Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Underground command center built into Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. Headquarters of NORAD, responsible for aerospace warning and control over North America. One of the primary facilities tracking unidentified aerial phenomena in North American airspace, with access to data from all military radar systems.

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex was built during the Cold War to survive a nuclear strike. The facility is built inside a granite mountain and consists of 15 freestanding buildings mounted on springs to absorb shock. As the home of NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain tracks every object entering North American airspace. The facility has access to data from the Space Surveillance Network, which tracks over 27,000 objects in orbit. Any unidentified aerial phenomena entering controlled airspace would first be flagged by systems operating from or reporting to this facility. The facility was placed on reduced operations status in 2006 but was reactivated in 2015, with the Pentagon citing the need for hardened facilities against electromagnetic pulse attacks. The reactivation coincided with increased congressional attention to UAP incidents involving military aircraft.