Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, on Tuesday, unveiled pictures of the latest Iranian underground base for fighter jets designed to withstand possible strikes by U.S. bunker-busting bombs.
Footage provided by the state media and the Iranian Army Office showed a tactical airbase named Oghab 44 (Persian for eagle), which is capable of operating various fighter aircraft and bombers as well as Unmanned Aerial Systems.
Oghab 44 is “one of numerous tactical underground air bases for the army’s air force built in different areas of the country in recent years,” IRNA reported.
It can prepare fighter jets to “counter possible offensives” such as those practiced by the U.S. and Israel in their recent military drill, according to state media.
The exact location of the “secret” base was not revealed, but open-source intelligence monitoring groups later claimed they determined the geolocation of the underground airbase.
Joseph Dempsey, a defense researcher with the International Insitute for Strategic Studies, said that the new base is located in southern Iran.
“Iran’s not so secret underground airbase at 28.04558° N, 55.52038° E,” he said on Twitter.
Iran’s not so secret underground airbase at
28.04558° N, 55.52038° E📷: @planet (05 Feb 2023) https://t.co/yTLmwarMwq pic.twitter.com/SFysXEcG7R
— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) February 8, 2023
According to the Twitter account of Babakh Tagvaee, the new airbase can be found 120 km northeast of Bandar Abbas closes to highway 92 from Hajjiabad to Shahrake Shahid Rajai, some 30 km west of Tarom, Hormozgan.
Oghab 44 is “one of numerous tactical underground air bases for the army’s air force built in different areas of the country in recent years,” IRNA reported.
It can prepare fighter jets to “counter possible offensives” such as those practiced by the U.S. and Israel in their recent military drill, according to state media.
It is worth noting that publicly available satellite images also show the process of building an airbase started in mid-2021 in the mountains in southern Iran and the creation of underground hardened hangars on the territory of the base, where an airstrip has not yet been built.
