A new documentary collection (pdf) provides a glimpse of the Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, which is an operational hub for intelligence support to the U.S. military.
“The Aerospace Data Facility is a DoD information processing, analysis, relay, and test facility supporting the U.S. Government and its allies,” according to one official document.
Among other things, the ADF represents “the major U.S.-based technical downlink for intelligence satellites operated by the military, the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office.”
See “Aerospace Data Facility / Denver Security Operations Center, Buckley AFB, Colorado,” compiled by Allen Thomson, August 2008.
Satellite imagery of RAF Lakenheath reveals new construction of a security perimeter around ten protective aircraft shelters in the designated nuclear area, the latest measure in a series of upgrades as the base prepares for the ability to store U.S. nuclear weapons.
It will take consistent leadership and action to navigate the complex dangers in the region and to avoid what many analysts considered to be an increasingly possible outcome, a nuclear conflict in East Asia.
Getting into a shutdown is the easy part, getting out is much harder. Both sides will be looking to pin responsibility on each other, and the court of public opinion will have a major role to play as to who has the most leverage for getting us out.
How the United States responds to China’s nuclear buildup will shape the global nuclear balance for the rest of the century.