CNN’s Erin Burnett examines the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, a bunker buried inside a mountain similar to Iran’s Fordow nuclear site.

Cheyenne Mountain

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado is a U.S. military facility engineered to survive extreme conditions, including nuclear attacks. Built inside a mountain, the complex uses the natural protection of rock to shield against powerful blasts, with its design allowing for significant depth and fortification.

Experts note that while Iran’s Fordow nuclear site uses similar tunneling technology, it is not as deeply buried as Cheyenne Mountain. The experience of operating in such bunkers involves controlled environments, limited natural light, and advanced systems for communication and survival. The main distinction between the two sites lies in their depth and the type of threats they are designed to withstand, with Cheyenne Mountain specifically built for nuclear resilience.

The U.S. also has a bomb-proof bunker in a mountain

So, the U.S. designed the military complex to survive the most extreme conditions imaginable. It's been around 60 years, and it was designed to withstand, James, you know, a bomb that makes Hiroshima look like a flea attack, right? I mean, just for something so massive. Is it safe to assume that Iran's complex could have been similar? Well, Iran's complex wasn't nearly as deep as Cheyenne Mountain, but the basic technology is exactly the same. You just tunnel straight into the side of the mountain. The longer the tunnel is, the bigger the amount of rock above you is. And actually, if you're doing it in that way, what's key is the height of the mountain. You know, if you just choose a high enough mountain, then you can put more and more rock above you. So, you know, Fordow, as you said, maybe 200, 300 feet underground, but there's no reason why Iran couldn't, and in fact, almost certainly has built much further underground facilities just by tunneling into deeper mountains. So you think that they most certainly have, because I guess you're saying if it's there, it's there, and the technology for that is not new. I mean, General, you've been to the Cheyenne military complex, and you've served for weeks at a time in a similar underground command post in Korea, you know, actually spending the time underground. What is it like inside a bunker like this? When we say a fortified bunker deep in a mountain, what does that feel like? Well, first of all, it's incredibly moist. You can imagine that. And every sound is magnified, so there's nothing very personal about it. Truly, as described, I mean, you're inside a mountain. It's a controlled environment. Everything seems to be communications and access to do what you need to do is quite phenomenal. Obviously, that will evolve over time, which it has certainly at Cheyenne, and it has as well in the location in Korea where I spent a ton of time. But living underground is, you know, there's no ambient light. You hope there are sufficient generators if the light goes out so you're not in complete darkness. You're not specifically living like a mole, and the food's not bad. But the real issue is when we get to the notion of Fordo and the level of its protection, it was described quite well. It's deeply buried. Don't know how deep. And the difference between a nuclear blast, which Cheyenne was prepared for, and a conventional blast is kind of night and day. Nuclear blast would be an air blast, incredibly large, radiation pattern, wave pattern, the whole bit. In Fordo, you're penetrating very deeply, then you get your explosion. So those two things are a tad different.

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Jerusalem

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