Taverny Air Base

Taverny Air Base (formerly Base Aérienne 921 "Frères Mahé" de Taverny) (ICAO: LFPJ) is located in the communities of Taverny and Bessancourt in the Val d'Oise département of France, twenty kilometers north of Paris. Until 2011 it was the headquarters of the French Air Force nuclear strike force, with an underground command center. The base is divided into three tiers with an area of approximately 15 hectares:

• The first tier is underground in a former gypsum quarry beneath the Forest of Montmorency. The facility comprised the hardened command facility for the French Air Force.
• The second tier is on the surface, and provided support services for the underground command center.
• The third tier is at the top of the hill, with facilities for secure military communications.

There were no aviation facilities apart from a heliport.

Description

The base is located on the flank of the heights of the community of Taverny, with the hardened facility between 70 and 80 meters below the surface in the former quarries. The tunnels are large enough for trucks to enter. The underground climate is described as warm and dry, but the tunnels require monitoring for water penetration and dissolution of the gypsum. Somewhat more than 1000 personnel are employed at the base.

The facility is provided with backup power and an independent water supply. A 2000m² Faraday Cage was completed in 1993 after six years of construction - one of the largest in Europe.

History

• 1815: First commercial exploitation of the gypsum.
• 1941-1944: During World War II, the Germans have converted some of these tunnels and have transferred the factory ball bearing SKF south of Paris. No evidence of air attack on the tunnels is Taverny. At the time of the Allied invasion, the manufacture of ball bearings had been started but the Germans destroyed all the equipment before evacuating Paris. The inspection of tunnels proved that the Germans had built gates at the entrances binoculars, camouflaged by a mesh now destroyed, and had connected the two parallel main tunnels. In several places in the area of the plant, there is evidence of fire. A villager said it was the oil fires that lit the Germans to destroy the equipment. Fire, to some extent, had caused ruptures and falls of rock: according to the head, some mines and booby traps were left in tunnels and in the woods by the Germans but they were removed by U.S. Army when the remains of the plant have been eliminated.
• 1946: The French Air Force used the quarry as a depot.
• 1957: The creation of the Air Defense Operations Center (Centre d'Opération de la Défense Aérienne - CODA).
• 1961: The creation of the Territorial Air Defense Staff (Etat-major de la Defense Aérienne du Territoire - DAT) and the Air Force Air Defense Command (Commandement Air des Forces de Défense Aérienne - CAFDA). These organizations were dissolved in 1994 and replaced with the Air Defense and Air Operations Command (Commandement de la Défense Aérienne et des Opérations Aériennes - CDAOA) and its Air Operations Center (Centre de Conduite des Opérations Aériennes - CCOA).
• 1963: Creation of BA921, attached to the 2nd Air Region, and the installation on the surface of the Strategic Air Forces Command (Commandement des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques - CFAS).
• 1967: Installation of the Strategic Forces Operations Center (Centre d'Opérations des forces stratégiques - COFAS) underground.
• 1988: BA921 takes the name "Frères Mahé" ("Brothers Mahé" in English) in homage to three brothers killed in the command of their aircraft.
• 1992: Installation of the Special Operations Command (Commandement des Opérations Spéciales - COS).
• 2000: BA921 was attached to the Northern Air Region.
• 2006: Special Operations Command (COS) moves to BA107 at Villacoublay.
• 2007: The Air Operations Center moves to BA942 at Lyon Mont-Verdun. At the same time, the Air Defense and Air Operations (CDAOA) moves to BA117 in Paris and the Air Information Center (Centre de Renseignement Air - CRA) moves to BA128 at Metz.
• 2011: BA 921 is disestablished on 5 July 2011.

Nuclear deterrent

Taverny provided information to the following organizations:

• The commander of the strategic air forces (Commandement des forces aériennes stratégiques - CFAS), which constitute one leg of France's nuclear deterrent.
• The Analysis and Simulation Center for the Preparation of Air Operations (Centre d'Analyse et de Simulation pour la Préparation des Opérations Aérienne - CASPOA).
• The Military Air traffic Control (Direction de la Circulation Aérienne Militaire - DirCAM).
• The Meteorology Center for External Operations (Centre de Météorologie des Opérations Extérieures - CMOE)

Other facilities

A similar Air Force facility exists northwest of Lyon at BA942 Lyon-Mont Verdun. The French Navy's counterpart facility, controlling the ballistic missile submarine strike force (Force océanique stratégique - FOST), was located about 20 km to the south at Houilles, Yvelines.