The weather had really started to get us down. We decided to do something about it. We packed our cameras, our torches, clean undercrackers and headed (on a whim) to Croatia for the weekend.
(borrowed from wikipedia)
The role of the facility was to establish, integrate, and coordinate a nationwide early warning radar network in SFRJ akin to NORAD. The complex was designed and built to sustain a direct hit from a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb, equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki.
The main advantage of the base was the strategic location of its "Celopek" intercept and surveillance radar on Mount Pljesevica, at the nerve center of an advanced integrated air defense network covering the airspace and territory of Yugoslavia, and possibly further. In addition to its main roles as a protected radar installation, control center, and secure communications facility, the airbase contained underground tunnels housing two full fighter squadrons, one reconnaissance squadron, and associated maintenance facilities. The units based there were the 124.LAE (Fighter Aviation Squadron) and 125.LAE, both equipped with MiG-21bis fighter aircraft, and the 352.IAE (Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron), equipped with MiG-21R reconnaissance-fighter aircraft.
The underground tunnels ran a total length of 3.5 kilometers, and the bunker had four entrances protected by 100-ton pressurized doors, three of which were customized for use by fixed-wing aircraft. Eventually, it was hoped that the base would be re-equipped with the indigenously developed Yu Supersonik aircraft.
SFR Yugoslav Air Force pilots being greeted by Marshal Josip Broz Tito inside one of Željava Airbase's aircraft tunnels
The underground facility was lined with semicircular concrete shields, arranged every ten meters, to cushion the impact of incoming munitions. The complex included an underground water source, power generators, crew quarters, and other strategic military facilities. It also housed a mess hall that could feed 1,000 people simultaneously, along with enough food, fuel, and arms to last 30 days without resupply. Fuel was supplied by a 20-kilometer underground pipe network that ran from a military warehouse on Pokoj Hill near Bihać.
Topside, the facility had five runways. In the immediate vicinity of the base, there were numerous short-range mobile tracking and targeting radars, missile-equipped sites, 2K12 "Kub" (NATO: SA-6) mobile surface-to-air missile interceptor systems, motorized infantry bases, military police stations, and a hunting lodge used by civilian and military leaders on occasional leisure trips.
Access points were heavily monitored and guards authorized to fire on anyone attempting to enter without authorization. In practice, however, only special permits were required and unauthorized visitors usually turned away.
The airbase was used intensively in early 1991, during the Yugoslav Wars. During its withdrawal, the Yugoslav People's Army destroyed the airport by filling pre-built spaces (explicitly designed for the purpose) with explosives and detonating them. To prevent any possible further use of the complex by opposing forces, the Military of Serbian Krajina completed the destruction in 1995 by setting off an additional 56 tons of explosives there. The ensuing explosion was so powerful that it shook the nearby city of Bihać. Villagers claimed that smoke continued to rise from the tunnels for six months after the explosion.
Local police forces and the CPA currently use the area to train canines with actual land mines, given the extensive number of mines still in the vicinity. Because of the mines, extreme caution must be used when visiting the Željava complex. In November 2000, a Federation Air Force Major died from his injuries after setting off a PROM-2 anti-personnel mine while searching for mushrooms.
I apologise for the lack/quality of internals shots, this place was immense, I have never ever been in something this big or dark, between us lilli and I had 4 P7's and their output was just swallowed by the darkness in the 'MIG allys'. Also the air was thick with particles of heaven knows what that just relected all light. Masks were a must, I actually started choking on the one occasion I removed mine.
Thanks.
(borrowed from wikipedia)
The role of the facility was to establish, integrate, and coordinate a nationwide early warning radar network in SFRJ akin to NORAD. The complex was designed and built to sustain a direct hit from a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb, equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki.
The main advantage of the base was the strategic location of its "Celopek" intercept and surveillance radar on Mount Pljesevica, at the nerve center of an advanced integrated air defense network covering the airspace and territory of Yugoslavia, and possibly further. In addition to its main roles as a protected radar installation, control center, and secure communications facility, the airbase contained underground tunnels housing two full fighter squadrons, one reconnaissance squadron, and associated maintenance facilities. The units based there were the 124.LAE (Fighter Aviation Squadron) and 125.LAE, both equipped with MiG-21bis fighter aircraft, and the 352.IAE (Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron), equipped with MiG-21R reconnaissance-fighter aircraft.
The underground tunnels ran a total length of 3.5 kilometers, and the bunker had four entrances protected by 100-ton pressurized doors, three of which were customized for use by fixed-wing aircraft. Eventually, it was hoped that the base would be re-equipped with the indigenously developed Yu Supersonik aircraft.
SFR Yugoslav Air Force pilots being greeted by Marshal Josip Broz Tito inside one of Željava Airbase's aircraft tunnels
The underground facility was lined with semicircular concrete shields, arranged every ten meters, to cushion the impact of incoming munitions. The complex included an underground water source, power generators, crew quarters, and other strategic military facilities. It also housed a mess hall that could feed 1,000 people simultaneously, along with enough food, fuel, and arms to last 30 days without resupply. Fuel was supplied by a 20-kilometer underground pipe network that ran from a military warehouse on Pokoj Hill near Bihać.
Topside, the facility had five runways. In the immediate vicinity of the base, there were numerous short-range mobile tracking and targeting radars, missile-equipped sites, 2K12 "Kub" (NATO: SA-6) mobile surface-to-air missile interceptor systems, motorized infantry bases, military police stations, and a hunting lodge used by civilian and military leaders on occasional leisure trips.
Access points were heavily monitored and guards authorized to fire on anyone attempting to enter without authorization. In practice, however, only special permits were required and unauthorized visitors usually turned away.
The airbase was used intensively in early 1991, during the Yugoslav Wars. During its withdrawal, the Yugoslav People's Army destroyed the airport by filling pre-built spaces (explicitly designed for the purpose) with explosives and detonating them. To prevent any possible further use of the complex by opposing forces, the Military of Serbian Krajina completed the destruction in 1995 by setting off an additional 56 tons of explosives there. The ensuing explosion was so powerful that it shook the nearby city of Bihać. Villagers claimed that smoke continued to rise from the tunnels for six months after the explosion.
Local police forces and the CPA currently use the area to train canines with actual land mines, given the extensive number of mines still in the vicinity. Because of the mines, extreme caution must be used when visiting the Željava complex. In November 2000, a Federation Air Force Major died from his injuries after setting off a PROM-2 anti-personnel mine while searching for mushrooms.
I apologise for the lack/quality of internals shots, this place was immense, I have never ever been in something this big or dark, between us lilli and I had 4 P7's and their output was just swallowed by the darkness in the 'MIG allys'. Also the air was thick with particles of heaven knows what that just relected all light. Masks were a must, I actually started choking on the one occasion I removed mine.
Thanks.
