page_title: Peterson Air Force Base
section_title: Primary installation
hierarchical_section_title: Peterson Air Force Base / History / Primary installation
caption_attribution_description: English: Members of the Peterson Air Force Base Honor Guard posting the Colors Sept 16, 2016 at the Air Force birthday ceremony, hosted by Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Co. More than 125 members from Air Force Space Command came out to the Air Force Birthday ceremony. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Tech. Sgt. David Salanitri) Unit: Air Force Space Command
context_page_description: Peterson Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force Base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, home to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Space Force's 21st Space Wing, elements of the Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, and United States Northern Command headquarters. Developed as a World War II air support base for Camp Carson, the facility conducted Army Air Forces training and supported Cold War air defense centers at the nearby Ent Air Force Base, Chidlaw Building, and Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The base was the location of the Air Force Space Command headquarters from 1987 to December 20th, 2019 and has had NORAD/NORTHCOM command center operations since the 2006 Cheyenne Mountain Realignment placed the nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex centers on standby.
  With the recent creation of the U.S Space Force, Peterson AFB and other Air Force installations that do primarily space work, are planned to be renamed to Space Force bases; effectively becoming Peterson Space Force Base.
context_section_description: Designated Peterson Air Force Base on March 1, 1975, when Ent AFB was being closed, Peterson was the last of the April 1945 Continental Air Forces airbases to be named an air force base.  Also on March 1, Peterson assumed several functions from Ent AFB, which became the "Ent Annex" of Peterson, 18 July 1975 – 7 February 1978  (Peterson's off-base "Temporary Military Facility" was opened for space training by 1986).   During the first part of the reorganization that broke up ADCOM, the base "transferred to the Strategic Air Command" on October 1, 1979  (units transferred included the 47th Comm Sq to AFCS and the 46th Wing & 4602nd Computer Services Sq to SAC).  ADCOM HQ offices at the Chidlaw Building became the Aerospace Defense Center at Peterson on December 1, 1979.
  Peterson's NORAD COC Backup Facility achieved Full Operational Capability on 16 November 1982 from the Cheyenne Mountain Complex which was placed on warm standby.
  The 1st Space Wing replaced the 46th Aerospace Defense Wing on 1 April 1983. Thereafter the 1st Space Wing transferred host unit responsibility to the 3d Space Support Wing activated on 15 October 1986. Army and other units transferred from the former Ent AFB Federal Building to Peterson Building 2 (renamed the Eberhart-Findley Building in October 2012). On 15 May 1992, the personnel and equipment of both the 1st SW and 3d SSW merged to become the 21st Space Wing. Peterson's Space Analysis Center was at the corner of Academy & Fountain Blvds by 2004 before moving on base to bldg 1470, and in 2004 the Space Operations School used a building along I-25 at Woodmen Drive.
  The Cheyenne Mountain Realignment moved NORAD/USNORTHCOM operations to Peterson AFB in 2006. In 2006 the 76th Space Control Facility was constructed at Peterson (the squadron activated 22 January 2008).  The MAFFS aircraft that fought the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire and 2013 Black Forest fire at Colorado Springs flew from Peterson AFB.
  Some buildings from the Second World War have survived. Buildings remaining in 1996 were "the terminal, now the Peterson Air and Space Museum, the Broadmoor hangar, and the Spanish House" next to the museum, along with Building 391, Building 365, supply warehouses and office buildings, and aircraft hangars and maintenance shops.
  The base's Retiree Activities Office has the representative for the Air Force Retiree Council Area IV (Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming).
  On 20 December 2019, Air Force Space Command was redesignated as the U.S. Space Force and elevated to become an independent military branch. With the new military branch, the Fourteenth Air Force and its units became Space Force Space Operations Command and Air Force Space Command's headquarters was redesignated as the Pentagon.
caption: Members of the Peterson AFB High Frontier Honor Guard Posting the Colours at the Air Force birthday ceremony, September 2016.
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