Zeljava underground facility

[croduh]

Željava Air Base also know as Bihać Air Base was the largest underground airport and military airbase in the former Yugoslavia.

[edit] History

Construction began on the project codenamed "Objekat 505" or Object 505 in 1957. It was located near Bihać in Bosnia. This base was intensively used during the war in the 1990s. During withdrawal, the JNA destroyed the airport to prevent future use and the Army of Republika Srpska Krajina finalized its demolition in 1992 with 56 tons of explosives. The ensuing explosion was so powerful that the nearby city of Bihać shook violently.

It was designed to sustain the direct impact of a 20 Kiloton nuclear bomb, equivalent to that dropped at Nagasaki in WWII as the facility had semicircular concrete shields that were arranged every 10 meters to amortize the impact. Its construction began in 1957 and finished in 1965. Estimated cost of construction was 6 billion US dollars.

The air base had access to underground water source, power generators, crew quarters and other facilities which were of strategic advantage in the event of war.

The Facility was under heavy surveillance by the guards who were authorized to open fire on anyone attempting to access the Facility without authorization.

The length of the underground facilities was 3.5 kilometers. The complete object had 4 entrances, 3 of which were intended for use by fixed-wing aircraft. The entrances were protected by 100 ton pressurized doors. The Facility also had 5 runways.

The facility even had a mess hall which had the capacity to feed 1000 men at once. Object 505 had enough food, fuel & arms reserves to 'survive' 30 days without any external intervention.

Fuel to the facility had been supplied with 20 kilometers worth of underground pipes from a military warehouse on Pokoj hill near Bihać city.

And here you can see the video of the base - then and now, and some mig21s flying.
Complexity of the facility amazes me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmHHvZbyfhA&mode=related&search=

[Nilsen]

Thx!

Ive always been facinated by bunkers and underground complexes. We have and have had some really gigantic systems here too. Some of them were buildt by the germans during the war and then expanded and hardened during the cold war, and some were buildt in the cold war and after. Ive been in some during my service and only heard of others but details are still higly classified for those still in use or reserve.

[skernsk]

Argyll did a peace keeping tour in Bosnia and his AO was Bihac.  He told me about the area and it sounded fascinating.  I wonder if he has any pics?

[croduh]

These are some recent photos(2000)







That facility famous also for Rudolf Peresin, Croatian pilot that did not want to shoot at his own people and defected.He took off from this facility.