The handful of people who would be the first to detect a nuclear missile attack against the United States work just outside the town of Colorado Springs. Their daily commute takes them down a sloping mile-long tunnel, past baffled steel blast doors that are 20 feet high, three feet thick, and weigh 25 tons each, into the heart of Cheyenne Mountain. There, surrounded on all sides by at least 2,000 feet of granite, they spend eight-hour shifts in the missile-warning center, one of 15 subterranean buildings arrayed along a three-dimensional tic-tac-toe grid of intersecting tunnels. This is the central coordination facility for the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense) command.
Data from satellites and a global network of radar stations flow into computers at the missile-warning center, where eight or nine people during a typical shift sit in front of 17-inch monitors. Hardly a day passes without the detection of a launch somewhere around the world, such as the Russians firing SCUD missiles at Chechens or the French lofting a satellite into orbit. But in the 36-year history of Cheyenne Mountain, there is one type of launch the staff has never seen and doesn't want to see: an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on its way to the United States. From training sessions, they know exactly what to expect.
The NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense) command center, located deep inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, monitors missile launches around the world. Built in the early 1960s, when the primary nuclear threat was from Soviet long-range bombers, the facility would not withstand a direct hit from a modern missile. "An ICBM of sufficient magnitude and power would make it Cheyenne Valley," says a military spokesman.
First, on the center of their monitors, a grid map would appear showing the part of the world from which the missile was launched. A small red circle represents the launch point of the missile. Next, a computerized voice says "Quick alert! Quick alert!" Then an alarm sounds and a light flashes, signaling everyone in the missile-warning center that a desperate race against the clock has begun. A missile launched from a site halfway around the world can reach the United States in less than 25 minutes.
