Finderup-bunkeren

https://www.reganvest.dk/Bunker7_grundplan.jpg

REGAN VEST is built as a purely civilian matter. During a national crisis or a war, however, the government and the civil administration need a very close dialogue with the operational leadership of the armed forces. This military function naturally has at least the same need to be able to continue the functions of a reinforced facility as the civil commands have. For this purpose, a facility was built 10 kilometers west of Viborg, which ended up being one of the world's most modern bunker facilities.

The name "Bunker 7" was assigned by the Danish Armed Forces Construction Service, but the bunker is known by many other names. Due to its location, it is often called the Finderup bunker or the Ravnstrup bunker after two nearby villages between which it lies. Bunker 7 is located in the Finderup military training area.

Like the government facilities, the bunker is built to withstand nuclear weapons, except for direct hits from high-explosive bombs - and could operate independently of external supplies for a period of several weeks.

From the entrance area, there are 100 steps down into the depths before you reach the bunker itself.

Bunker 7 was built as an operational war headquarters (Static War Headquarters) for the NATO command, which in Danish is called Enhedskommandoen and in NATO terminology Commander Baltic Approaches (COMBALTAP). The BALTAP command was established in 1962 in recognition of the fact that Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein and the Baltic Sea were one military-geographic unit across national borders.

From the time the bunker was built, a NATO communications hub was installed in the bunker and in 1994 another NATO unit moved into the bunker - an air operations center called Combined Air Operations Center 1 (”CAOC1”).

The entrance to the bunker itself

In 2004, COMBALTAP, which had in the meantime changed its name to Joint Command North East (JC NE), was closed down, and the war headquarters thus disappeared from Bunker 7. In return, CAOC1 was greatly expanded at the same time.

The purpose of the bunker therefore became to monitor and protect the airspace over northern NATO against both hostile states, but also against terrorist attacks such as against New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.