Why underground bases

Those are usually handled as local incidents, but like nuclear missiles themselves those protests are a throwback to an earlier time when there was still a Soviet Union and a substantial nuclear threat. It is a massive secure, underground complex under some 2, feet of granite.

The U. Army Corps of Engineers supervised the excavation of Cheyenne Mountain starting circa with nearly , tons of granite excavated for the project. It was created to withstand a nuclear explosion as close as approximately one mile away and was considered at one time to be the only U.

It was the beginning of the end of the old Cold-War era operations there. The complex is maintained by the 21st Mission Support Group and some sources report that during peak operations at the underground facility approximately two thousand people worked there. In contemporary times a fraction of that number remains; some staff in all. They then did walk-throughs at a mock urban site where building windows had been blacked out to simulate underground atmosphere.

Again, small considerations weighed heavily. The dogs must be acclimatized to the dark. Handlers and breachers need to scout with robots before sending in a dog. Those smaller training steps culminated in an event in which platoon-sized groups ran through the entire order from door breaching to clearing buildings of three or more floors.

Much of the training was familiar, but with new limitations. And how much difference are we seeing from urban training? George Fletcher, company commander of Bone Company, 1st Battalion, th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said that his main takeaway was focusing on communication.

For example, if his troops are inside a complex and can quickly tell him this only goes down two floors, then he knows how to distribute his soldiers. And the captain said he saw how he would need to prepare for new challenges. Ready to go underground. Though the Army and Marine Corps want troops ready to go underground, not every base has the facilities. The Marine Corps has underground features at its urban training facility at Twentynine Palms, California.

Lance Cpl. Multiple sources noted that Army officials are considering plans to develop more complex, urban underground facets. It may not need to be as demanding as some predict. Until then, the method of surrounding soldiers to give them a tunnel-like feel will be to use existing buildings and to acquire old Conex boxes, weld them together to create narrow passages, officials said. While the training the paratroopers experienced sets the stage, more questions remain. Army officials declined to discuss operational or strategic preparations and limited answers regarding brigade leadership-level considerations.

It is known to many as "Russia's Roswell. The nearby town of Znamensk was established in secret to support the scientists and engineers who worked at Kapustin Yar. No one was allowed to visit without government clearance and it wasn't on any official maps. Background: The former s military site took on a new identity weeks after the Bay of Pigs invasion in It turned into a weapons testing facility and was also used as a training ground and spy school.

As more people start to spill the secrets of Harvey Point, its use as not only a weapons testing facility, but also a training facility, has come to light, with everyone from the CIA, FBI, SEALs and counter-terrorism units the world over going through the site.

Add in the fact that Hangar 18 has a tie to the Roswell crash, and conspiracy theorists enjoy the intrigue—and strangeness—of Wright-Patterson. An arsenal was added in and updates have occurred ever since. Background: Likely constructed at some point during the s, the Chinese have turned caverns into a naval base able to hold nuclear submarines.

This underwater naval base, using technology popular in the mining and petroleum industries, allows submarines to enter the leave without detection, turning caverns and harbors into homes for dozens of nuclear submarines. Among the many challenges posed by the region's climate is that the base's port is only accessible for three months each year, so major supplies need to be shipped during the summer.

The base may be frozen and remote, but the 12th Space Warning Squadron operates an early warning system for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles from Thule, while the 21st Space Wing is in charge of space surveillance operations. How It's Unique: Schulz, who recently worked on a dormitory replacement project at Thule, explains that construction crews essentially need to build on the most stable layer of permafrost they can get to.

With temperatures dropping below minus degrees Fahrenheit, keeping troops warm is crucial. One of the more interesting weather-specific features is that all of the utilities are above ground, because it would be too hard to quickly access them if something went awry. You don't bury any waterlines, communication lines or even sanitary lines," Schulz says. Over the past 60 years, the site has expanded to nearly , acres, roughly the size of Rhode Island. How It's Unique: Dugway's massiveness allows it to be the premier site for testing defense systems against chemical and biological weapons, as well as military-grade smoke bombs.

During World War II, the facility played a vital role in the development of incendiary bombs. In order to test the fire-causing weapons, crews at Dugway built replicas of German and Japanese villages, even going so far as to fill the model buildings with furniture that would be similar to that found in the respective country.

Today, the remains of the German village are eligible to be included on the U. National Register of Historic Places. Background: This joint U. How It's Unique: "There's a certain amount of logistical difficulty" with ultra-remote facilities like Diego Garcia, Schulz says, and shipping materials can be costly.

Diego Garcia's remoteness, though, allows it to be a key hub for tracking satellites, and it is one of five monitoring stations for GPS. Additionally, the island is one of only a handful of locations equipped with a Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance system for tracking objects in deep space. As an atoll, the land itself is rather oddly shaped, too. From end to end, Diego Garcia is 34 miles long, but its total area is only 11 square miles. Air Force, the U.

Army, and the University of Alaska. Researchers at the facility use a powerful high-frequency transmitter and an array of antennas to temporarily disrupt the ionosphere in hopes of yielding potential communications and surveillance benefits. How It's Unique: HAARP has been the centerpiece of countless conspiracy theories , ranging from rumors that it will be used for mind control to claims that it can manipulate the weather of individual countries. The project's website says the equipment can only function properly if it is located in the auroral region, and Alaska happens to be the only U.

A quiet electromagnetic location is needed for the system to operate, which further explains the removed location of HAARP. In past interviews, HAARP's operators readily admit they're researching potential defense applications. HAARP is not classified.

Background: For more than 25 years, India and Pakistan have been battling for control of the nearly mile-long Siachen Glacier. Both sides have set up military installations in the imposing Karakoram range, where 3-mile-high mountain peaks are the norm. How It's Unique: Troops stationed in this barely inhabitable war zone face endless peril. While a ceasefire has been honored, soldiers on the world's highest battleground still fight altitude sickness, deadly temperatures and bone-crushing avalanches.

There are no precise figures on how many lives have been lost during the conflict, but some estimates put the death toll as high as , many of which are attributed to climate-related events.

Due to the lack of infrastructure in the region, helicopter pilots are placed in harm's way as they navigate unpredictable winds and poor weather to delivery basic necessities. Background: This iconic underground base has been inspiring science fiction writers and awing engineers since Located nearly a half mile under a granite mountain, the labyrinthine facility is run by Air Force Space Command.

The base earned its place in pop culture when the television version of Stargate made Cheyenne Mountain the HQ of cosmic time travel. How It's Unique: One-of-a-kind bases like Cheyenne pose countless construction challenges and need to satisfy seemingly impossible requirements, like being able to withstand multi-megaton attacks. Aside from sitting under a mountain of granite, an extremely hard rock, the base is protected by ton blast doors , and some rooms sit on massive beds of springs to better absorb a blast.

Background: Certain geographic locations will never lose their strategic importance. Advanced Search. By David Sloma. Description "Great read rivals Cussler and Riely Thank you. Is there a clandestine world of tunnels and bases underground?

Who is living in them? What do they want with humanity?