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2023-02-08 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran unveils first underground air force base, Eagle 44 - report

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Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 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

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