PLA burrows underground, hardens air bases

Chairman Xi Jinping is very serious in his admonitions that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) should get ready for war. Such preparations are literally and very visibly seen in the hardening of military air bases and the construction of a brand new command complex to protect personnel against bombardment.

- 

Satellite imagery reveals numerous projects to fortify PLA facilities, but the most startling of all is a brand new command complex currently under construction some 2530km west-southwest of the center of capital city Beijing.

In late January the Financial Times broke the news of this massive facility presumably designed to act as a wartime command-and-control center for the PLA. The site covers approximately 1,500 acres, and is ten times larger than the Pentagon.

Satellite imagery shows deep holes burrowed into the ground, which will eventually house hardened bunkers, likely strong enough to resist nuclear attack. Once completed, it will be the world's largest military command center. Already, some observers have dubbed it Beijing Military City, and more than 100 cranes are at work there daily.

The building site measures some 4km across, and dispersing the facility over a wider area, as well as burrowing deep into the ground, helps ensure greater survivability when under attack.