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| Europe |
| Why Norway is restoring its Cold War military bunkers |
| 2025-04-06 |
| [BBC] Norway's proximity to the USSR during the Cold War led to it building many military bunkers – some of them vast secret bases for planes and ships. Tensions with Russia have brought the bunkers back into focus. Tourists in their hundreds of thousands visit northern Norway each year. But there is a secret world they never see. For hidden away in mountain caverns are jet fighters and nuclear submarines. Norway is a land with many bunkers. At the peak of the Cold War, the sparsely populated, mountainous country had around 3,000 underground facilities where its armed forces and allies could hide and make life difficult for any invader. Dating back to when the Scandinavian country was part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall during World War Two and even earlier, their existence was barely known to the Norwegian public. Now as a European war engulfs eastern Ukraine, Norway is reactivating two of their most iconic underground structures of the Cold War. Close to Norway's border with Russia north of the Arctic Circle, the hangars of the Bardufoss Air Station and the naval base at Olavsvern feel like they belong in a spy film, with their rough rock walls, gleaming concrete and military equipment. Carved out of a mountain side, protected by around 900ft (275m) of tough gabbro rock, the Olasvern base is particularly evocative with its 3,000ft-long (909m) exit tunnel complete with massive blast door. Why are these huge bunkers needed today? The Soviet Union – the reason they were built in the first place – no longer exists. Does it really make sense to pour money into such expensive structures? Now, Bardufoss looks like it may be needed once more. The role of the reactivated base which has had structural and equipment upgrades is to help the "resilience and survivability" of Norway's F-35s in the face of a Russian attack. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown the world how vulnerable expensive military aircraft like these $80m–$110m (£64m to £80m) F-35s can be when on the ground, particularly to attacks by "kamikaze" drones that can cost as little as $300 (£230). Instead of placing tyres on wings or constructing hangars out of wire mesh, as the Russians have done in Ukraine, the drone threat can be limited by dispersing targets to many different locations, or, even better, by keeping the aircraft safe in hardened shelters – the hardest of which is a mountain. All it takes is one look at the map to explain why Olavsvern naval base was built. Located close to where the Norwegian Sea meets the Barents Sea, the 400 miles (650km) or so between Norway's coastline, Bear Island and Svalbard is sometimes called "the Bear Gap" because this was, and still is, a choke point for Russian submarines and warships hearding out to the Atlantic. The reason for the reactivation of these bases is simple: Russia. Norway's security concerns didn't start in 2022 – when Russia invaded Ukraine – or in 2014, when it invaded Crimea, but even earlier. "In around 2006-2008, there was a confluence of things. There was a lot of investment going into Russia's Northern Fleet," says Andreas Østhagen, a senior research fellow at Fridtjof Nansen Institute, a Norwegian foundation, "along with the resumption of Russian military exercises in the Arctic for the first time since the Cold War, and Russia's growing interest in the exploitation of Arctic resources". "Putin's Russia is not the Soviet Union," Østhagen adds. "But from a Norwegian security point of view there are the same issues. How do you deter Russia and, if you end up in a war, how do you fight Russia?" The Norwegians aren't the only ones reactivating Cold War bases. The Russians have also in recent years reactivated around 50 Cold War bases of varying kinds across the Arctic. The Swedish navy has returned to its underground naval base on Muskö island, about 25 miles (40km) from Stockholm. Other countries have gone further than simply reactivating bunkers built decades before; they are building new underground structures. China has built a massive new underground submarine base on Hainan Island in the contested South China Sea. It is also building a vast new underground command centre near the capital, Beijing. Iran has built its own underground naval base in the Persian Gulf and showed off its "underground missile city." "The psychology of nuclear bunkers is really, really powerful," says independent cold war researcher, and military blogger known as Sir Humphrey, the blogging name of the author of the Thin Pinstriped Line blog, which studies the Cold War. "I think they are deeply rooted into our psyche and our understanding of the Cold War, particularly of a Dr Strangelove command centre with an out-of-control general sitting there." |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 (1/3 of the B2 fleet) They're a lure. If they get nuked, there's 2/3 more. If they don't get nuked, Iran/Russia/China are emasculated. Poss these are the flying parts buckets not certified for assault. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-04-06 09:27 |
| #2 With 40 plus years to wargame options you'd think that maybe putting all your eggs in one basket (1/3 of the B2 fleet) might not be exactly prudent. |
| Posted by: Clem+Elmish4239 2025-04-06 06:30 |
| #1 B-2 Spirits Amassed On Diego Garcia Underscore Hardened Aircraft Shelter Debate |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-04-06 03:41 |