Cheyenne Mountain, a mountain located on the southwest side of Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, is the location of a major United States military command base: Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center (CMOC), formerly called Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station (CMAFS). Civilian facilities, including the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, are also located on the mountain.

On July 28, 2006, the CMOC ceased to be an operational base; its functions have been transferred to nearby Peterson AFB. NORAD officials no longer feel there is a threat of an intercontinental nuclear attack which could disrupt operations. The facility is on "warm standby" and could be reactivated if needed.

CMOC hosted four commands: North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). CMOC served as the command center for both NORAD and USNORTHCOM. It was the central collection and coordination center for a worldwide system of satellites, radars, and sensors that warned of missile, air, and space threats to North America and of theater ballistic missiles aimed at U.S. and allied forces.

For NORAD, CMOC assisted the air sovereignty mission for the U.S. and Canada and served as the focal point for air defense operations to counter enemy bombers or cruise missiles. For USSTRATCOM, CMOC kept track of precisely what was in orbit and where it was located. Space control operations included protection, prevention, and negation functions supported by the surveillance of space.

CMOC is one of the most unusual installations in the world. Apart from the fact that it is housed 2,000 feet (600 m) underground, CMOC is also different from most military units because it was a joint and bi-national military organization comprising over 200 men and women from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Canadian forces. Operations were conducted in seven centers manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The centers were the Air Warning Center, Missile Warning Center, Space Control Center, Operational Intelligence Watch, Systems Center, Weather Center, and the Command Center.

Cheyenne Mountain's facilities and mission have changed over the years, from tracking and guiding the defense against Soviet bombers to watching for short-range ballistic missiles. In 1957, the Sputnik I satellite showed that nuclear warheads might be launched from one continent to another, and by the early 1960s, detecting an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) attack against North America became a top priority. Missile warning and air sovereignty were the primary missions in the Mountain throughout the 1960s and 70s. Briefly in the mid-1970s, the Ballistic Missile Defense Center was installed within the Mountain.

In 1979, the Air Force established a Space Defense Directorate to counter the emerging Soviet anti-satellite threat.

Cheyenne Mountain's computers twice almost pushed the world into World War 3. On November 9, 1979 a computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in USAF command posts around the world that a nuclear attack was taking place. A similar incident occurred on June 2, 1980 when a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape but failed to switch the system status to "test", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "continuity of government" bunkers as well as Command Posts worldwide.

Both times, the Pacific Air Command (PAC) had nuclear-loaded planes in the air; Strategic Air Command (SAC) didn't and took heat because they didn't follow procedure, even though the SAC Command Post knew these were obvious false alarms (probably so did PAC). Both Command Posts had recently begun receiving and processing direct reports from the various RADAR, satellite, and other missile attack detection systems, and those direct reports simply didn't match anything about the erroneous data received from NORAD.

In the 1980s, Air Force Space Command was created to run the service's space operations. In April 1981, Space Defense Directorate crews and their worldwide sensors, under the direction of Air Defense Command, supported the first space flight of the space shuttle. Cheyenne Mountain has continued to support every shuttle mission since.

In the late 1980s, the CMOC began to help U.S. and Canada Customs and Drug Enforcement Agencies control North American airspace and search for drug traffickers.

In the early 1990s, CMOC began to provide theater ballistic missile warning during Operation Desert Storm, when Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites looked for the heat from missile and booster plumes and provided warning to civilians and troops in Israel and Saudi Arabia.

CMOC has since refined its ability and can now detect such missiles and quickly alert U.S. theater commanders.

On September 15, 2001, Cheyenne Mt added another mission: Operation Noble Eagle, which incorporates NORAD's Aerospace Warning and Control with the monitoring of Canadian and U.S. airspace. Today, NORAD and CMOC stand ready to assist the Federal Aviation Administration and NAV Canada in responding to any threatening or hostile domestic aircraft.

On October 1, 2002, CMOC welcomed two more commands: U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Strategic Command. CMOC supports USNORTHCOM's mission of homeland defense and USSTRATCOM's mission of space and missile warning, formerly associated with U.S. Space Command.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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