Closing Cheyenne Mountain would cost $12B

Moving the nation’s air, space and homeland defense operations out of Cheyenne Mountain would cost more than $12 billion, according to the Air Force. NORAD/NorthCom has said the move would cost about $42 million.

The Air Force estimate, compiled during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, surfaced in a recent letter from U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In the April 25 letter, Allard expressed “deep concern” that the Pentagon is planning to close Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, rather than placing it on “warm standby” to be used in emergencies, as has been described by military officials.

Allard also asked Gates for a copy of a study by the Defense Department’s Program, Analysis and Evaluation Office that analyzed the closure’s impact on U.S. security.

The study is classified but reportedly states that the move would compromise the security of North America.

The Air Force said in a statement that the closure costs were compiled as part of the BRAC analysis, from April 2003 to May 2005, and that the service decided against closure “due to the cost to replicate its facilities elsewhere.”

At issue is the underground home of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base east of Colorado Springs.

The mountain complex was built during the Cold War and shelters air and space surveillance, and missile and air warning operations beneath 2,000 feet of granite.

Former NORAD/North-Com commander Adm. Timothy Keating, who was reassigned to Pacific Command in March, ordered the move to Peterson a year ago to improve “unity of effort and command” problems that surfaced during a NORAD/North-Com exercise. He also said there’s too much duplication among three command centers — at Peterson, inside the mountain and at a mobile unit at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.

He projected a savings of $150 million to $200 million per year.

Strategic Command, headquartered in Nebraska, said it will relocate missile warning from the mountain to Schriever Air Force Base east of Colorado Springs, while Air Force Space Command is moving air monitoring to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The move to Peterson was halted last month when the House Armed Services Committee attached a provision to the $504 billion defense authorization bill that would give the committee a say over whether to vacate the nation’s most fortified military installation.

Allard’s letter outlines the move’s costs as compiled by the Air Force in 2005:

- $120 million to $150 million in construction to house functions elsewhere.

- More than $600 million to move organizations necessary to support the change.

- $1.5 billion in communications costs.

- $10 billion in mission systems costs.

“I think that (BRAC estimate) is what led him to write the letter,” Allard’s press secretary Steve Wymer said.

“To do something that would cost billions when closure had been rejected, that is something that is obviously concerning,” he said.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office, the government’s audit agency, reported NORAD/North-Com had documented $41.7 million in onetime moving costs and $5.5 million in recurring costs related to the move.

The GAO also noted the Pentagon hasn’t completed security assessments, including a look at the physical security needed to protect systems that may be replicated at Peterson. NORAD/North-Com’s headquarters building at Peterson sits above ground next to the base’s border.

The GAO report said while Keating cited increased “unity of effort” as the reason for the move, “officials noted that they have not done an analysis of the operational effects —

both positive and negative — of the move.”

“Without knowing the complete security effects and cost to replicate the functions,” the GAO concluded, “neither DoD nor Congress has adequate information to assess the risks in relation to the costs of moving functions from Cheyenne Mountain.”

Current NORAD/North-Com commander Gen. Gene Renuart has said he backs the move and plans to use the facility for training.

NORAD/NorthCom Public Affairs director Michael Perini said BRAC costs traditionally include expenses that are not relevant to a move and warm-standby status, such as environmental assessments and mitigation.

“We at NORAD/NorthCom are not closing Cheyenne Mountain,” he said. “We are going to continue to use the mountain as a training facility.”

He said changes planned for the Peterson command center are in the final design phase, and that preliminary modifications and improvements are being made as the command awaits security assessments due for completion this year.

“In light of concerns expressed by Congress,” he said, “we are committed to providing them an analysis of the total costs and operational benefits of the consolidation as we work together in the best interest of the nation.”