ISIS recruitment & underground airstrip/base

Ok, I´m posting this in the gray area because I myself can only retell what a friend told me a month ago.
I have not seen him a few months before that but we came together shortly before christmas.

I´m only retelling what he said to me so don´t shoot the messenger, please.
To give you a picture, first I tell you some facts and then what he said.

He comes from old yugoslavia(kosovo part).
He´s muslim but not the arabic-muslim type and they were all forced to convert at some point in history, but they really give a # about the whole headscarf, non-swine-eating and radical stuff. He actually laughs about muezins and says it sounds like his stomach hurts.^^ Basically they were forced to be muslim on paper.
I know him as a loving father, totally correct, honest all the time, never judging beforehand. However he told me something and I have his OK to write it here.

First thing is, there is a US run underground facility somewhere in or near serbia. It´s not a secret base it seems. I have to ask again, he told me the nearest big town but I could not understand it to a point, and back then I did not think to much about this part of the information. The local truck drivers that deliver cargo to the base have to unhinge their cargo somewhere near it and US truckers then collect the cargo and deliver it into the base. The base and it´s runways are almost completely underground. They basically fly out of the ground from a ramp, how they proceed to land was not told to me. I assume the runway is not complet underground but partly covered. He has this information from a friend, who´s one of those truckers.

Second thing, he told me of rumors from some friends that the US is recruiting local muslim people in to infiltrate ISIS. The practice is that they will bring you into the country to "undermine ISIS" and they are given a pill or some kind of drug and in the end, you are doing stuff that helps ISIS, not undermines it. How this information was able to get back to his friends, I don´t know.

I have to say, I believe him directly, meaning at least he redirected this to me 1:1 like he heard it.
Do what you want with this information, there is no way to proof the second part but the first one is doable. I have to ask him again about the name of that town or city where the base seems to be.

I wrote everything down I can recall.
The second part is barely proofable but I´m interested in this airbase. If it´s like the way it is, it´s surely unique!

My own questions:
Does it make sense to (partly) burry a runway? I´m thinking of it as a T structure, where the ends of the upper line are the entrances/exits or better to say, the partly burried runway.
And if it is so, why? I mean, if you know it´s there you know it´s there. No reason to go underground except for extra bombing protection, because it´s not secret.

If you post here and I did not came back to deliver the name of the town, please be so kind and send me a reminding U2U.
It´s 0014 here so I´ll ask him tomorrow.

a reply to: verschickter

Interesting story .. and i suppose nothing is impossible..
in the case of the underground runway.. i could just about get my head round planes taking off
from a partial underground runway.
However i see it as an impossible situation landing aircraft back to the facility.
There are just too many things that could go wrong.. with no way for the plane to "go round"/wave-off!

a reply to: rigel4

Thats logic and I suppose the machines would only roll into it, not touching underground.
However, flying out, I suppose they could gain speed underground and get kicked in the last section that´s open air with a sort of ramp like used aircraft carriers.

Edit: But I just can´t see the benefits except that the planes are safe underground.
The whole airstrip would be vulnerable if you bomb the exiting point.

There are underground bases (see Taiwan), but generally unless there's a really serious need for them they don't make sense. I'm not sure if it's a US base, or a NATO base used by the US as far as this base goes though.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Ah you took the time
I have to get the name of the town ASAP.
Never came to my mind it could be a base only used by US.

I´ll have to look into it but can you tell me if you know of any base using this sort of take off? Just a yes or no, no details. I mean accelerating / preparing underground and then taking of let´s say 100-150m after the strip is open-air?

I´m fascinated by the thought, the ISIS part is not proofable but this certainly is.


Edit: Zaphod, you really got me a kickstart

I found this thread over startpage, right here on ATS from 2005.
Airport Runways That Go Underground

Some time ago while on an overseas military tour, I was stationed at SAAF (thats Stuttgart Army Airfield..) located in Ecterdingen, Germany- which is a small 'suburb' slightly south of Stuttgart and is adjacent to the Stuttgart International Airport. Anyway...the original Ecterdingen airfield was once a complete working undergound airstrip for the German Luftwafe during WW2. Everything was underground, hangers, taxiways, main airstrip & all. Supposedly it was interconnected with a larger tunnel network throughout Stuttgart. Nellingen Casserne is only a short distance away and also had an extensive undergound tunnel network (long closed off by our military, but still there) that may have been connected to the underground airstrip.

I´m 70km from that place, I´ll definitly investigate into both airstrips. It´s almost in front of my doorstep so to say ^^

a reply to: verschickter

Used by the US? No. Officially? No. Rumored? Yes.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Even if not rumored, now it is ^^
Thank you for the taiwan connection

Hard to believe but interesting.

a reply to: VoiceOfDissent

Isn´t it? He even named the town but you know, it´s foreign language, I probably forgot it a minute into the talk anyways. But I´m positive, I´ll ask him tomorrow/today. I´m shy to ask for more details over the phone but a decent question about the name of that serbian town with the trucks, seems ok. Until we meet again, that will be the only thing I can find out.


Edit: Although it seems it´s not the base he was speaking off, here is one I found.

Željava Air Base
titos-top-secret-undergrou nd-airbase-zeljava-you-never-knew-existed

zeljava airbase was underground but bombed out during the civil war, the area is used for training now so its possibly their but its not US run.
slatina airbase had an underground hangar, no underground airstrip.

using infiltrators is common practice however, training someone to undermine the enemy then giving them a pill to actually help the enemy is way too far fetched.

a reply to: stinkelbaum
Grüß dich! (Greeting you)
He did not said trained, it sounded more like they were appointed to just do this and that, and in the end, they ended where they ended. Be aware, it also sounds far fetched for me, but this is how he relayed it to me.
Also, it was clear from his tellings that it seems this was the intention (helping the "enemy")

It seems you have some knowledge about that area. Any more ideas?

a reply to: verschickter

I used to work with a Slovenian, he was actually a former olympic athlete whom represented the yugoslavian republic in the olympic karate section (I do not know what year but he is about my age so mid to late 40's) but anyway, he often told me about the massive and advanced underground facility's which Tito's regime had constructed underground in the mountain's including underground airfield's with camouflaged exits etc.

So your friend is right and likely the US has taken over the running of some of these old facility's as well as likely updated them.

According to my former work mate it was because Tito also did not trust the Russian's and was prepared to defend his Communist country against soviet invasion if necessary as well as against the west.

If not mistaken, I believe that taiwan has an underground air base its carved out of a mountain I think....
reply to: verschickterwww.google.ca... KEwin1_aw8cvKAhVGy2MKHSnwCBcQsAQIKA&dpr=1
ah heres some pix for you...

a reply to: bandersnatch

They have one that's only a rumor that is supposedly capable of holding hundreds of aircraft.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: bandersnatch

They have one that's only a rumor that is supposedly capable of holding hundreds of aircraft.

It's not a rumor it was designed to withstand a first strike from China. You set up an airfield dig into a montain. The airfield can easily be repaired aircraft cannot. As far as the op it would make sense you can secure the planes and taxi them to the runway as needed if they didn't they should because the last thing you want is someone gaining access to your fighters. This is why normally airfields are kept away from battle well behind the lines.

a reply to: dragonridr

It's a rumor in that there is no official confirmation that I've seen that it exists. It's an open secret.

As far as the pill thing, there's a drug called Captagon that is very popular in the Middle East. It's an addictive stimulant commonly given to fighters.

a reply to: dragonridr

As far as the op it would make sense you can secure the planes and taxi them to the runway as needed if they didn't they should because the last thing you want is someone gaining access to your fighters. This is why normally airfields are kept away from battle well behind the lines.

I think access is restricted eneugh on open fields already, no argument for it to be underground, just because of that.
I guess it has to do with the fact that you normally do not set up whole airfields in enemy countries before?

a reply to: verschickter

More the number of troops it takes to defend an airfield. Takes maybe a thousand to run and defend an airfield. Only need say 200 if you only have one entrance to defend.

a reply to: verschickter

In the case of Taiwan, it has to do with the fact that all their airfields are under the gun and could be wiped out in minutes. It's a lot harder to crack open a mountain than it is to wipe out a base in the open.