Nea Anchialos: Large Greek Air Force weapons depot destroyed due to fire

At least one of the Air Force weapons depots located at the Karab air baseA“in Nea Anchialos, it looks like completely destroyed and the base’s warehouses are also said to have been severely damaged, according to the media, citing the Greek Ministry of Defense.

The first priority for the military leadership is to assess the loss of weapons when conditions allow sappers to penetrate the site, and to check the area for the spread of dangerous explosives that can cause new explosions.

At the same time, a number of serious questions arise related to the protection of one of the most important parts of the armed forces, located just six kilometers from the country’s largest air base – the 111th combat wing of Nea Anchialos. Competent sources familiar with the course of events emphasize that, while it is too early to draw any firm conclusions, it appears that a number of violations have been identified that have led to the largest loss of ammunition of high strategic and economic value in decades.

“Air Force ammunition depots have nothing to do with other ammunition depots. They are valuable objects and you must protect them no matter what. This is the last thing you have to lose”– say the officers of the headquarters of the Air Force.

Is a “valuable” weapon lost?
At the warehouse of the airbase “Karab”A“weapons with high strategic and economic value. This is part of the armament of the F-16 Block30 of the 330th Grom Squadron and the F-16 Block 50 of the 341st Arrow Squadron and the 347th Perseus Squadron. Nearly a third of all Greek F-16s are in the 111th Combat Wing at Nea Anchialos. According to reports, the warehouse contained mainly bombs, as well as special weapons, the condition of which will be determined after bomb disposal specialists are allowed to access them.

Competent sources explained to journalists that part of the weapons (“A”) is in squadrons so that in case of an emergency the aircraft can be fully loaded and take off, and the rest (“B”) is stored in warehouses similar to the destroyed one, for strategic reasons.

Explosions at the weapons depot and the speed of movement of fire forced the Air Force tactical command to order the preventive withdrawal of those F-16s that were outside the concrete shelters (Shelter) of the 111th Fighter Wing and their redeployment to neighboring airfields. In addition, due to the danger, it was not possible to attempt extinguishing by air or ground forces while the HERON unmanned aerial vehicle was sent to the area of ​​​​the incident to assess the situation.

“Incident Responsibility”
Although the main task of the leadership is to completely localize the fire and assess the loss of ammunition, the search for those responsible for what went wrong is already underway. The response plan does not appear to have worked either inside or outside the camp, where valuable F-16 weapons are stored, and it is not clear if any response to the fire was envisaged.

https://rua.gr/news/gospol/56730-ministr-oborony-potreboval-proverit-protivopozharnuyu-bezopasnost.html

The Greek Ministry of Defense speaks of the inaction of the fire service, which underestimated the gravity of the situation, as the fire had been burning in the area since the previous day. It is noted that this is not the first time that the fire is approaching the weapons depot, but in this particular case, none of the security protocols seem to have worked. Nikos Dendias asked the Chief of the General Staff to conduct an urgent administrative investigation in order to find those responsible.

The fire department, in turn, claims that at noon on Thursday, strong winds changed the direction of the fire and directed it towards the arsenal. However, a competent fire department official told the Kathimerini newspaper that “no provision was made for the cleaning of the warehouse area” that the soldiers were supposed to do.

https://rua.gr/news/obschestvo/56727-grecheskie-aktivisty-potrebovali-vosstanovit-otnosheniya-s-rossiej.html#cc-108552697

The subject of the investigation will be the technical conditions, the fire safety system, the condition of the area around the camp and the weapons depot, as well as the response time of both the fire department and the armed forces personnel responsible for guarding the weapons depot.

However, important questions remained unanswered, such as: were the personnel put on alert due to the criticality of the facility and increased risk of fire, were the areas inside and outside the facility cleared, was a fire extinguishing system installed and functioning, what materials or ammunition could have been scattered around the site and caused a rise in temperature inside the warehouse where high-explosive weapons were stored, leading to their detonation. The possibility that weapons and explosives may have been left outside the warehouse is also under the microscope.

https://rua.gr/news/procrim/56719-pozhar-nea-ankhialos-f-16-uletayut-chtoby-izbezhat-katastrofy.html

Built to NATO standards

According to available information, we are talking about warehouses built according to NATO standards, some of which are located underground, and the above-ground part has embankments that make it “invulnerable” in the event of a raid. It also provides for the presence of fire zones and a fire extinguishing system inside the warehouse. However, early evidence suggests that the shell explosions were caused by high temperatures inside the building, as the fire appears to have been went inside the weapons storage area.

However, competent military sources note that it will take a long time to establish the real extent of the damage, so the territory in a large radius around the warehouse remains cordoned off. Special units of sappers of the armed forces are already working on the spot, which, as soon as conditions allow, will be engaged in combing the territory and extracting explosives. It is possible that the shells and ammunition were scattered over long distances and continue to operate.

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