What's up with this airport? It's just a bitumen strip in the middle of the Sahara which is divided by the border between Libya and Niger. the coordinates are: 22° 47' 1" N 14° 1' 28" E
Posted by _The_Fly@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 8 comments
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
If that's not the definition of buttfuck nowhere - I don't know what is. Probably military in origin, not measured very well (and probably a border that's porous af) - all long forgotten about.
_The_Fly@reddit (OP)
My theory is that it once was a Libyan Military airport, there are a few Ruins besides it that still looked like actually houses in 2016 so probably it was still in use then. Now its probably used as a emergency landing zone for US drones since they are flying them there and the runway still seems to be kind of maintained
random_stonk@reddit
Unfortunatly, there were no strategic advantages to build an entire facility in a remote area like that, it was just a power move, so most certainly nothing underground.
The U.S. never landed in the airport, only the french did, The american operated only (with few exceptions) in Agadez, in Niger.
random_stonk@reddit
i'm late but, the Airfield was originally built by the Kadhafi regime in the 80' to impose their presence on the Sahel. After some time it became useless and was abandonned (old building used west of the airstrip which were used by libyans can be seen) after the fall of kadhafi it is belived that it was used by terrorist forces as a base. During the France-Niger Barkhane Operation, terrorist were expelled and the airstrip was used for some time (because it facilitated troops movements). After the end of the Barkhane operation the airstrip was left unused.
There's no information as to what it is used for now, but if i had to take a guess, probably a point for terrorists to hide.
Source : Operation Barkhane
OddChair@reddit
It’s called Kourou Arkenne - quick bit of Googling came up with the name but still doing a bit of research
_The_Fly@reddit (OP)
Thanks! Let me know if you find anything out
andorraliechtenstein@reddit
I am a bit late to the party, but the airport is used by the French army , together with the army of Niger, to monitor the border area for terrorist activities.
_The_Fly@reddit (OP)
Any sources for this? Does the airport actually still see active operations?