Do you know the safest place to hide a $110 million fighter jet? Inside a mountain. Norway knows this well, and is bringing back to life its military bunkers abandoned since the end of the Cold War.
These are not small shelters, but real underground cities dug into the hard rock, with exit tunnels almost a kilometer long and blast doors that seem to have come out of the James Bond universe. bardufoss e Olavsvern (two military bases that we thought were relegated to the history books) are becoming operational again.
The cause? Concerns arising from Russia, a neighbor that in recent years has had a relationship with Norway (and not only) that is, so to speak, conflictual. Totalino: Norwegian military bunkers, built to withstand nuclear apocalypse, find new life in an era in which 300 euro kamikaze drones can destroy planes worth tens of millions.
Military Bunkers, the Past That Becomes (Unfortunately) Present
The air station of bardufoss has a hair-raising story. “Born Nazi”, for starters: open in 1938, was used by German fighters to protect the giant battleship Tirpitz while it was anchored in a nearby fjord. A cumbersome past, which tells of how military infrastructures survive conflicts by simply changing flags.
Geopolitics goes round in circles, repeating cycles we thought were over. After the Second World War, the Royal Norwegian Air Force used these hangars to protect its aircraft from a possible Soviet attack. Today, with a Russia decidedly different but still perceived as threatening, the same bunkers are being dusted off and modernized.
The sale (and buyback) of the century
The history of the naval base of Olavsvern it is even more emblematic of certain logics. Built in several phases since 1950 Onwards, this engineering marvel costing around £360 million (largely funded by NATO) was completed when the Soviet Union was already collapsing.
In 2009, despite signs of an increasingly assertive Russia, the Norwegian parliament voted to close the base, selling it in 2013 to private investors for a modest sum of £7 million: one penny of its value. A windfall for the private buyer, but a terrible deal for Norwegian taxpayers.
The tragicomic part? The new owners allowed Russian research vessels and Russian fishing boats to use the once top-secret facility. The tunnels were filled with caravans and vintage cars. There was even a (false) rumor in the media that the purchasing company was partly Russian-owned.
And now? With geopolitical tensions rising, a company with close ties to the Norwegian military has bought back a majority stake in the company (more taxpayer money: whatever the circumstances, politicians always make good business deals for themselves). Since 2020 (so before the crisis in Ukraine) started repairing and updating the site, with a growing military presence at the base, and even the US Navy is interested in basing its nuclear submarines there.
The Industry of Fear
Watching this cycle of disengagement and reactivation, I can't help but notice how strategic choices often follow the tides of collective sentiment, fueled by political and military elites who thrive on an atmosphere of tension.
Norway's security concerns did not begin with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but much earlier. And while international diplomacy falters, defense budgets swell, and arms industries record record profits. An F-35 costs between 90 and 120 million euros: figures that make your head spin.
The current geopolitical landscape seems to favor costly, militarized solutions rather than courageous diplomatic efforts. I am not saying that Norway does not have legitimate security concerns, but I wonder if we are really pursuing all possible avenues with equal determination.
The only “military bunkers” that appear, in this phase, are those in which certain political parties barricade themselves in pursuit of objectives of profit and oppression. Nothing new, to paraphrase Erich Maria Remarque, (even) on the Western Front.
