cracks as possible making it much harder to break apart in a blast what they found a cheyenne was ideal the entire process fell under the supervision of the army corps of engineers but work was primarily carried out by utah construction and mining company norad's combat operation center went fully operational on the 20th of april 1966 but it wasn't the only system and command center that would be accommodated deep inside the mountain the space defence center and the comet operations center became fully operational on the 6th of february 1967 costing an estimated 142.4 million dollars around 1.1 billion dollars today between may and october 1966 the norad attack warning system combat operations command and delta one computer system responsible for monitoring movement in space all became operational by january the 4th 1967 the national civil defense warning center had also joined the complex as i mentioned earlier norad and indeed most of the other systems they're no longer based in cheyenne mountain in 2006 norad migrated the short distance to peterson air force base and the following year cheyenne was officially designated as an alternate command center at its peak the cheyenne mountain complex accommodated 1800 to 2000 personnel but today only around 200 remain part of the skeleton crew which maintains the complex on a warm standby basis meaning only as needed [Music] the cheyenne mountain complex was constructed 610 meters under the thick granite of the mountain around a mile from the front door pretty sure the military doesn't use the term front door but i mean you know what i mean in case you're wondering employees need to park outside of the complex and then take a bus down the corridor it's not the kind of place that you can really just wander around one it's a massively secure military installation 2. it's massive the main corridor that runs through the complex has both a north and south portal but curves to avoid the gold mines at nearby divide colorado there are 13 three-story buildings and two-story buildings within the complex which covers around five acres of land roughly the size of four american football fields most of the buildings are built just 18 inches from the rock walls and have been designed to withstand movement of any kind be it an earthquake or an explosion with the use of more than 1 000 giant springs and flexible pipe connectors placed beneath the buildings in theory this system should prevent the buildings within the complex from shifting more than 25 millimeters one inch in the event of a disaster it's also the only high altitude department of defense facility that could sustain an electromagnetic pulse emp which could come from a nuclear device or small portable devices the buildings within the complex were built of navy grade steel which reflects impulses while also shielding the equipment inside the complex has been designed to be much more than just office space in a command center in the event of an unimaginable disaster those inside the cheyenne mountain complex could well be called on to direct the country's response and that could take time there are beds and suites available for the staff and high-ranking officers it also has a medical facility a shop a cafeteria a chapel and a gym but one thing there aren't a lot of is windows because well just nothing to look at the bunker is designed to withstand a 13 megaton nuclear explosion detonated as close as two kilometers away that's around two thousand times as powerful as what was dropped on hiroshima inside are sets of truly titanic blast doors which themselves can keep a 25 ton blast wave at bay most assume that these beasts are located on the main corridor but actually they protect a side corridor that leads to the office complex if a blast were to hit cheyenne mountain it would carry along the main corridor gradually decreasing in strength until only about 20 percent of the original force would hit the blast door during the cold war the threat level was at such a height that one door always remained closed those moving between would have to wait patiently for one door to be completely sealed before the other could open it wasn't until 1992 that the decision was made to keep both doors open permanently and apart from daily checks the only time they have both closed since came shortly after the terrorist attacks on the 11th of september 2001. blast valves are included throughout the complex with an array of filters that can detect and capture chemical biological radiological and nuclear contaminants a fire station sits outside the complex with parking lots for employees perhaps slightly strangely when considering what is inside there are also numerous recreational facilities outside which include mountain man park picnic areas a racquetball facility softball field sand volleyball court basketball court and a putting green perhaps they wanted to add a degree of normality when constantly dealing with threats that could end the world i don't know everyone needs recreation even if you're inside a bunker that's designed for the end of the world sometimes you're going to want to go outside the world's not ending every day as you might imagine for an underground bunker that might have to direct a response to the end of the world the complex doesn't rely entirely on the national grid system the bunk has its own power plant along with a reservoir of diesel sealed behind a closed wall it's also got independent heating cooling and water supply systems all of this is maintained by 21st mission support group a ground-based missile warning and space control wing which keeps all of the above operating at a 99.999 reliability so i mean no pressure guys 21st mission support group have even categorized potential threats to the complex and beginning with the least serious they 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 water produced by the nearby mountain springs far outweighs what the complex ever needed and 5 700 cubic meters provides a further backup that's over twice the water that's held in an olympic swimming pool a second reservoir holding 17 000 cubic meters is used as a heat sink this is a thermal conductor which maintains lower temperatures inside the complex by transferring heat given off by all the computer hardware into a liquid form [Music] cheyenne mountain and the systems and command centers it once housed saw numerous upgrades over the years in 1979 the cheyenne mountain complex improvements program 427m system a consolidated cheyenne mountain upgrade program for a command center space ballistic missile and space functions became fully operational it had been developed using new software technology and would use computers with large processing capability the 427m system was designed to compile several databases quickly improve online display capabilities while also greatly speeding up the processing and transmission time for mission warning information by the mid-90s a 1.7 billion 2.8 billion dollar today renovation program for cheyenne mountain got underway the missile warning center would receive a 450 million dollar upgrade in 2000 the combatant commander's integrated command and control system ccic2s program began which would upgrade all of the mission systems within cheyenne mountain as part of a contract with lockheed martin a part of this system to modernize the attack warning system cost 700 million dollars a billion dollars today and ran from between 2000 and 2005. the 18-month process to move command center operations to peterson air force base was completed by the 13th of may 2008. no rad is now based out of a basement below the base much less glamorous no doubt but maybe the world has changed enough that we don't need giant nuclear bunkers hidden inside mountains the new base cost less and apparently the process works much more efficiently at the air force base it's just way less cool the shire mounting complex now uses just 30 percent of its available floor space and sees only five percent of its original employee number it is still used for on-site training and no doubt if you ever need to stress the importance of the job showing new employees an underground bunker will probably do the trick or just speculating here they had to move the stargate program in there and the other guys had to move out not really but that's not quite the end of it for cheyenne mountain in 2015 admiral william e gortney commander of norad announced a 700 million contract to move weapon systems into the bunker once again to shield them from electromagnetic pulse attack he wasn't exactly specific about what would be going inside but it's clear that cheyenne mountain still provides the kind of overall protection that few if any places can now we've done a few videos here on mega projects which have touched on the uncomfortable fact that the world seems to have wobbled to the brink of destruction on a frightening number of occasions whether it was the u.s planes crashing with nuclear weapons on board or a soviet nuclear submarine in perilous circumstances we've come closer to a nuclear accident or war more often than you might guess on three separate occasions things have gone wrong with the norad system on the 9th of november 1979 simple human error meant that a test tape was loaded without that little switch that says test being switched the result was a steady stream of false warnings which eventually led to the continuity of government order which essentially are the set of procedures for the government to carry out in the event of a catastrophic event command posts around the world were notified but thankfully the situation was quickly brought under control on the 3rd of june 1980 and the 6th of june 1980 a computer communications device failure sent warning messages to the u.s air force command posts across the globe informing them that a nuclear attack was underway and just for a moment imagine the poor souls who first read that warning the results were a little different pacific air forces which focuses on the pacific region launched their planes along with nuclear weapons in line with protocol for such an event however strategic air command which primarily focused on a nuclear strike threat did not because they felt sure it was a false alarm a response which eventually led to sac being criticized for not following procedures as i mentioned earlier maybe we are no longer so fearful of nuclear war that we burrow deep inside mountains and make sure that only one of the almighty blast doors is ever open at one time while we still of course fear nuclear war it has begun to slip from our consciousness today we think about cybercrime fake news global pandemic the cheyenne mountain complex is a wonderful fossil of a time gone by an age when nuclear war was not just theory but likely enough that children in u.s schools took part in drills there's something wonderfully james bondesque about this bunker an intriguing masterpiece of engineering built out of the frankly horrifying concept that one day we might get angry enough to destroy the entire planet places like cheyenne mountain complex are extraordinary but they do send a bit of a shiver up the spine it is a testament to the absurdity of the human race but also our unconquerable drive to survive and fight on so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do smash that like button below don't forget to subscribe also as always if you've got a suggestion for a future mega projects video please do leave it in the comments below upvote the ones you like i often do look there for new subjects to cover so please do that and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 694,166

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Id: fo5iM2NaArI

Length: 14min 53sec (893 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020

Reddit Comments

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