Expensive, abandoned military bases left to rust
Daniel Coughlin
07 September 2020
Abandoned defense facilities that cost big bucks
Military installations have never come cheap. On top of the eye-watering sums of money required to get them up and running, facilities for the armed forces can be outrageously expensive to decommission. Click or scroll through as we enter 10 of the world's most jaw-dropping abandoned bases and reveal how much they really cost to construct and, in some cases, shut down.
Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar, Afghanistan
Set up by the US military in 2008, this forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan was used by Coalition troops as a strategic hub and location to train the Afghan National Security Forces and police. Millions of dollars were spent building and expanding the facility.
Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar, Afghanistan
The base turned out to be something of a money pit, swallowing up taxpayers' cash like no tomorrow. The US military spent $6 million on security fencing alone, and $12 million on a 1.4 mile-long runway.
Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar, Afghanistan
Given all the money ploughed into the base, it certainly wasn't lacking in amenities. FOB Shank had everything from a 50-store shopping mall to three restaurants and not just one or two but four beauty salons.
Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar, Afghanistan
Big changes came in 2014 when the majority of US troops withdrew from Afghanistan. The base was handed over to the Afghan police, but has been largely unused ever since and effectively left to rot.
Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar, Afghanistan
The crumbling base has been nicknamed 'Zombieland' and likened to TV show The Walking Dead by US soldiers, while the Afghan security forces refer to the dilapidated buildings as “houses for demons”. Packs of wild dogs roam the landscape, adding to the post-apocalyptic vibe.
Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar, Afghanistan
Though a modest contingent of American troops remain at an installation called Camp Dahlke, which is located on the southern edge of the abandoned base, FOB Shank lies deserted and unmaintained.
Maunsell Forts, Thames Estuary, UK
Reminiscent of the Martian tripods in HG Wells' sci-fi classic War of the Worlds, the imposing Maunsell naval and army forts were erected in the Thames Estuary between 1942 and 1943 to defend London against Nazi air and sea attacks.
Maunsell Forts, Thames Estuary, UK
The structures were named after their designer Guy Maunsell. Four naval and three army forts were built at a cost of £724,000, which works out at $45 million today when adjusted for inflation.
Maunsell Forts, Thames Estuary, UK
Equipped with searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, the forts made for a formidable defensive measure. By the end of World War II, they had destroyed a German E boat and shot down 22 enemy aircraft and 30 flying V1 bombs.
Maunsell Forts, Thames Estuary, UK
The naval forts were swiftly abandoned by the military following the war. Today only two remain: Knock John Fort, which was used in the late 1960s to broadcast pirate radio station Radio Essex; and Fort Roughs, aka the Independent Principality of Sealand.
Maunsell Forts, Thames Estuary, UK
Fort Roughs was commandeered in 1967 by pirate radio broadcaster Paddy Roy Bates who attempted (and failed miserably) to establish an independent state there. Two out of the three army forts still stand.
Maunsell Forts, Thames Estuary, UK
Nore Fort was dismantled in the late 1960s but the Red Sands and Shivering Sands Forts survive. Plans have been floated to redevelop the ramshackle facilities, including a $127 million project to transform Red Sands Fort into a luxury hotel, but none have made it off the drawing board.
Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, USA
Chanute Air Force Base in Champaign County, Illinois was established during World War I as Chanute Field, a primary training school to instruct cadets in the rigors of flying warplanes. The installation was completed in 1917 at a cost of $1 million, around $20 million in today's money.
Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, USA
Two colossal hangars were built on the site in the late 1930s. The base was further expanded during World War II when accommodation for 15,000 personnel was built. A Women's Army Corps school was also set up during the conflict.
Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, USA
Following World War II, Chanute remained a crucially important training base. It prepped pilots for active combat in the Korean War and was the number one training center for the LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile during the 1960s.
Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, USA
As was the case with several other bases in our round-up, the end of the Cold War spelled the demise of Chanute. The facility was deemed superfluous to the needs of the US military, which went on a downsizing spree during the early 1990s.
Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, USA
The base closed for good in December 1993. Since then parts of the site have been repurposed as housing, motels, a gym, restaurants and more, but a significant proportion of the facility remains derelict and out of bounds.
Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, USA
These areas are heavily contaminated with toxins and the clean-up job is ongoing. To date, at least $189 million has been spent and there's still some way to go until the entire site is made good.
Kaunas Fortress, Kaunas, Lithuania
The gigantic Kaunas Fortress in south-central Lithuania was built over a period of 33 years from 1882 to 1915 to protect the Russian Empire, which controlled the area at that time, against German invasion. Upon its completion, the military base was the largest defensive structure in the country.
Kaunas Fortress, Kaunas, Lithuania
All in all, nine forts and nine batteries were constructed on the site. Fort IX, the largest of the structures, cost an estimated $7.6 million to build, around $232 million in today's money.
Kaunas Fortress, Kaunas, Lithuania
Kaunas Fortress had its first serious test during World War I when it was besieged by German forces. Despite relentless bombardment, the facility held out for an impressive 11 days, a testament to its robustness.
Kaunas Fortress, Kaunas, Lithuania
The history of the fortress took a darker turn during World War II when Kaunas was captured and occupied by Nazi troops. As many as 50,000 people were executed in the fortress including 30,000 Holocaust victims.
Kaunas Fortress, Kaunas, Lithuania
After the war, the fortress was used by the Soviet airborne troops until late 1950s. In 1958, it was dedicated as a museum to memorialize the crimes that were perpetrated there and detail the history of the place.
Kaunas Fortress, Kaunas, Lithuania
A striking memorial standing 105 feet tall was unveiled at the site in 1984. Fort IX, which was partly renovated in 2007, houses an exhibition of artifacts and welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. The rest of the site is not much more than a ruin.
Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, USA
Spanning more than 13,000 acres, the Savanna Army Depot lies on the banks of the Mississippi River not far from the city of Savanna in Illinois. The installation was built in 1917 as a testing ground for artillery.
Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, USA
The total cost of construction was $585,000, which equates to $11.7 million in today's money. By the 1920s, the facility was being used to manufacture, store and reuse weapons, as well as test them. They included chemical weapons such as mustard gas.
Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, USA
Savanna grew to become the biggest munitions storage base in America during World War II.The depot had a workforce of thousands in its heyday. Staff numbers dwindled over the years as usage of the depot waned, and were down to 500 in the early 1990s.
Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, USA
The end of the Cold War was the final nail in the coffin. The depot was selected for closure in 1995 and eventually shut down in 2000. As you might imagine, toxic pollutants and unexploded ordnance litter the site, parts of which remain extremely dangerous. Trespassers beware.
Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, USA
In fact, the clean-up operation, which has been dragging on for years, has cost the US authorities at least $200 million to date. The final bill could be in the region of $350 million, which totally eclipses the initial cost of the facility.
Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, USA
The good news is that the core site, which is strictly out of bounds to the public, is now a haven for wildlife. The lack of human activity in the area has resulted in the ideal habitat for an impressive 47 plant and animal species that are threatened or endangered in the State of Illinois, including the ornate box turtle.
Plokštinė Missile Base, Plokščiai, Lithuania
This top secret missile base near Lake Plateliai in what is now Lithuania was built by a workforce of 10,000 men from 1960 to 1962. The mostly subterranean facility was far from economical to construct...
Plokštinė Missile Base, Plokščiai, Lithuania
In fact, the final bill was equivalent to the cost of building a small town, so billions in today's money. Security was, as you might imagine, exceedingly tight and the base was encircled by an electric fence capable of delivering a fatal shock of 1,700 volts.
Plokštinė Missile Base, Plokščiai, Lithuania
Consisting of several deep shafts, a number of missile silos and a maze of tunnels, the installation was large enough to house hundreds of personnel and could stay completely autonomous for up to 15 days.
Plokštinė Missile Base, Plokščiai, Lithuania
The silos contained numerous R-12 Dvina missiles fitted with nuclear warheads. Thankfully, the thawing of Cold War tensions following the Cuban Missile Crisis meant the weapons were never deployed, even for testing purposes.
Plokštinė Missile Base, Plokščiai, Lithuania
In the end, the outrageously expensive base was in operation for only 12 years. Maintenance of the site did continue, however, but ceased in the early 1990s following the collapse of communism and break-up of the USSR.
Plokštinė Missile Base, Plokščiai, Lithuania
The base deteriorated fast and became a magnet for trespassers but in 2012 restoration work was carried out and Plokštinė is now the home of the Cold War Museum, a popular tourist attraction.
Fort Ord, Marina, USA
Designated a fort in 1940 and closed in 1994, Fort Ord in coastal Monterey County, California sits on 28,000 acres of prime real estate. The area the fort encompasses is around the same size of San Francisco and is, needless to say, worth billions of dollars.
Fort Ord, Marina, USA
The facility dates from 1917 when it served as a maneuver area and field artillery target range. Fort Ord's expansion and designation as a fort cost $15 million, which works out at $274 million in today's money.
Fort Ord, Marina, USA
The US Army's 7th Infantry Division was stationed at Fort Ord for much of its history. In World War II, German prisoners of war were imprisoned at the installation and tasked with constructing walls and bunkers.
Fort Ord, Marina, USA
After World War II, the fort was used as a training facility and went on to became America's leading instructional installation during the Vietnam War. Soldiers jumped at the chance to be stationed there thanks to the fort's wonderful climate, oceanside location and first-class amenities.
Fort Ord, Marina, USA
During the 1960s, the enormous base boasted everything from a hospital, six schools, stores including a barber's and thrift shop, two movie theaters and a bowling alley to an 18-hole golf course and Olympic-sized swimming pool (pictured).
Fort Ord, Marina, USA
The end of the Cold War rendered Fort Ord obsolete and the facility eventually closed in 1994. The decommissioning project and clean-up is estimated to have cost $332 million. Though many of the fort's military structures remain, much of the land has been sold off to private developers and part of the site garnered National Monument status in 2012.
Olavsvern, Tromsø, Norway
Carved into a mountain, this covert naval base near Tromsø was built by the Norwegian Navy in the late 1960s. It cost an absolute fortune: the final bill came in at $494 million, which is about $3.8 billion when adjusted for inflation.
Olavsvern, Tromsø, Norway
No expense was spared on the base, which was equipped with the most advanced and sophisticated technology money could buy and featured 150,000 square feet of buildings above ground, in addition to the plethora of tunnels and rooms beneath the mountain.
Olavsvern, Tromsø, Norway
The Bond villain-esque facility acted as the main supply and service base for NATO submarines operating in the Norwegian and Barents Seas. The subs navigated in and out of the installation via nifty canals.
Olavsvern, Tromsø, Norway
Olavsvern lost its key strategic importance following the fall of communism. The base was retired in 2002 and shut down in 2009 by the Norwegian government, which put it up for sale at a rock-bottom price.
Olavsvern, Tromsø, Norway
The installation was eventually sold in 2011 to a consortium of Norwegian oil companies for just $5 million, a fraction of what it cost to construct. The former base was to have been used as a maintenance site for the oil industry.
Olavsvern, Tromsø, Norway
Instead, Olavsvern has been rented by affiliates of Gazprom, the Russian energy giant that has close links with the Kremlin. The entities operate research vessels from the base, a move that has gone down very badly indeed with the Norwegian government and its NATO allies.
Željava Air Base, Željava, Croatia
Željava Air Base was built by the Yugoslav armed forces between the late 1940s and early 1960s under a mountain at a secret location on what is now the border of Bosnia and Croatia. One of Europe's largest military facilities, the cavernous installation served as a command center and housed a missile early warning system.
Željava Air Base, Željava, Croatia
Accessed by four entrances in the mountain, the underground part of the base was designed to be big enough to accommodate 1,000 personnel, launch jets from the entrances and survive a direct hit from a 20-kiloton nuclear warhead.
Željava Air Base, Željava, Croatia
This image shows one of the four reinforced nuclear blast doors that were capable of withstanding a nuclear bomb equivalent to the one that devastated Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Each of the doors weighed 100 metric tons intact.
Željava Air Base, Željava, Croatia
The nerve center of the base, the star command hub is pictured here. The intel-gathering and control facility is located at the locus of a network of subterranean tunnels that stretch over a staggering 2.2 miles.
Željava Air Base, Željava, Croatia
Above ground, the base was kitted out with a total of five extra-long runways, one of which is shown here. Surveillance radars were placed on the top of the mountain, which was protected by surface-to-air missile interceptor systems and heavily guarded 24/7.
Željava Air Base, Željava, Croatia
The base is estimated to have cost $6 billion to build. Despite the vast expense, the withdrawing Yugoslav People's Army destroyed much of the complex during the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 to prevent the opposing forces from using it for their own ends. The complex has remained abandoned ever since.
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Nekoma, USA
A bewildering waste of taxpayers' money, the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in Nekoma, North Dakota was completed in April 1975, at a cost of $6 billion when adjusted for 2019 dollars.
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Nekoma, USA
The futuristic complex, which was was built beneath and around an eye-catching pyramid structure, provided launch and control for scores of short- and longer-range anti-ballistic missiles.
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Nekoma, USA
Unbelievably, the multibillion-dollar state of the art facility was fully operational for just 24 hours. In October 1975 Congress deemed the base ineffective, pulled funding and voted to decommission the whole shebang, literally a day after it went from initial to full operating capacity.
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Nekoma, USA
The base was deactivated in February 1976 and pretty much abandoned by the authorities. In 2012, the US military put the complex up for the sale in a bid to claw back some of the money invested in it.
Abandoned projects the US government spent billions of taxpayers' money on
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Nekoma, USA
The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex was snapped up by a religious group named the Spring Creek Hutterite Colony. The organization paid $530,000, a relatively meager sum considering how much the base cost to build.
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Nekoma, USA
Today, like many of the bases featured in our round-up, the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex stands as a monument to unbridled military overspending and pricey government policy U-turns.
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