Crumbling Soviet Bases

[keith19]

Some interesting photos - and text - about some of the old Soviet far-flung military bases, now crumbling into ruins. A strange, almost alien world that looks somehow far older than it is:
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.co...ain&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=outbrain

Apologies if anyone has already linked to this; I did a quick search of the forum and couldn't find anything.

 

[TechnicAl]

eerie arent they

we have one of our own........ever been to Orford Ness in Suffolk?.....its actually a bird sanctuary these days but there are buildings that were part of our nuclear bomb development

 

[snowcat]

I believe the soviets have bases with the K class subs still stood up, I think they finally have pulled all the reactors from them, Theres an island some ware in the Aral sea (vosradine or something iirc) where the soviets just abounded an Chemical weapons R&D facility. Russia's an incredibly hard country where human life seams relatively cheep...

 

[Angusdog]

^^^ There was a TV programme with a brit doctor who visited all the dangerous places on the planet and he went there. It was unbelievably creepy and scary to think what went on there. I guess Russia seemed like an endless place to conduct what others would think was unthinkable experiments.

I quite like the soviet era stuff, the Erkranoplan is a superb vehicle.

 

[madkayaker]

I help look after the transmitting station on Offord ness never got down there yet but trying! There is a load of building underground with all kind of strange stuff in

 

[ronan]

very good keith 19 , i love urbex

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php/6-Industrial-Sites

 

[penfold]

I help look after the transmitting station on Offord ness never got down there yet but trying! There is a load of building underground with all kind of strange stuff in

Which bit? The BFBS or the secret squirrel COBRA MIST thingy?

 

[madkayaker]

Carn't comment

 

[keith19]

Ronan, that's a fantastic link! I can see where a lot of my spare time is going to be spent for awhile...

 

[Wedg1e]

The former RAF Spadeadam in Northumberland was the home of Britain's rocket programme, now quietly decomposing...

 

[ronan]

The former RAF Spadeadam in Northumberland was the home of Britain's rocket programme, now quietly decomposing...

Looking at places online now deserted such the place you mention, always makes me think of "the avengers" tv program from the 60's for some reason. I think the current uk government are dedicated to closing down a lot more armed forces establishments.

 

[penfold]

The former RAF Spadeadam in Northumberland was the home of Britain's rocket programme, now quietly decomposing...

The engine test stands may be abandoned, but Spadeadam is still very much in use as an exercise area for Biggles and co. and the sneakier and beakier units of the army.

 

[KemppiFrog]

The airfield I worked at in Norfolk was owned by a chap called Herbert Minns, used to buy a/f s for the hard core since they were mostly WW11 bomber bases with very thick runways. Any way, he asked me if I could think of a use for thin fibreglass whip antennas. Fishing rods was the best I could come up with, so asked him how many. Seems he had bought an antenna field among loads of scrap from Orford Ness. There were truck loads of them.
Opening up on a Monday, I would often find a new toy that he had aquired. Nice fire engine from Haarlem ( two 'a's, as in Holland, not NYC) and a Ford model T flat bed among them. Thought they might come in handy, was his comment. Hope not, was mine about the fire truck. The Ford we used around the airfield for checking lights and other odd jobs, wierd epicyclic gearbox.
KF

I read somewhere that up at the Northern Sub base, the Ruskies have chucked old reactors into the sea. Not places I would want to visit.

 

[madkayaker]

Spadeadam is one of the biggest electronic warfare ranges in Europe. There is also a old british gas testing site http://www.gl-group.com/pdf/Large_Scale_Hazards_Testing.pdf

 

[Shox Dr]

The old listening post on Unst in The Shetlands RAF Saxa Vord was closed down sometime ago, Although I been going to The Shetlands for the last 7 yrs, I've never managed to have a look around, as it all open.

I grew up living next/on to Breighton Aerodrome, in East Yorks, after WWII it was used to house Bloodhound STA missiles. As a kid I used to spend many an hour rooting through all sorts of kit abandoned about the place.

 

[CKJDJK]

Wedgie, I work at RAF Spadeadam. As you say it is a fascinating place to visit. Limited what i can say but if you get the chance Google Spadeadam. If you can get a group together, contact the Commanding Officer and he may permit a community site visit of the base. Worth a visit.
Regarding the GL site, was Advantica and before that the BOC destructive testing site during the Blue streak era of the sixties when the site was at its height.
Advantica did a couple of TV programs. One withTony Robbinson was Blitz Street where they build a terraced street of the Blitz then proceded to blow it to bits using the type of bombs that the germans dropped on us including the doodle bug.
A second program with Richard Hammond saw them build the Parliment building of Guy Fawkes and the Gun powder plot. When they blew it it using similar eplosive and quatities they found that had he been successful in lighting the fuse then King James the 1st would have been killed and the damage to the surrounding area far greater than expected.