Plokštinė missile base ( lt, Plokštinės raketų bazė) was an underground base of the Soviet Union. It was built near Plokščiai village, north of

Plungė Plungė (; Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Plongė'') is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plungė is known for Plungė Manor and its park, Samogitian Art Museum. In the Oginskiai manor park stands the Perkūnas Oak, Perkūnas oak a ...

, in the sparsely populated Plokštinė forest near

Plateliai Lake Lake Plateliai (Samogitian dialect: ''Plateliu ežers'') is the biggest lake in Samogitia and 9th biggest in Lithuania. It is the central attraction in the Žemaitija National Park. It covers about and reaches up to in depth. It has seven islands ...

, Samogitia,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. This was the first nuclear missile base of the Soviet Union built to house underground

R-12 Dvina The R-12 Dvina was a theatre ballistic missile developed and deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Its GRAU designation was 8K63 (8K63U or 8K63У in Cyrillic for silo-launched version), and it was given the NATO reporting name of SS-4 ...

(

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...

: SS-4 Sandal) ballistic medium-range missiles. In 2012 a Cold War Museum was opened at the site.

History

Construction

When the United States started building underground military bases in the late 1950s, the Soviet Union felt the need to maintain its military capabilities. Therefore, in September 1960, the Soviet Union started the rapid construction of an underground military base. It was one of the first in the Soviet Union, near the village of Plokščiai in the Lithuanian SSR. The location of the missile base meant that its

missiles (which had a range of about 2,080 km) could reach all of the European NATO members and NATO member Turkey. In addition, the soil was easy to excavate and the local population was small. There were no bigger towns or villages nearby, just isolated houses whose inhabitants were paid 4,500 roubles to relocate. In 1960, more than 10,000 Soviet soldiers started to secretly work in the Žemaitija National Park for over two years. The costs of construction were comparable to the costs of building a city district or a small town.

Operation

The base was regarded as one of the top Soviet military secrets, only to be revealed by U.S. reconnaissance in 1978. The Plokštinė nuclear missile launch site started operating around three years after it was established. The base boasted of a network of tunnels and included four deep shafts that have a depth between 27 and 34 meters. They were covered by concrete

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

s that could be moved aside on rails in 30 minutes. The base could stay autonomous for 15 days, or for three hours if also hermetically sealed. The surrounding electric fence was normally connected to 220 V, with a possibility to raise the voltage to 1700 V The base included four silos that housed

missiles with nuclear warheads. They weighed more than 40 tonnes, including warhead. These surface-to-surface missiles had a range of a little less than . No missiles, even for tests, were launched from the base. Launching a rocket required the near simultaneous turning of two different keys by two operators. The site appears to have been operated by the 79th Guards Missile Regiment, part of the

29th Guards Rocket Division The 29th Guards Rocket Division is an intercontinental ballistic missile division of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces. The division was formerly part of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and has been active since 1960. Originally based in Latvi ...

After decommissioning

After twelve years of operations, the site was shut down. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the site was abandoned and not maintained. It was visited by urban explorers and suffered from numerous metal thefts.

In popular culture

The missile base appears in season 5 of ''

Person of Interest "Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no leg ...

'' series.Person of Interest Recap - S05E06&07 - "A More Perfect Union" + "QSO"
/ref>

Cold War Museum

After extensive reconstruction in 2012, the former base site now hosts the Cold War Museum, opening one of the four existing silos for visitors. The museum exhibitions include various missiles, their internal systems, military and other equipment used by the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

as well as NATO during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. File:Cold War Museum in Plungė, SS-4 information stand.jpg, SS-4 missile information stand File:Exhibition_of_the_Cold_War_Museum_in_Lithuania_(missile_systems).jpg, 3D

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

and

semi-active radar homing Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range Air-to-air missile, air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is ...

system File:Cold War Museum in Plungė, missile from SA-6.jpg, Missile used in the SA-6 air defence system File:H&K G3, Cold War Museum in Plungė.jpg, Exhibition of the Heckler & Koch G3 used by West Germany

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plokstine missile base Museums in Telšiai County Museums established in 2012 Cold War museums Military and war museums History museums in Lithuania Military facilities of the Soviet Union in Lithuania Strategic Rocket Forces Subterranean buildings and structures