The 12 Strangest Military Bases

Dotted across the globe are many military bases in all stages of use and disrepair, from theCarlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania or the impregnable German Flak Towers. One would think the high cost of construction, camouflage and staffing them would ensure they'd stay open for long, it's not always the case. There have been multi-billion dollar

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Dotted across the globe are many military bases in all phases of use and disrepair, from the Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania or the impregnable German Flak Towers. One would assume the high price of development, camouflage and staffing them would be sure they'd keep open for lengthy, it is not at all times the case. There have been multi-billion buck bases opened for less than a week!

Others are so hidden that you'll be able to't even pinpoint their location the use of Google Maps. Even when they have got been decommissioned, they continue to be some of the most inaccessible puts on Earth. While some bases have one serve as, to accommodate soldiers, others do a lot more.

Area Fifty one is supposedly the maximum secret military set up in the international and the heart of secret UFO analysis. It's also been described as a 'house for visiting extraterrestrial beings', a test flooring for time shuttle, weather regulate, teleportation etc. No one's in point of fact positive, as no person is authorized in.

While you think of tactics to get in, listed below are 12 different cool but atypical military bases from around the global.

12. Siachen Glacier

via pakistancommandos.blogspot.com

This military base additionally doubles as a battle flooring for India and Pakistan. Located six hours north of Jammu and Kashmir, it serves as the base camp for the Indian Army. But for the past 41 years, Pakistan has additionally laid claim to the same far flung patch of land.

The Siachen Glacier is positioned at a peak of over 21,000 feet, with the Indian Army conserving two-thirds of the glacier and controlling two of 3 necessary passes up the mountain. The base is repeatedly buffeted via 100 mph winds; snowstorms in Siachen can last as long as three weeks with temperatures dipping beneath −50 °C. The skinny, oxygen-depleted air also causes speech issues, nausea and depression.

Till date, extra soldiers have died from avalanches, exposure and altitude sickness than enemy bullets. Siachen could also be one in all the costliest bases to deal with, with outposts costing India and Pakistan, $300 and $2 hundred million+, respectively.

11. Olavsvern Naval Base

by means of amazon.com

When Olavsvern used to be first constructed during the Cold War, it was once a wonder of engineering that was likened to a Bond villain's lair. Carved immediately into the mountains, the base had a submarine dry dock with direct access to the sea. It additionally had just about 150,000 sq feet of structures with any other 270,000 sq toes of bombproof area inside of the mountain.

With any such time (three decades) and value funding (round $500 million), one would think this is one of those belongings that will final without end, right? But in 2011, after years of disuse, it used to be bought for $18 million. The purchasing company stated it might be used as a maintenance base for oil rig platforms.

But after the sale, the new purchaser started renting out the facility to the very Russians that it was once built to give protection to Norway from. Talk about a strategic blunder! Now Russian 'analysis' ships and planes can legally violate Norwegian airspace; they've been accused of inflicting multiple close to mid-air collisions.

10. The Pyramid of North Dakota

by way of mysteryhistory.tv

With the looming danger of ICBM assaults in the Nineteen Fifties, the USA advanced the Safeguard Program. This used to be a US Army anti-ballistic missile device that labored through tracking incoming missiles and shooting them down with surface-to-air missiles.

Costing six billion greenbacks to construct, the development that housed the radar machine had dishes embedded on every aspect, offering a 360 level 'view'. This protection allowed it to discover missiles from a distance of 1,100 km.

The large pyramid with the apex lopped off, reminded a lot of the ancient pyramids of Egypt and Asia. The base also consisted of miles of tunnels snaking beneath the surface. The selection of structure and secrecy surrounding the construction led many to invest that the facility had a extra sinister function than just monitoring ICBMs. Inexplicably the base used to be shut down and the tunnels flooded, after being operational for only THREE days, in 1975.

Today, the remnants of the pyramid nonetheless tower over Nekoma in what has been described as “a monument to man's concern and lack of knowledge.”

9. Yulin Naval Base

via warshipsimages.com

Off the coast of Chinese resort island, Hainan lies plenty of underwater tunnels. These are used to guide Chinese submarines into a vast underground naval base, beneath the surface of the South China Sea.

Borrowing from the Navy's Rock-Site Concept, the Chinese military created several undersea installations the use of a method advanced for the mining and petroleum trade. By establishing permanent manned installations below the floor, vessels can arrive and go away without being observed.

The base used to be in-built absolute secrecy, and in record time. Safe to say, a couple of governments were panicked after they realized of its lifestyles. The huge tunnel entrances main into what is believed to be huge caverns, the place up to 20 nuclear submarines can dock and be deployed stealthily.

8. Bagram Airfield

by means of wired.com

Despite the withdrawal of forces and downsizing of military bases in Afghanistan, Bagram Airfield nonetheless remains the largest U.S. military base in the area. The base is constructed from different struggle units together with the Combined Joint Task Force tenth Mountain Division (CJTF-10), the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and so on. They additionally work alongside bureaucrats, logisticians and 1000's of civilian contractors.

At one level, the base was house to over 40,000 troops and contractors. It used to be like all small US the town, entire with site visitors jams, business shops and so on. Because the web page was so self-contained, lots of the 'residents' by no means even ventured out into the actual Afghanistan.

But being huge isn't the handiest thing Bagram is famous for. Security analysts claim that the extent of torture carried out on the base exceeded that of Guantanamo Bay. One interpreter described Guantanamo as 'paradise' when in comparison to Bagram.

7. Raven Rock Mountain Complex

by way of aboutcampdavid.blogspot.com

Part emergency bunker, part weather-monitoring station, section Presidential bolthole, Raven Rock installation may be known as the 'Backup Pentagon.' During the Cold War, Raven Rock Mountain Complex was constructed for Pentagon officers to hold out in case of bombardment and radioactive fallout.

The bunker is buried inside of a Pennsylvania mountain, six miles north of Camp David. The complete advanced is inaccessible to the public with security so tight, that conspiracy theorists speculate there's extra to it than meets the eye.

Talk about prepping, but to the nth stage; there are plans underway to construct a tunnel from Site R to the Pentagon. That's a distance of round 157 km!

6. Nellis Air Force Base

by means of www.nellis.af.mil

Operational since the Forties, Nellis was once primarily a coaching facility for the USAF, however in 2007, it took on a few extra roles. The sprawling base is spread over 11,300 acres, permitting it to host extra military colleges and squadrons than another USAF base. It's so huge that, the United States Geological Survey names 5 different locations for the base: the precise air base, the hooked up airfield, a publish office, a Community College of Southern Nevada campus and a census-designated place.

With such a lot house available, the base (in partnership with MMA Renewable Ventures) set up North America’s biggest solar power plant. On a a hundred and forty acre plot, a 15-megawatt plant was inaugurated in December 2007.

The plant helped scale back the cost of the energy used by the base and the surrounding neighborhood, to the song of $1 million in line with annum. The cost savings have been vital enough to warrant every other photo-voltaic farm named Nellis II launching in March 2015. This would supply 19 megawatts of to the base, making it the biggest photo-voltaic system in the Department of Defense.

5. Diego Garcia

by means of taringa.net

In 1965, the US govt decided they needed a military base in the Indian Ocean. The island of Diego Garcia seemed excellent, and it had already been colonized by means of the British. The native inhabitants of a few thousand didn't faze the super powers.

The Brits merely got here up with a legislation that made it 'illegal' for civilians to reside there. The island population was rounded up and transported to the Seychelles. Their pet canines that were left in the back of had been shot, then fed poison; those that survived were sooner or later gassed.

The island is perfectly located between to act as a central node for the U.S. Military. It currently serves as a co-ordination level for right through the Gulf War, the invasion of Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan even the current bombing marketing campaign of IS.

Till date, no journalist has been allowed to land on the island; it's also been used as a CIA “black web page” for containing suspected terrorists. The secrecy around this base has fueled speculations that this is where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, ended up.

4. The HAARP Research Station

via npr.org

HAARP stations are used to analyze the ionosphere, the a part of the upper atmosphere from around 85 km above the floor of the Earth to six hundred km up. By sending radio beams into the ionosphere and finding out the responses from it, scientists (and the U.S. military) hope to understand the function of the atmosphere in transmitting radio signals.

But with the Gakona Alaska base consisting of an array of a hundred and eighty antennas, and the heavy military presence in the area, conspiracy theories have emerged about their 'precise' use. The equipment has been suspected to be used as a demise beam, the reason behind tsunamis, whilst a weapon for thoughts control. The proven fact that the result of the 'experiments' are by no means revealed, merely fuels the speculation.

Even Jesse Ventura attempted to pressure his way past the Gakona gates, on one episode of “Conspiracy Theory,” but to no avail. After spending $300 million and twenty years to build the facility, the DoD closed it down in 2014. In June 2015, the facility was re-opened but transferred over to University of Alaska Fairbanks

3. Kwajalein Atoll

by the use of fayeandsteve.com

As one in every of the lesser known U.S. Pacific island bases, the Kwajalein Atoll isn't as extremely rated as, say, Guam. However, it performed a key function in ballistic missile testing, is or even in helping to spur the era that resulted in the web.

The atoll is made up of virtually Ninety seven islands; the U.S. recently rentals Eleven of them. The lagoon in the center gives a splashdown point for re-entry cars, there may be almost no shipping traffic or radio interference to disrupt the checks. This 'isolation' extends to the island that properties the primary launch facility, Meck; it doesn't have any residential amenities. This approach someone who's running at the facility should trip; a Forty km adventure from Kwajalein Island on a regular basis.

Fun Fact: When the military campaigns ended, airplanes, jeeps and different apparatus were deemed too pricey to transport again to the USA, so most of it was dumped in Kwajalein’s lagoon. This has developed into a 'junkyard' for scuba divers.

2. Secret Drone Base

by means of motherboard.vice.com

Weird title, I know, however this base was once most effective came upon accidentally; a researcher was poring over satellite pictures of ta segment of barren region in Saudi Arabia. They had been stunned to find a U.S. military base, a long way off the beaten observe.

When you take into consideration it, it kinda is sensible. Even with the trends in drone technology, flying them long-distance is still a problem. To combat this, America is development mini air bases for the UAVs. This secret drone base, hidden in the desert of Saudi, is in a position to sporting out moves in opposition to al-Qaeda's associates in close by Yemen.

But it simply appeared to show up out of nowhere. In 2010, the Globe, a supplier of commercial footage, flew a satellite over the space; no base. In 2012, the satellite made another go best to find a full-functioning military base there. The base is provided with three "clamshell" hangars which might be used to carry drones in the USA, two runways to launch and land drones on and a larger 3rd run method for normal planes.

The region is described as 'Hell,' as it's miles from the nearest highway. Until 2012, there have been no roads there, which led security analysts to take a position that the street was built solely as a result of the base. They describe it as a 'main logistics feat'.

1. Eareckson Air Station

by way of ar15.com

In one in all the most barren areas of Alaska's Aleutian Islands, is the island of Shemya, house of the Eareckson Air Station. Shemya sits 1,900 km west of Anchorage and is so remoted that the Air Force does not trouble conserving personnel on it completely.

In 1977, the island was house to the Cobra Dane ballistic missile radar. It used to be an early warning system used to gather intelligence in beef up of the SALT II fingers limitation treaty.But at the moment, the Cobra Dane machine is thought of as out of date. But the Pentagon doesn't have any plans to scrap the radar machine.

They stay the air station open and use it as a refueling station, even repaving the 10,000 toes runway in 2010. This has allowed Eareckson for use as an emergency airfield for any flights that run into problems between North America and Asia.

In July, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong had to make an emergency landing on Shemya, when the workforce detected smoke.

Looks like old military bases nonetheless have some use in the end.

Sources: bbc.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, express.co.uk, huffingtonpost.com, scmp.com

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