Yamantau Mountain Complex (Russia)

Yamantau

On April 16, 1996, the New York Times reported on a mysterious military base being constructed in Russia. Deep in the Ural Mountains of Russia its reported lies a massive underground base. Called by some Russia's Area 51 this complex is located inside Yamantau mountain in the Beloretsk area of the southern Urals.

U.S. satellite photograph of the Yamantau Mountain [left] region was taken on Oct. 16, 1997. Clearly recognizable signs of excavation can be seen at the areas marked Yamantau Mountain and Mezhgorye. Two above-ground support cities, each housing 30,000 workers, are located at Beloretsk and Tirlyanskiy.

The Yamantau Mountain complex is located close to one of Russia's remaining nuclear weapons labs, Chelyabinsk-70. Two entire cities have been constructed over the site, known as Beloretsk 15 & 16 which are closed to the public, each with 30,000 workers. No foreigner has ever set foot near the site. Some people estimate as much as 6 billion dollars have been pumped into the Yamantau complex alone by Russia and that it spans some 400 square miles.



Rep. Roscoe Bartlett is one of a small group of people in congress who closely follow the Yamantau complex. Here are some quotes of his on the Topic.

The only potential use for this site is post-nuclear war..." --- Rep. Roscoe Bartlett

Yamantau Mountain is the largest nuclear-secure project in the world... They have very large train tracks running in and out of it, with enormous rooms carved inside the mountain. It has been built to resist a half dozen direct nuclear hits, one after the other in a direct hole. It's very disquieting that the Russians are doing this when they don't have $200 million to build the service module on the international space station and can't pay housing for their own military people," ---Rep. Bartlett.

In 1998 then-Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Gen. Eugene Habinger, called Yamantau-

a very large complex -- we estimate that it has millions of square feet available for underground facilities. We don't have a clue as to what they're doing there."

So why was this complex created and what goes on there? Neither the C.I.A or the Defense Intelligence agency will comment on what the Russians are doing at Yamantau. Speculation have it being everything from a "doomsday" shelter, part of Russia's infamous `Dead Hand' nuclear retaliatory command to things far more sinister.

I would like to hear peoples opinions on this complex and perhaps their theories on what goes on there.

www.globalsecurity.org...

www.globalsecurity.org... 4_s96004.htm

By the way you are describing it, two possabilities come to mind:

1. Maybe it is a PVO Command Center. The PVO is Russian air defense command. If this place belong to the PVO, it is probably something simular to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Cheyenne Mountain is home to NORAAD!

2. My second guess is thit it might be a Command Center for Russian Strategic Forces.

Tim

It could very well be a Russian version N.O.R.A.D. But I still cant get over the claimed size of it covering some 400 square miles many times more massive then the Cheyenne Mountian Complex. What could they need all that room for?

Also of interest when comparing it to Cheyenne Mountain is that its much more secure in the event of a nuclear strike. Cheyenne complex was only designed to withstand first generation atomic weapons. They have not been upgraded, despite the fact that Russia's arsenal is composed of large "city-busting" thermonuclear weapons. Cheyenne would not survive a direct hit from a large nuclear weapon.

Yamantau which is a much newer complex it seems was designed to withstand a half dozen direct nuclear hits. Russia's underground comlexes like Yamantaru are considered "weapons sinks" by the CIA and JCS targeting analysts, and require multiple warheads each.

That place seems big enough to create a mini ecosystem like a biodome incase of a nuke war. then the russians could live in a spacous enviroment for 10000 years while the rest of the planet is a cinderblock

The size of the area isn't a big wonder, similar sized areas are reserved for military use around Russia, for example around Murmansk.
Is there any indication on how large the underground complex itself is?
And do they have any new airbases in the region or large existing airlift assest in the region?

Originally posted by northwolf

Is there any indication on how large the underground complex itself is?
And do they have any new airbases in the region or large existing airlift assest in the region?

The underground complex is estimated at 400 square miles, the size of the Washington area inside the Beltway. Yamantau is all under ground thats what is really interesting to me.Not too shady for a country that was reported to be bankrupt when they started building this.

Im not aware of any new airbases in the area from maps I have seen. They do have alot train tracks running into the mountian though. The city of Mezhgorye is near it on the surface.

If there's lots of train tracks in the region, the base might be a new shelter for the missile trains as a one function... but 400 square miles, you could shelter 2 army corpses in there... maybe there are some mines in the area around the complex that make it look larger?

Originally posted by northwolf
If there's lots of train tracks in the region, the base might be a new shelter for the missile trains as a one function... but 400 square miles, you could shelter 2 army corpses in there... maybe there are some mines in the area around the complex that make it look larger?

I was going to say the same thing about the mines or caves in the area because 400 sq miles sounds almost unbeliveable. What in the world would someone do with 400 sq miles of underground space??

i heard that it's used for design of militery equipment too.
Would surprise me though it "seemes" to be huge. im pretty sure if there was an all out war then the command of the militry would be from here

reply to post by ShadowXIX


God know's why this never garnered any attention as this is or was an important thread, I suspect it was before the DUMB's became a big question, there is supposed to be a base with about 400 square miles of area in total under the urals and I think this is likely connected to it, on another note under Stalin a massive complex (or several) was supposedly constructed out of solid rock using slave (ghoulag) labour to created an underground country withing Russia that could preserve the communist (read stalinist) state against the advent of a nuclear war and in case another hitler ever threatened the soviet union again, this base was supposedly built in the Ural mountains (possible link to the above) and used massive underground river networks to power hydroelectric generatiors which could power hydroponic farm's and air recycling/filters, it was supposedly stocked with it's own armory to be held in reserve until the war was past and included a full military capability as well as underground airfields (Capable of launching strategic bombers with concealed exit's and nuclear facility's and capabilitys as well as a massive depot of tanks and other vehicle's to be used to regain control of the soviet union in the aftermath, so if this was real is it still there, obviously so but I think outmoded tank's and old bombers sitting in mothballs are hardly a concern today but what other use this facility could be put to is a matter for some thought is it not and it makes on wonder if a hidden soviet colony is still active inside the former soviet union under military jurisdiction.

I reckon every country on the planet has a facility like this. Obviously countries like Russia, USA, China, UK, Germany, France, Australia et al are going to have more extensive and sophiscated bunkers than other countries, purely because they have more money and resources. As to their purpose? Well I think for the truly big ones they would be multifunctional and compartmentalised so that people with different levels of access wont know what lies at the very deepest levels. So it would be possible to hide ET for example. I do however like the idea of an underground biodome that would allow people to survive for decades and perhaps longer. That is entirely feasible. What might be sci fi today in general public imagination may very well be science fact!

However I genuinely hope other than for storage purposes, the bunkers are never used in anger as it were.