NORAD no more?

[draconis]

Gakked from radarrider:

45 years ago, they started digging a big hole on the edge of Colorado Springs. That hole turned into the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, which is being now put on "warm standby," according to this article by Robert Weller.

Part of me knows that the advances in weaponry mean that the facility could no longer sustain a direct hit and survive intact. I also know that it is a very expensive complex to staff, operate, and maintain -- $250 million a year. And yes, it's being kept in a condition where it can be reactivated at a moment's notice.

But part of me is still ... discomfited by this.

A part of it is the tactician in me, pointing out that while there are now weapons that could damage the facility, it is only the biggest and best of those weapons that could do it -- the facility inside would still be protected against anything less, as would the people.

And therein lies a major portion of my concern. The facility and the equipment can be brought back to active status quickly, but what about the personnel? I'm presuming they would only reactivate it in case of something MAJOR... but what if the people they plan to use to re-staff it are injured or killed in that major incident? Or what if they're simply unable to get to the location as a result of whatever happens? The point of a fortress like that is to have an operational fallback point, but no facility is operational without people, and in this case, people with very specific, advanced skills.

I also think that after the billions that have been poured into that facility, it seems incredibly wasteful to just let it sit idle.

And then there's the part of me that says, "There's a high-security facility in an underground location that is virtually impossible for the general public to observe anything that goes on there. What are they really going to do there when it is supposedly mothballed?"

And then, the REALLY important question: What about Stargate Command? ::G::

Comments

[rhi]

::points at penultimate question, points to solution in ultimate questions, grins, ducks, and runs::

[shrewreader.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that it is all just an elaborate ruse to distract from the way that that broom closet keeps taking up more space in the $250m hole in the ground. ;)