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Underground air force base in Iran: "The air fleet is anything but modern"

2023-02-10T09:21:43.616Z


Iran has published spectacular pictures: They are said to show a new underground air force base. Here SPIEGEL editor Christoph Seidler explains what's behind it.


AreaRead the video transcript expand here

Pictures from the Iranian news agency Wana are said to show a new underground military base.

Her name: »Oghab 44«, Persian for »eagle«.

The exact location was not disclosed.

According to reports, however, the base is "several hundred meters deep under the mountains", armed against possible US attacks.

Christoph Seidler, DER SPIEGEL

»The pictures that we see from Iran look quite spectacular.

The

Eagle 44

Air Force Base

, deep down in the rocks, and you don't know exactly where it is either.

But in fact there is something like that, there is and was something like that in other countries.

We don't have to look that far in Europe.

Switzerland, for example, relied on just such a concept for a long time.

That's how it was done in Norway, in Taiwan, in China, in North Korea.

In other words, it is generally not unusual to stow aircraft that you want to protect, so to speak, in a crisis, in a mountain as deep and as far away from enemy influence as possible.«


The state news agency IRNA reports that fighter jets, bombers or drones could launch surprise attacks from the new base.

In an on-site interview, Major General Mohammad Bagheri stressed the Iranian Air Force's combat readiness.

Mohammad Bagheri, Iranian Major General

"If a base in the neighboring countries or anywhere in the world is used for an attack on Iran, except for the Zionist regime for which we are prepared, we will attack that base."


The Iranian regime may be defensive, but its air force is anything but modern.

Christoph Seidler, DER SPIEGEL

“Of course, in Iran you do that to show yourself to be strong and as invulnerable as possible.

That's certainly a reason.

In fact, it's like this: The Iranian aircraft fleet is actually relatively old because the embargo means they can't get technology from the West.

The planes you see there were bought by the Americans before the Shah fell, before 1979."


After months of severe domestic political turmoil, the leadership in Tehran must show strength.

It is unclear when exactly the recordings were made.

But the timing of the publication is anything but coincidence: next Saturday marks the 44th anniversary of the start of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-02-10

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