Tijdens onze motor tour in de zomer van 2019 zijn we naar het verlaten vliegveld gegaan in Željava, Kroatië. Deze oude militaire Air Base is ondergronds, deze is namelijk in een berg gegraven op de rand van Bosnië. Het maken van deze Air Base heeft $6.000.000.000 gekost. Nu is deze volledig verlaten. In de omgeving om het vliegveld liggen nog steeds veel mijnen welke ze nog steeds aan het opruimen zijn.
Tijdens ons bezoek werden nog gestopt door de lokale Politie die toevallig ter plaatse was. Dit was echter geen probleem en het leek dat ze goed snapten dat we gewoon even een kijkje wilde nemen bij dit interessante gebied. Het gebied is niet afgesloten en gewoon te vinden op Google Maps.
📍 Locatie op Google Maps:
Tijdens onze tour reden we op de BMW F800GS en een Triumph Tiger 800 XCa.
• Drone: DJI Mavic Air
• Camera: Canon 70D
• Action Cam: GoPro Hero 7 Silver
📧 Contact
Heb je vragen, interesse in een samenwerking of een leuk project om te filmen? Stuur dan een mailtje naar jjbeerepoot@gmail.com
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ℹ️More background information about the Željava Military Air Base
• Overview
Željava Air Base, situated on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina under the mountain Plješevica, near the city of Bihać, Bosnia, was the largest underground airport and military air base in Yugoslavia, and one of the largest in Europe. The facilities are shared by the local governments of Bihać and Lika-Senj County in Croatia.
• History
Construction of the Željava or Bihać Air Base (code-named “Objekat 505”) was inspired by mountain hangars used by the Swedish Göta Air Force Wing (F 9),[1] began in 1948 and was completed in 1968. During those two decades, SFRJ (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) spent approximately $6 billion on its construction,[2] three times the combined current annual military budgets of Serbia and Croatia. It was one of the largest and most expensive military construction projects in Europe.
• Description
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.
• Strategic role
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 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 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.
• Underground “KLEK” complex
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.
• Surface
Above ground, the facility had five runways and within the immediate vicinity of the base, there were numerous short-range mobile tracking and targeting radars; surface to air missile sites equipped with; 2K12 “Kub” (NATO: SA-6) mobile surface-to-air missile interceptor systems, motorized infantry bases, two Quick Reaction Alert aircraft ready for take off at any moment, military police stations, and a hunting lodge used by civilian and military leaders on occasional leisure trips.
Access points were heavily monitored and guards were authorized to fire upon anyone attempting to enter without authorization. In practice, however, only special permits were required and unauthorized visitors usually turned away.
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📧 Contact
Do you have a question, interested in working together or have a nice project to film? Send me a mail to: jjbeerepoot@gmail.com
Alo Japan.