The Deep Underground Support Center (DUSC) was a
Strategic Air Command nuclear bunker proposal in 1962 for "a hardened command post...to withstand a 100-megaton weapon with a 0.5 n.m. CEP". Favored for a mine near
Cripple Creek, Colorado
Cripple Creek is a statutory city that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,155 at the 2020 United States Census. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located southwest of Colorado Sprin ...
(west of the
Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker
The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is a Space Force installation and defensive bunker located in unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado, next to the city of Colorado Springs, at the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, which hosts the activities of ...
started in 1961), the DUSC was to be deep and be "able to accommodate some 200 people for
0 daysto handle the large volume of data processing and analysis required for strike assessment, as well as follow-on strike and other decisions." Cost estimates for the
SAC Control System facility increased to $200 million, and when the operational year slipped from 1965 to 1969, SAC decided in 1963 "for a
long-endurance, all airborne concept instead" (Wainstein), and the JCS and OSD concurred with the DUSC project cancellation.
[Wainstein cites: and a ]Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
"Draft Memorandum for the President": ''National Deep Underground Command Post'', 7 November 1963, TOP SECRET.
References
{{coord missing, Colorado
Military history of Colorado
Nuclear bunkers in the United States
Proposed installations of the United States Air Force
Installations of Strategic Air Command