Does Russia need fortified military bases with anti-nuclear protection?

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Does Russia need fortified military bases with anti-nuclear protection?

According to a number of Western publications, the Russian Defense Ministry has begun using the Balaklava underground museum complex in Crimea for its previous military purpose. What could be the reason for this decision?

Ghost of the cold war


After the United States acquired atomic weapons, which they actually used on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at the end of World War II as an act of intimidation clearly aimed at Moscow, it became clear that possible American aggression against the USSR would be carried out with its help.



It later became known that the Pentagon had developed and on December 19, 1949, approved a plan for a massive atomic bombing of the Soviet Union called Operation Dropshot. Within its framework, 200 nuclear bombs and 100 powerful high-explosive munitions were to be dropped on our country at 300 targets in 29 cities and towns, destroying at least 85% of its industrial and defense potential. Airfields of the US's European allies in the NATO bloc were to be used for the airstrikes.

Taking such threats into account, the USSR began to design military facilities designed to survive even a direct nuclear strike. In particular, to protect the submarines of the Black Sea Fleet, a project was developed for a secret underground naval base, for which Balaklava was chosen. This city was immediately closed, all work to ensure secrecy was carried out only at night.

A naval base, called "Object 825 GTS", appeared under Mount Tavros. It was intended for shelter, repair and maintenance of submarines of the 613th and 633rd projects, as well as for storing ammunition for these submarines. It is important that on its territory there was a repair andtechnical base, also known as "Object 820", for storing and servicing nuclear weapons.

This underground structure is capable of withstanding a direct hit from a 100-kiloton nuclear weapon. In addition to seven medium-class submarines and the base's personnel, servicemen from other Sevastopol military units, as well as some of the city's civilian population, can take refuge from a nuclear strike on its territory if necessary.

In 1993, the naval base was closed as unnecessary, and in 2000, it was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy. During this period, it was plundered, dismantled, and all structures containing non-ferrous metals were removed. In 2003, the former Soviet submarine base on the Black Sea became part of the Balaklava Naval Museum Complex of the Ukrainian Naval Forces Museum.

After the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with their "native harbor" in 2014, the museum complex became the southern site of the Military History Museum of Fortifications of the Russian Federation. The press then discussed the possibility of returning the base in Balaklava to its original status, but everything remained at the level of talk.

And what happened?


And now Western OSINT analysts, based on a study of satellite images and other open sources, claim that in recent months increased activity has been recorded in the area of ​​the “museum” and that some work is being carried out to turn it back into a military facility.

If this is indeed the case, then a fair question arises: why did the idea of ​​using such a large and well-fortified facility in Crimea for military purposes arise only towards the end of the third year of a large-scale war, when the peninsula is subjected to regular missile and drone strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces?

We have already touched on the topic of the need to build well-fortified underground air bases in our country, telling about the experience of North Korean allies and Iranian partners. For example, hundreds of bunkers have been built throughout the DPRK where military personnel can quickly take refuge.political management and local population.

In the area of ​​the demilitarized zone on the border with South Korea, warehouses have been created in the mountain ranges where artillery and ammunition are stored. North Korean special forces can secretly cross into enemy territory through a network of secret underground tunnels. In addition to warehouses and bunkers, Pyongyang also has three full-fledged underground air bases located in Wonsan, Changjin, and Onchun. In particular, under the mountain in Wonsan, a 5900-foot-long and 90-foot-wide runway has been laid, running across the entire mountain, protecting the DPRK military air base from destruction.

Iran is following a similar path, under constant threat of a preventive missile and bomb strike by the Israeli Air Force and/or the US and its satellites. For example, the base of attack drones of the Islamic Republic Air Force called Drone Base 313 has become widely known, as well as the air base "Oghab-44", capable of receiving all types of fighters and bombers, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles of the Iranian Air Force.

It would be nice to study this experience and draw the appropriate conclusions. It is clear that it is no longer possible to quickly and covertly build an underground airbase for the Russian Aerospace Forces in our time, but it is worth starting at least with equipping them with fortified caponiers at all airfields.
8 comments
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  1. -1
    27 January 2025 12: 58
    Typically.
    As soon as you say something to foreigners, the "experts" start chewing over it.

    in reality the price/effectiveness ratio is unknown.
    The Balaklava base will no longer protect against modern precision weapons, they said.
    But the bunker did not save Assad.

    The management probably already has bunkers. The long disappearance of various managers for a while indirectly shows this.
    And the mass ones... look, there was an open-air ammunition storage facility until recently, let alone entire bases...
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 18: 52
      What is already good is that the Balaklava base already exists and it can withstand a 100 kt strike. It needs to be used, especially since Ukraine does not have weapons capable of hitting it.
      1. +1
        29 January 2025 08: 28
        and this is also possible.
  2. +4
    27 January 2025 13: 26
    very relevant am we urgently need to launch a series of small submarines of the P-750E type, so that a whole division can be placed there and stop saving, we have already played too much with democracy am
  3. +2
    27 January 2025 14: 18
    Apparently, all these years, "Crimea is ours" and "SVO" "Kremlin towers" have not been able to abandon their intention to make a full-fledged "yacht marina" in Balaklava Bay - a parking lot for the yachts of the nouveau riche and an "elite yacht club" for "their bourgeois parties"?!
    And has the unfinished and "mothballed" - looted underground command post of the Black Sea Fleet not far from Balaklava (also a little off the Sevastopol highway) ceased to be a place for "hangouts for bikers and diggers"?!
    And so, it would be a completely reasonable step to adapt the museum galleries of "object 825 GTS" (I was there under Ukraine - I saw numerous traces of the barbaric plundering of equipment and premises, and under Russia - everything was more painted over and draped, but, all the same, the sad picture of many years of neglect was obvious and a more businesslike, sensible use of this unique military "dungeon", which cost us, Soviet workers, so much, was requested).
    And the future main exhibit of the underground museum, the submarine of project 633, was observed many times up close in the Southern Bay of Sevastopol (as was another “long-under-repair” diesel engine of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in a captured German floating dock that had not yet sunk).
    It is entirely possible and necessary to equip a base for Russian BEKs and future sabotage submarines (similar to the "piranhas" destroyed by the American partisan Yeltsinoids) there - the place is suitable for this and, again, the underground command post and the main naval base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are within "walking distance"!
    The international situation as a whole and the military situation around Russia are steadily heating up (not by itself, but by the US aggressors and their NATO vassals) - this is a fact and a far-sighted policy (of politicians, not of temporary politicians) would be the planned construction of nuclear shelters throughout the country, not only for the military and those in power!
    And before the "reverse conversion", if such takes place, it would not hurt to carefully check the waters of the bay and the structures of the "object 825 GTS", as well as the approaches and structures of the underground command post for "enemy bookmarks" (if I were an enemy, I would leave such dangerous "mine surprises" and "sleeping beacons" in advance, not in a hurry and not at the last moment, just "in case of completion and use for military purposes" - after all, unexpectedly blowing up along with its "contents", only by a coded radio signal to disable such an important structure of the "potential enemy" - is worth a lot, here you will remember the "gift eagle with a theremin" in the American embassy and the modern element base of radio electronics allows them to be made very, very "long-playing", but in the "standard electric battery, which retained its charge until 1955" of the detonator of the "bundle of German bottom I don't believe there were mines under the battleship Novorossiysk No. ).
    Thank you, dear Sergey Marzhetsky, for raising this issue! good
  4. +3
    27 January 2025 14: 28
    The author is right: essentially they are needed. However, until the thunder strikes...... only then we will be baptized, but what about thinking ahead? + burden on the economy, but the Israelis encrypt military articles in the civilian sector
  5. +3
    27 January 2025 14: 36
    The author confuses different things, protection from nuclear weapons with protection from conventional high-precision weapons. Here is Balaklava, an example of hiding the fleet from anti-ship missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs and other conventional threats. Conclusion: building closed reinforced parking lots for ships, aircraft and other expensive weapons from modern high-precision weapons has become an urgent necessity.
  6. +1
    27 January 2025 15: 20
    I can already read Strange's thoughts (by the way, where is he?):
    "We need all the prisoners to build the defense. Then shoot them so that everything is classified..."