Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025 View Mon 05/26/2025 View Sun 05/25/2025 View Sat 05/24/2025 View Fri 05/23/2025 View Thu 05/22/2025
2023-02-08 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran unveils first underground air force base, Eagle 44 - report
Hard enough breathing exhaust fumes in hangers or on the flightline. Can't imagine tunnels.
[Jpost] This is one of several Iranian underground air force bases to have been built in recent years throughout the country.

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
on Tuesday unveiled its first underground air force base, called "Eagle 44," according to the official IRNA news agency.

"It is one of the army's most important air force bases, with fighters equipped with long-range cruise missiles and built in the depths of the Earth," IRNA added.

The Iranian news outlet also said that this is one of several underground air force bases to have been built in recent years throughout the country.

In addition, the air force base will allow the Iranian military to carry out surprise airborne operations far from the expectations of the country's enemies, according to Tasnim News.
Don’t we have ground-penetrating radar? Wouldn’t that allow us to see the kinds of things that would indicate underground preparations? Not to mention Israel’s spy squirrels and storks... and Mahmoud the Weasel, who for a variety of reasons types a line of code or makes a quick phone call or forgets to lock a door...
The base was visited by a number of high-ranking Iranian military officials ahead of its official unveiling in Iran's state media outlets.
An Nahar adds:
Iran's army on Tuesday unveiled its first underground base for fighter jets designed to withstand possible strikes by U.S. bunker-busting bombs, state media reported.

The base -- named Oghab 44 ("Eagle" in Persian) -- can accommodate "all types of fighter jets and bombers, in addition to drones", the official news agency IRNA said, releasing images and videos from inside the base.

The exact location of the base was not revealed, but state media said it was "at the depth of hundreds of meters under the mountains", and capable of withstanding "bombs by strategic U.S. bombers".

In May last year, Iran's army revealed an air force base for drones under the Zagros mountain range in the west of the country.

The latest unveiling comes the day before Iran
...The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both...
marks Air Force Day, part of the build-up to the 44th anniversary on Saturday of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

It can prepare fighter jets to "counter possible offensives" such as those practiced by the US and Israel in their recent military drill, according to state media.

Iran has mostly Russian MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets that date back to the Soviet era, as well as some Chinese aircraft, including the F-7. Some American F-4 and F-5 fighter jets dating back to before the revolution are also part of its fleet.
More from Dawn:
On the sidelines of the unveiling ceremony, the long-range air-launched cruise missile ’Asef’ was also showcased, Press TV reported.

The missile is equipped with a warhead that features a high destructive and explosive power and can destroy heavy fortifications.

The Asef missile, which is manufactured by Iranian experts, is mounted on the Sukhoi 24 fighter jet.

Similarly, in May last year, the Iranian army had shared some details of an underground base for its military drones. Iran’s state media had reported that 100 drones were being kept in the heart of the Zagros mountains, including Ababil-5.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ]  Top
 File under: Govt of Iran 

#1 ...No matter how far underground it may be, it's gotta have two things aboveground: the electrical connections and a door.

In the late 50s and early 60s, the US had designs for shelters (including one nearly 500 feet beneath the White House) that were - at least on paper - proof against even a direct hit from the weapons of the time. But all those things came up against one unsolvable problem: it was child's play to turn those things into the world's most luxurious tombs.

And they should perhaps talk to any surviving members of Saddam Hussein's military, whose aircraft hard shelters were guaranteed by their German builders as survivable against tactical nuclear weapons. They probably were - but we didn't use nukes, and an appreciable fraction of the Iraqi Air Force died in its shelters as our conventional guided bombs came through the roof.
Saw the results when I was part of SOUTHERN WATCH in 1995. Not at all pretty.

Mike
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-02-08 08:09||   2023-02-08 08:09|| Front Page Top

#2 I knew someone here would know the answer. Thank you, Mike!
Posted by trailing wife 2023-02-08 08:58||   2023-02-08 08:58|| Front Page Top

#3 I watched the new Maverick movie last night.
It was all about this. I enjoyed the film.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-08 09:16||   2023-02-08 09:16|| Front Page Top

#4 @#1 - Mike, I take it those where the so-called "bunker busters"?
Posted by DooDahMan 2023-02-08 09:23||   2023-02-08 09:23|| Front Page Top

#5 Then what's the point of Cheyenne Mountain?
Posted by Angstrom 2023-02-08 10:04||   2023-02-08 10:04|| Front Page Top

#6 The mountain is defunct, or repurposed.
Command has moved to Peterson AFB near the CO Springs. The strategy of hardening a single point of failure has evolved into survivable distribution of function.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-08 10:30||   2023-02-08 10:30|| Front Page Top

#7 I take it those where the so-called "bunker busters"?

Regular 2000lb bombs. The fuses had a few milliseconds delay so they penetrated before detonating. The 5,000lb bunker buster came later when going after Saddam's personal underground bunkers.

Some shelters had 3 layers: reinforced concrete dome, dirt and reinforced concrete shelter. In that case, the bomb penetrated the dome and detonated in the dirt layer and the shockwave ruining everything in the shelter w/o penetrating it.
Posted by Thruter Gloluger6393 2023-02-08 11:39||   2023-02-08 11:39|| Front Page Top

#8 Imagining the device that you see at a paint store mixing cans of paint after sale. Would not want to be the one cleaning up the spam-in-a-can mess afterwards!
Posted by NoMoreBS 2023-02-08 12:45||   2023-02-08 12:45|| Front Page Top

#9 
#4 @#1 - Mike, I take it those where the so-called "bunker busters"?
Posted by: DooDahMan 2023-02-08 09:23

DDM,

Yes, sir - in the early part of the war, we had to drop two bombs on each shelter to insure a breakthrough because the bombs were marginal in that respect. But the USAF Armament Labs at Eglin AFB, FL, came up with the idea of using repurposed naval gun barrels...and they went through them like hot knives through butter. They were created so quickly that the first bombs arrived in theater still warm from the HE filler pours. Later new-build variants have a much harder case and do the job just fine.

#5Then what's the point of Cheyenne Mountain?
Posted by: Angstrom 2023-02-08 10:04

Ang,

When the Mountain was built, no Soviet missile was accurate enough to lay a big enough warhead down to take it out. That changed in the late 70s/early 80s, and after that the Mountain's main job was to warn us that an attack was inbound.

Mike
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-02-08 13:33||   2023-02-08 13:33|| Front Page Top

#10 As long as it wasn't a balloon.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-08 13:57||   2023-02-08 13:57|| Front Page Top

09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
07:03 NN2N1
06:58 NN2N1
06:58 Besoeker
05:28 Whiskey Mike









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com