Air base 921 Taverny

The Air base 921 Brothers Mahé de Taverny is located on the territories of the communes of Taverny and Bessancourt in the department of the Val-d'Oise, with a score of kilometers in the north of Paris.

Air base 921 is divided into three thirds of a surface of approximately 15 ha each one:

the first third is located in underground in an old gypsum quarry located under the forest of Montmorency. This underground part shelters operational command centres as well as the whole of the installations making it possible to permanently provide to these centers energy, the air-conditioning and the means of telecommunications necessary to ensure their missions.
the second third is located in outside and is commonly called " base vie". This base life shelters the whole of the entities which contribute to the support of the operational command centres: command of air base, structures of restoration and lodging, first-aid organizations (medical department, firemen, gendarmerie)…
the third third called " zone haute" is located in outside and shelters in particular means of military telecommunications protected.

Air base 921 does not have any plane because there is no track of takeoff: only exists a heliport.

Geographical location

Air base 921 is at hillside on the heights of the commune of Taverny, and the essence of its installations is established in old unused gypsum quarries dug to approximately seventy to eighty meters under the surface covered by the main forest of Montmorency. The top of air base is crowned by impressive pylons of telecommunications, defended by triple line of barbed wires delimiting a small western angle of the forest.

Its underground part occupies approximately 15 hectares, the dimension of the principal galleries is sufficient to let penetrate a truck. The rock is generally apparent there and the air is hot and dry there. The risks related to the dissolution of the gypsum are the subject of a narrow geological monitoring.

Installations

Air base constitutes to some extent an autonomous village. It has roads, an post office, a hairdresser, a social worker, a medical department, a gendarmerie squad, firemen, two restaurants, a bar, a room of dance, several sporting installations, a cinema, a room of billiards, a library cash: 7000 pounds as well as a video library, repair shops and of maintenance, a chaplain and a vault which is located inside the underground work.

A newspaper even is published there, named Alérion .

History

1815, beginning of the commercial exploitation of the gypsum quarry.

1941-1944, During the second world war, starting from 1941, German take of them possession there to store material and ammunition. The Luftwaffe installs there then a center of anti-aircraft defense, as well as a workshop of V1 and probably of V2.

1946, the French Air force uses the careers like warehouse of material.

1957, creation of the Center of Operation of Air Defense (CODED).

1961, creation of the Staff of the Air Defense of Territory (DAT) then Command Air of the Defense forces Air (CAFDA). These entities are dissolved in 1994 to leave room to the Command of Air Defense and the Air Operations (CDAOA) and its Load dispatching Center of the Air Operations (CCOA)

1963, creation of the BA921 which is attached to the 2nd air Area, then at the same time settles on the surface the Command of the Strategic Air forces (CFAS).

1967, installation of the Center of Operations of the strategic forces (COFAS) in the buried work.

1988, the BA921 takes the Christian name " Mahé" brothers; , in homage to the three brothers died in the orders of their apparatus.

1992, establishment of the Command of Special operations (COS).

2000, the BA921 is attached to the Northern air Area.

2006, the Command of Special operations (COS) leaves air base 921 for the air base 107 of Villacoublay.

2007, the Load dispatching Center of the Air Operations (CCOA) leaves air base 921 for air base 942 of Lyon Mount-Verdun. With this same date, Command of Air Defense and Air Operations (CDAOA) joined air base 117 of Paris and the Center of Information Air (CRA) joined air base 128 of Metz.

The keystone of the French nuclear deterrence

Air base 921 accommodates the following entities:

Command of the strategic air forces (CFAS)
the Center of Analysis and Simulation for the Air Preparation of the Operations (CASPOA)
the Management of the Military Air traffic (DirCAM)
the Center of Meteorology of External operations (CMOE)

The strategic air forces constitute one of the two pillars on which rests from now on the French nuclear deterrence. The command of the strategic air forces (CFAS) implements the component " air " airborne of the deterrent power. This one includes/understands three squadrons of Mirage 2000N carrying the missile air ground average carried (ASMP) and a squadron of tankers C 135 FR. It offers to the national dissuasive device the flexibility and the diversity which make it possible French dissuasion to remain relevant and credible in all circumstances.

The Center of Analysis and Simulation for the Preparation with the Air Operations (CASPOA) has as an essential mission of preparing the military personnel with the command and the control of the air operations. This unit of the Command of Air Defense and the Air Operations (CDAOA) proposes various training courses as well with the profit of the French soldiers of the air force, the Army or the national marine, as with the profit of the foreign soldiers.

The direction of the military air traffic (DIRCAM) aims at of: · “To allow the air forces to involve and carry out their missions in better conditions, in their providing airspace and a regulation adapted”; · “To carry out the monitoring of service providers ATM of defense in tally of their conformity to the European requirements”; · “To deliver with the units of defense, on any form of mediums, information aeronautics necessary to the execution of their mission”.

Safety

The safety of the base fundamental and is ensured by various visible or invisible means: badges of access, surveillance cameras, permanent counting of the personnel, rounds of dog handlers, squadron of fusiliers commando.

Within sight of the improvement of the modern weapons, the protection brought naturally by the thickness of rock was reinforced by the construction of a score of thick successive enclosures of Béton. To note that to counter any possibility, an underground counterpart of the base exists in the North-West of Lyon, the air base 942 of Lyon Mont Verdun.

The base can function in autonomy total while ensuring the conditions of protection against the nuclear threat, bacteriological, chemical or radiological. The underground center has its expulsion and ventilation shafts of the foul air, carefully protected by various filters against the vapors or dust. The base has its autonomous power supply and its own water treatment, as well as reserves of vivres and water.

The underground situation also brings the advantage of protecting from the electromagnetic impulses, and it is one of the reasons which pushes the Staff of the armies to install the data processing and signal center (CTTI) at the base with Taverny. Work of installation started in 1987 to be completed in 1993, on this occasion, one of vastest the Faraday screen rooms of Europe is built there (2000m ²)

Personnel and economic impact

A little more: 1000 people work on the air base of which some place on the spot in constructions of surface. Only the single people can reside at it. The geographical single people are numerous, the constraints of the life in Paris region lead indeed certain families to remain in province. For this reason, air base 921 constitutes one of the most important hotel parks of the department, with more than 650 rooms.

Air base 921 recruits annually and locally from thirty to fifty soldiers of row. The up to date list of the stations available can be consulted here: Internet site of the recruitment of the air force.

The feminization of the army is a visible reality here: a third of these soldiers of row is women, 28% among the warrant officers and 8% among the officers. The wage inequality is non-existent, it pay is equal to equal responsibility.

To deepen

External bonds

the official badge of air base 921 of Taverny
National association of the Strategic Air forces
the official badge of the FAS
the official site of the CASPOA
the official site of the DIRCAM

Notes, sources and references

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