The pattern is the result of logging and reseeding. The darker squares (1/4 mile to a side) are older growth, the medium squares are partially regrown, and the lightest areas are the most recently cleared.
Another clue that they are not bow thrusters is that the thrusters are only used to position the tanker when entering or leaving port. If it was doing either of these evolutions there would have also been several tugs in attendence. The ship in the photo is moored quite solidly to the pier.
It was a reasonable guess. You recognized that there was something discharging near the bow and, based on your experience, thrusters were a reasonable assumption.
Yep, F-14. It's parked on the engine test pad in the maintenance area. (The parking area is to the south, in the covered hangars). The cleared area behind the aircraft is a result of hot exaust killing off the vegetation and blowing the area clean. This aircraft is about to undergo, or has recently undergone, an engine runup test. You might have noticed the vehicle near the plane, at about the 10 o'clock position relative to the nose of the plane. That is likely a fire truck standing by...
I think the TU-22 is unused/abandoned because of where it is parked. Since there is no real threat to the Libyan Air Force it would be odd to park a functional aircraft in the dirt next to a perfectly good parking spot. Also, the way it is parked, in the bushes up against the fence, leads me to believe they're not planning on using it any time soon.
The landscaping is exactly what you think it is...camouflage. Covering the hangars with dirt and plants makes them harder to...
There are three more MiG-25s parked on the apron to the east and what look like a pair of MiG-23s in desert camouflage and, parked in the SE dispersal area you can see seven more MiG-25s and a pair of MiG-23s.
Those aren't Mirage F-1s. The F-1 has swept back wings at both the leading AND trailing edge where as the plane in the image has swept leading edges but straight trailing edges. The aircraft in the image also has twin engines and twin vertical stabilizers. The F-1 has one of each (see the shadows?). Also, not the square engine intakes near the cockpit?
There's only one aircraft in the Libyan inventory with twin engines between twin tails, large square intakes abreast the...
That's Khatamin Air Base, sometimes seen as Esfahan or Isfahan Air Base because of it's proximity to the city of Esfahan, home to F-4s and some army aviation units. If the image was higher resolution you'd be able to see an SA-5 site nearby as well as a CSA-1 (SA-2) battery.
Esfahan/Isfahan is a major weapons R & D and production area. See here: ...
If you ever have questions on this kind of stuff you can e-mail me. I do this for a living so I recognize a lot of these places like you might recognize a picture of your house or office.
Your looking at a pair of "Bar Lock" early warning radar, most often seen near an SA-5 site but they also appear near SA-2s. They are parked atop mounds of earth to get them higher off of the ground and thereby increase the range at which they can detect low flying targets such as cruise missiles and low flying planes.
Given the location of this facility and the surounding area I believe this might be portions of a drilling rig instead of a crane. Just my two-cents worth.
I don't think that's a helicopter. I measured one of the "blades" and it indicates a rotor diameter of 110 feet, much larger than any Iraqi helicopter.
I'd guess it's either some sort of well head and the horizontal lines are pipes leading from the well head.
This is the az-Zubayr naval missile assembly and storage facility. The cross-shaped building to the west of the helo pads WAS, prior to the war, the missile assembly building. It is now, obviously, unoccupied. Just to the south, outside of the main enclosure, you can see the storage bunker entrances.
Baseball is becoming more popular in Europe, especially in towns with U.S. military bases. There is a U.S. Army facility on the other side of town, Caserma Ederle, home of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
ROFLMAO! Dude, you have WAAAAAAY too much free time on your hands. No wonder your wife is pinging on you to get a different hobby.
BTW, you're right about this being a satellite shot. However, some of the high res stuff here is satellite too, especially the stuff over North Korea, Iran, etc. The high res U.S. stuff is most likely aircraft but, for obvious reasons, Pyongyang is not as cooperative when it comes to overflight permissions.
Their size and general shape lead me to believe they are KS-19s, radar-controlled 100mm AAA guns. The North Koreans have thousands of these guns, which make up a big portion of their air defense capability. Finding and killing every AAA gun in North Korea would be pretty much impossible but they rely heavily on radar, which is easy to find once they turn it on, and the AAA guns aren't much use against cruise missiles, stealth aircraft, or other standoff weapons.
Not SA-2s but rather AAA guns, possibly KS-19s (100 mm) or S-60s (57 mm). They look similar and there's not enough resolution in this image to tell for sure.
Looks like it might be the C-802 coastal defense cruise missile site. Notice the paved area in the northern edge of the pinched waist portion of the base? It looks like there is a large hangar/bunker entrance on the right hand side of the paved area. The L-shaped parking areas, where the mobile C-802 launchers would be parked, have small revetments around them.
That narrow mound in your thumbnail photo holds the radar. You can always find the important stuff by following the faint, narrow footpaths worn into the ground by the maintenance guys walking between the control building and the equipment. This is often how we determine what are the important buildings in a facility. That, and looking for the high-security fences.
This is the Bushehr I-HAWK site, and it's still occupied. The two launcher sites, the paved areas that look a bit like flattened baseball diamonds, each hold a launcher for three I-HAWK missiles. the Z-shaped area in the middle holds the associated electronic vans. Not all of the pads are occupied. The Iranians move the stuff around between pads to make it more difficult to target the equipment.
LOL! Yep, pretty much, although I'm not getting paid THAT much. I'm getting ready to retire from the Navy at the end of this year. I've got a job with a private company doing exactly what I'm doing for the Navy but for about 90% more money.
By the way, some of the commercial stuff you see here is almost as good as the government stuff I see at work. The big difference is the best stuff here is focused on the U.S. and the government stuff is focused everywhere BUT.
It certainly LOOKS like some sort of aircraft. If you can get a clean shot of the outline you can measure the length and wingspan and then see if the measurements match any of the aircraft in North Korea's inventory.
I looked at some other shots of this airfield but the aircraft(?) at that location is not present in any of the shots I saw.
These openings, and any opening into a hillside like this, is called an adit.
Your assumption is correct, this is not a mine. A mine would have larger adits, signs of heavy vehicle traffic, and a lot of equipment around the mine. This has all the hallmarks of an underground government/military facility.
Most likely S-60s (57mm). They're pretty close to the airfield and the layout looks like right. The five horseshoes would hold the guns and the small mound of dirt to the south would hold the "Flap Wheel" fire control radar and the revetment to the southeast, closest to the highway, would shelter the control van.
The 3 rows of 7 look like camouflaged netting over roofs, or possibly frames. It's likely the area is a parking area for vehicles and parking them under canopies prevents them from being easily counted by satellite.
The odd round object appears to be a graded area for some sort of antenna, whether it's radar or comms.
The V shaped building 1/2 way between the 21 cammo'd buildings and the blue roofed ones, appears to be a motor pool and repair area with S-60 AAA...
Methinks those are not planes but more likely AAA guns or, less likely, missiles. If they were aircraft there'd be some sort of taxiway or tow road to get the planes to the runway. These revetments appear to be on a small hill overlooking the air strip, and planes don't taxi well up hill on a dirt road.
It is a trick of lighting. Their is only one plane there. The aircraft in revetments look like AN-2 Colts, piston-powered, bi-plane transports used for, among other things, sneaking covert agents into the south.
The North Koreans have had some problems maintaining their Soviet systems since the breakup of the USSR and the resulting lack of technical support. They don't have all that many functioning SAM sites as it is.
"The 10 missiles sites in the North, have been confirmed to be located in Mt. Kanggamchan (Jungsan, South Pyongan Province), Mayangdo (Sinpo, South Hamkyong Province), Paekun-ri (Kusong, North Pyongan Province), Rodong-Taepodong (Hwadae, North Hamkyong Province), Chonggang-up (Huchang, Jagang Province), Okpyong...
North Korean SAMs are mostly SA-2. SA-3, and SA-5 systems, all former Soviet equipment and generally laid out in the same patterns as you've seen in Iraq, Libya, and Egypt. If you see one, you'll recognize.
SA-2s have a nominal range of 27 NM, SA-3s are around 14 or so, and the SA-5 can, theoretically, reach out over 100 nm. Look between the facility and the greatest threat axis and within 25 NM of the facility and you should find the 2s and 3s. The SA-5s could be just about...
They're dredges, possibly working on the Tokyo cross bay tunnel. The southern and northernmost dredges have large hopper-bottomeded barges tied alongside, to receive the spoils (mud, dirt, and rocks) they dig up. The barges are then towed to the dumping site, the bottom opens, and they dump their loads.
Three of the four barges also have white, square objects at one end, probably some sort of frame or guide within which they dredge. If you look closely at the southern dredge...
Must be my lucky day. I found another, unclassified satellite image at Global Security showing "A close up of one of the 22 anti-aircraft artillery batteries protecting the Yongbyon Nuclear complex." I looks exactly like the sites in your images.
If there's that many it is likely they are not SAMs but rather AAA sites. I did some checking this morning and the big facility at the bend of the river IS the nuclear fuels processing facility and the associated facilities.
There is a really good unclassified image at Globalsecurity.org, here.
The sites you've found are undoubtedly AAA and some artillery thrown in for good measure.
This one is odd too. It's on the north side of the mountain but the threat is from the south. If these were missiles they're way out of position to defend anything. Also, missile sites are usually located near a target of high importance...airfield, naval base, army base. They COULD be AAA guns, as could the one to the north, protecting the industrial facilities (nuke plants?) in the valley in between.
Stil, this facility does not conform to any standard SAM site arrangement...
Just my two-cents but I don't think that's a SAM site. It isn't configured like any SAM site I've ever seen, and I've seen quite a few of them. The location is not very good and there are just too many things there.
It looks, to me, like those are actually satellite dishes, some possibly in dome shelters. What looks like revetments are actually roads around each piece of equipment. I'm guessing it's a communications facility linked by a fairly well maintained road to the new...
This one appears to be an SA-2 battery, split to better cover a particular section of the compass. The northern three revetments are empty but the southern three appear to have SA-2 launchers in them, but not missiles.
The mounds are used to get a bit more height for the radar antenna. Even getting them up 20 or 30 feet above the flat desert makes a huge difference in range.
SA-3 site. Four launchers, in revetments, plus the notches for the wheels, visible in the open end of the U. Those are where the reloader vehicle parks when reloading the launchers, in this case two-armed ones.
It looks like the shadow of a large electrical transmission tower. It's not a plane, especially because it's heading 90 degrees off of any runway heading.
Reasonable guess. It looks like there is a barge tied up directly aft of the small ship, possibly offloading/onloadin oil. The squarish, orange boat directly to the east looks like an oil skimmer.
Another possibility is the two ships are servicing an floating oil offload terminal. Notice the large tanker just to the northeast? It is unloading crude oil, almost certainly to the refinery just to the north. It's possible the smaller vessels are performing maintenance on another...
Good call, Anonymous (If that's your real name!) Most likely a windy day, causing minor chop on the water. The wave faces make multiple reflections, causing the effect you see here.
The missiles would have been in the six revetments arranged in a circle. The ones outside the site might contain command and control vehicles. SA-2 usually have six launchers, arranged in a rough circle, around a centrally located missile control radar, either a Fan Song or Tiger Song. Nearby one usually finds a Spoon Rest early warning radar, a couple of generator vans, and several C2 vehicles with their own generator. The cables connecting the entire complex are often visible, especially...
The Soviets used to do this, and they passed the technique on to the North Koreans, North Vietnamese, and many other countries. Apparently it was quite effective as it it supposedly very difficult for a pilot, flying at 15,000 feet or higer and several hundred knots, to differentiate between a real plane and a painted one. Effective and cheaper than full-sized, 3-D decoys.
Pedestrian overpass. The site appears to have been, in better times, a recreation facility. Note the four tennis courts just north of the bridge? The area immediately east of the bridge appears to be either a college campus or perhaps a military barracks and the bridge was likely built to connect the tennis court area to some never-completed facilities south of the road.
Looks like an I-HAWK battery. The U.S. sold quite a few of these to Iran before 1979 and they've managed to keep them up and running, no doubt through clandestine sales from U.S. companies.
This is absolutely, positively NOT an SA-4 site. It IS, however, absolutely, positively an SA-5 site. The SA-4 is a mobile missile mounted in pairs on a tracked vehicle.
The gray structures in each launcher position are maintenance and weather sheds. In the event of a sand storm, or simply to get some shade for the maintenance workers, the missiles can be moved into the shed. The orientation of the launcher is not really important since it can be rotated to point in whichever...
Just to the NW of the main gate is what appears to be a housing area, possibly for the scientists, complete with a mosque. (The building with the blue dome on the western end of the housing area)
Interesting facility. Probably military R&D and, in Libya, that means missiles. The college campus-like layout would indicate just that, an academic institution. The security means classified research. The relatively large parking area indicates lots of people with private cars visit/work here, again indicative of academia.
The large warehouse area and sizeable group of parked trucks looks like a supply depot. The whole thing is likely a military installation.
Good find. There is also an SA-5 site just south of the airport near the coastal town of Sirte. Unfortunately, there is no high resolution coverage of the site, just the blurry stuff.
This one is also probably an SA-3 site. Soviet doctrine, which Egypt adopted, often had multiple sites around high value targets. The equipment is moved every so often to prevent potential enemies from easily targeting the sites and it has the added advantage of keeping the crews proficient at setup and takedown.
Actually, you're looking at an SA-3 site instead of an SA-2. Some of the big indicators are:
1) Four launcher revetments instead of six. At the site to the south you can see the actual launchers in the revetments.
2) The launch sites have four rectangles clearly visible at the back of the launcher. These are wheel blocks that help locate and secure the reloading truck during reloading operations.
Judging from the complete lack of craters outside of the revetments I'd venture a guess that whatever was inside the berms was blown in place. Even with the most accurate laser or GPS guided bombs there are always a few that malfunction and go off course, leaving random craters around the target area.
Analogman: Comments
The landscaping is exactly what you think it is...camouflage. Covering the hangars with dirt and plants makes them harder to...
There's only one aircraft in the Libyan inventory with twin engines between twin tails, large square intakes abreast the...
Esfahan/Isfahan is a major weapons R & D and production area. See here: ...
You can find a picture of the mostly cut up Cabot here: http://www.usscabot.com/june52002.htm and here: http://www.usscabot.com/cabot42101.htm
There's a good picture of a Bar Lock at: ...
I'd guess it's either some sort of well head and the horizontal lines are pipes leading from the well head.
BTW, you're right about this being a satellite shot. However, some of the high res stuff here is satellite too, especially the stuff over North Korea, Iran, etc. The high res U.S. stuff is most likely aircraft but, for obvious reasons, Pyongyang is not as cooperative when it comes to overflight permissions.
Mounded earth = trying to protect something underneath. These are dug into the side of a hill, even more protection from bombs and artillery shells.
Isolation from other facilities = stuff that could be harmful to other stuff, ie. explosives.
Well used roads = much traffic to/from compound.
...
By the way, some of the commercial stuff you see here is almost as good as the government stuff I see at work. The big difference is the best stuff here is focused on the U.S. and the government stuff is focused everywhere BUT.
I looked at some other shots of this airfield but the aircraft(?) at that location is not present in any of the shots I saw.
Your assumption is correct, this is not a mine. A mine would have larger adits, signs of heavy vehicle traffic, and a lot of equipment around the mine. This has all the hallmarks of an underground government/military facility.
The odd round object appears to be a graded area for some sort of antenna, whether it's radar or comms.
The V shaped building 1/2 way between the 21 cammo'd buildings and the blue roofed ones, appears to be a motor pool and repair area with S-60 AAA...
http://www.fas.org/news/dprk/1999/m0326l09.htm
"The 10 missiles sites in the North, have been confirmed to be located in Mt. Kanggamchan (Jungsan, South Pyongan Province), Mayangdo (Sinpo, South Hamkyong Province), Paekun-ri (Kusong, North Pyongan Province), Rodong-Taepodong (Hwadae, North Hamkyong Province), Chonggang-up (Huchang, Jagang Province), Okpyong...
SA-2s have a nominal range of 27 NM, SA-3s are around 14 or so, and the SA-5 can, theoretically, reach out over 100 nm. Look between the facility and the greatest threat axis and within 25 NM of the facility and you should find the 2s and 3s. The SA-5s could be just about...
Three of the four barges also have white, square objects at one end, probably some sort of frame or guide within which they dredge. If you look closely at the southern dredge...
See here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/yongbyon_dg5.jpg
Looks like you found a whole mess of AAA...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/yongbyon-cib1.jpg
There is a really good unclassified image at Globalsecurity.org, here.
The sites you've found are undoubtedly AAA and some artillery thrown in for good measure.
Stil, this facility does not conform to any standard SAM site arrangement...
It looks, to me, like those are actually satellite dishes, some possibly in dome shelters. What looks like revetments are actually roads around each piece of equipment. I'm guessing it's a communications facility linked by a fairly well maintained road to the new...
The mounds are used to get a bit more height for the radar antenna. Even getting them up 20 or 30 feet above the flat desert makes a huge difference in range.
Another possibility is the two ships are servicing an floating oil offload terminal. Notice the large tanker just to the northeast? It is unloading crude oil, almost certainly to the refinery just to the north. It's possible the smaller vessels are performing maintenance on another...
The gray structures in each launcher position are maintenance and weather sheds. In the event of a sand storm, or simply to get some shade for the maintenance workers, the missiles can be moved into the shed. The orientation of the launcher is not really important since it can be rotated to point in whichever...
The large warehouse area and sizeable group of parked trucks looks like a supply depot. The whole thing is likely a military installation.
1) Four launcher revetments instead of six. At the site to the south you can see the actual launchers in the revetments.
2) The launch sites have four rectangles clearly visible at the back of the launcher. These are wheel blocks that help locate and secure the reloading truck during reloading operations.
3) The site to the south has three of the four...