Željava Air Base, situated on the border between

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

and

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

under the mountain, near the city of

Bihać Bihać is a city and the administrative centre of Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of river Una (Sava), Una in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in th ...

, was the largest

underground hangar Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * Buenos Aires Underground, a rapid transit system * London Underground, a rapid transit system * ...

and

military air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

in the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

(SFRY), and one of the largest in Europe. The facilities are shared by the local governments of Bihać and

Lika-Senj County Lika-Senj County (, ) is a county in Croatia that includes most of the Lika region and some northern coastline of the Adriatic near the town of Senj, including the northern part of the Pag island. Its center is Gospić. The county is the leas ...

of Croatia.

History

The "Objekat" series of military installations can be found in secluded but strategically important areas within the former Yugoslavia, and the construction of these military bases was initialized by the SFRY's defence ministry. During the Yugoslav Wars, most of these bases were used by the Serbs in certain operations, but due to extenuating circumstances imposed by the Croat forces, they were destroyed and later rendered useless for military use. Nowadays, they are popular for

urban exploration Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex, and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inte ...

, although it is risky due to the possibility of

anti-personnel landmines An anti-personnel mine or anti-personnel landmine (APL) is a form of mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to an anti-tank mine, which target vehicles. APLs are classified into: blast mines and fragmentation mines; the latter may or ...

being located in unexplored areas. However, some were spared the destruction due to other circumstances where the Serbs did not control these installations. An example of some that are still in use is the D-0 Armijska Ratna Komanda nuclear bunker in Konjic, however the latter was turned into an art complex, but is still owned by the Ministry of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The construction of the Željava or Bihać Air Base (

code name A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in ...

d ''"Objekat 505"'') was inspired by mountain hangars used by the Swedish

Göta Wing Göta Wing (), also F 9 Säve, or simply F 9, was a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located near Gothenburg in south-west Sweden. History The decision to set up the air wing was made in 1936 to defend the import/export harbours on the w ...

(F 9), began in 1948 and was completed in 1968. During those two decades, SFRY spent approximately $6 billion on its construction, 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. The airfield was documented by American

CORONA Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus or disease responsible for the COVID-19 ...

satellite reconnaissance in 1968.

Description

The role of the facility was to establish, integrate and coordinate a nationwide

early warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum tim ...

network in SFRY akin to

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...

in the US. The complex was designed and built to sustain a direct hit from a 20-

kiloton TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the det ...

nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

, equivalent to that dropped on

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

Strategic role

The main advantage of the base was the strategic location of its ''"Celopek"'' intercept and surveillance radar on Mount , at the nerve center of an advanced integrated air defence network covering the airspace and territory of Yugoslavia, and possibly further. In addition to its main roles as a protected radar installation, control centre, 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 had a total length of , and the bunker had four entrances protected by 100-ton pressurized doors, three of which were customized for use by

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft (in which a rotor mounted on a spinning shaft generate ...

. 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, 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 The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

that could feed 1,000 people simultaneously, along with stores of food, fuel and arms sufficient to last 30 days. Fuel was supplied by a underground pipe network connected to a military warehouse on Pokoj Hill near

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 A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

sites equipped with; 2K12 "Kub" (NATO: SA-6) mobile surface-to-air missile interceptor systems, motorized infantry bases, two

Quick Reaction Alert Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) is state of Combat readiness, readiness and ''modus operandi'' of Anti-aircraft warfare, air defence maintained at all hours of the day by NATO air forces. The United States usually refers to Quick Reaction Alert as 'Ai ...

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. However, in practice only special permits were required and unauthorized visitors usually turned away.

Destruction

The airbase was used intensively in 1991, during the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. During its withdrawal, the

Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA/; Macedonian language, Macedonian, Montenegrin language, Montenegrin and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian language, Croatian and ; , J ...

destroyed the runway by filling pre-built spaces (designed for the purpose) with explosives and detonating them. To prevent any possible further use of the complex by Croatian and Bosnia-Herzegovinan forces, the

Serbian Army of Krajina The Serbian Army of Krajina (SAK, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srpska vojska Krajine, Српска војска Крајине, abbr. SVK), also known as the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina or Krajina Serbian Army, was the armed forces of the Republ ...

completed the destruction in 1992 by setting off an additional 56 tonnes of explosives. The ensuing explosion was so powerful that it shook the nearby city of Bihać. Residents of nearby villages claimed that smoke continued to rise from the tunnels for six months after the explosion. The order for the destruction was issued by serb colonel Milan Meničanin.

Current status

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 Bosnian Air Force major died after setting off a PROM-2 anti-personnel mine while searching for mushrooms. The toll of the destruction on base buildings and equipment is incalculable and caused great environmental damage. Potential reconstruction endeavors are limited by a lack of financial resources. An international border bisects the base area, and the entire area is heavily mined. The barracks in the nearby village of Ličko Petrovo Selo are operated by the

Croatian Army The Croatian Army ( or HKoV) is the land force branch of the Croatian Armed Forces. It is numerically the largest of the three branches of the Croatian Armed Forces. The HKoV is the main force for the defense of the country against external threa ...

. Today, the base is a common waypoint for illegal migrants. A facility for asylum seekers was scheduled to open there in 2004 or 2005, but the idea was abandoned, and new plans were developed for it to become part of the

Slunj Slunj is a town in the mountainous part of Central Croatia, located along the important North-South route to the Adriatic Sea between Karlovac and Plitvice Lakes National Park, on the meeting of the rivers Korana and Slunjčica. Slunj has a popu ...

military training grounds, and barracks from the nearby

Udbina Udbina is a settlement and a municipality in historical Krbava, in the Lika region of Croatia. Administratively, it is part of the Lika-Senj County. Geography Udbina is located in the large karst field called Krbava. It is approximately 45 kil ...

complex. However, this idea was dropped in line with the agreement between the countries of former Yugoslavia which bans any military facility up to inside the borders. The Bihać Municipality launched an initiative to open a local airport using the runway.

References

External links

Željava runways layout & numbering scheme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeljava Airbase Yugoslav Air Force bases Buildings and structures in Bihać Airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina Defunct airports Airports in Croatia History of Lika Buildings and structures demolished in 1992 Aircraft underground hangars in Europe Nuclear bunkers in Bosnia and Herzegovina Subterranean structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina Airports disestablished in 1992 Military history of Bihać