Albania is reopening a Soviet-era air base for NATO aircraft

 

 Albania is reopening a Soviet-era air base for NATO aircraft, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Monday. It’s known as the Kucova Air Base, and it’s located in south-central Albania. (Up north a short drive to Croatia lies one of our favorite old air bases, Željava, which was built into a mountain and was intended to survive a 20-kiloton nuclear attack. Similar secretive mountain bases we like include Olavsvern in Norway, and Pennsylvania’s Raven Rock Mountain Complex.)

 Albania has no jets of its own, but two Eurofighter Typhoons from Italy landed at Kucova Monday to illustrate its utility as a staging area for alliance aircraft in the future. 

 

 A Eurofighter Typhoon lands at the newly rebuilt Kucova Air Base in Kucova, Albania, March 4, 2024.