Are there underground bases

One day it will all come to light, Ovenden said. Unearthed is a BBC Travel series that searches the world for newly discovered archaeological wonders that few people have ever seen. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Share using Email. By Natasha Khullar Relph 6th October Yet, until recently, authorities have remained conspicuously secretive about them.

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. Case in point: Gibraltar. British control of the territory dates back to , when Spain ceded the land in the Treaty of Utrecht.

How It's Unique: The location's strategic importance stems from the Strait of Gibraltar, which joins together the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, but the area also provides unique training opportunities in parachuting, diving and tunnel warfare. Under the streets of Gibraltar is an extensive mile-long tunnel system carved through limestone.

On the southern tip of Gibraltar is the Buffadero Training Center, which includes two live firing ranges, an obstacle course, and a mock village that mimics warfare in an urban environment.

Australia and the U. The site officially opened in June and has been a joint U. How It's Unique: Pine Gap's collection of eight or so radomes and its remote location have sparked many UFO-related rumors, both in Australia and abroad. The main function of Pine Gap is to monitor any missile activity in the region and relay intelligence to U. Schulz points out there are certain military installations, like Pine Gap or HAARP , that can only operate effectively in certain geographical areas. In , the Australian Department of Defence announced plans to upgrade antiquated equipment at the facility , indicating that Pine Gap has a long future ahead of it.

Background: Anthrax, Ebola virus, plague, and monkeypox are just a few of the deadly microbes handled by researchers at the U. Over the years, the institute has made significant contributions to the development of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments that have both military and civilian applications. Facilities like these are all about redundancies, Shulz says, and the safety requirements needed for BSL-4 certification are extensive and complex.

A few of the more notable precautions include double-door airlocks, sophisticated filtration systems capable of catching microscopic particles, fumigation chambers, and a completely air-tight building.

According to the National Institutes of Health, many of the BSL-4 facilities build buffer corridors around the laboratories to help mitigate damage from any potential blasts. In the coming years, the hangar will be instrumental in housing the P-8 Poseidon and its foot wingspan. Schulz says HNTB fitted sections of Kalwall—a translucent, polymer panel—into the southern wall so natural light could illuminate the hangar and curb energy consumption.

The designers also avoided using conventional sliding hangar doors and opted for Megadoors, which are made from fabric and pulled vertically, similar to blinds in a bedroom. The truss that spans that feet is 15 feet wide and 35 feet tall. Those are very interesting pieces of equipment. Background: This notoriously cryptic facility is built under Raven Rock mountain near the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The site was birthed during the Cold War and goes by many names, including Site R and the underground Pentagon. How It's Unique: Site R's mission is to facilitate the Continuity of Operations Plan, a blueprint for how the government would reposition itself if a major catastrophe strikes.

Should the country find itself in peril, defense communications and planning will allegedly be handled here, but the utility of such a strategy has been hotly debated. These on-the-fly facilities can be large enough to host troops and take less than a month to set up. Air conditioners help U. Andrew Jeacock, a marketing director for KBR, boasts that the real tech gems of a TDA are its vacuum waste-distribution system and the waste-water treatment plant.

The filtration system is so effective, Jeacock says, that it renders waste water nearly potable. A mere six years later, at the same site, Chuck Yeager busted through the sound barrier in a Bell X-1, marking the first time an aircraft had traveled faster than the speed of sound. How It's Unique: Edwards' legacy of speed is due, in part, to the fact that it's built adjacent to Rogers Dry Lake, a large salt flat that can be used as a natural extension to a runway.

The immediate benefit of the base's size is that it provides plenty of space in case an aircraft or spacecraft gets a bit out of control, but Schulz also points out that it helps cut down on noise pollution for nearby civilian populations. Background: Lajes Field, on the small, Portuguese-owned Terceira Island, is an important refueling station for aircraft that can't clear the Atlantic Ocean in a single shot.

In , the U. Today, the 65th Air Base Wing is stationed at the facility, providing support to U. Air Forces in Europe and to a variety of allies. How It's Unique: Lajes Field is on a small chunk of volcanic rock about 1, miles off the coast of Portugal, a location that can be stressful for first-time navigators. About 11 miles long from north to south, the island is not capable of supporting more than one airport, so the field is split between civilian operations and military operations.

Raven Rock gained some new notoriety thanks to a tell-all book by Garret Graff. Raven Rock: The Story of the U. Since the beginning of that initiative, as planning evolved it grew to include secret underground operations like Raven Rock which was meant to house senior Defense Department officials and their staff.

In , Defense Department officials held a military exercise at Raven Rock; it was meant to test how the facility might be able to weather a flu pandemic. According to a Yahoo News report from March 17, , the exercise operated in a scenario where the H5N1 bird flu epidemic began to affect operations in the United States. The results? The DoD learned it was harder than they anticipated to keep infections from spreading, and it is no coincidence that this occurred around the same time that reports of DoD leaders questioning the continued value of such operations.

Department of Defense officials are not likely to discuss emergency evacuation plans in interviews or press queries related to the COVID outbreak.

And those reached down to life necessities. Soldiers were shown types of breathing devices, specialized meters for detecting chemical and other threats. Some systems could keep an experienced soldier breathing for close to an hour. But panicked, shallow breathing can reduce that to half the time.

Tiny changes can make a big difference. Existing night vision needs some light to operate. Some options include carrying along light sources, but noise and light discipline are key entering an unexpected room, cave or stairwell.

Blinding light to stun the enemy can work both ways. Paratroopers spent the week practicing door breaching techniques that included welding torches, battery-powered saws, winches and sledge hammers, battering rams and prying tools. Even those small steps have to take into consideration the environment. Oxygen levels, other gases could mean small sparks will set off major explosions.

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.