OT - Look what I found!!

[Cdnwolf]

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russians were amazed to discover dozens of T-80 battle tanks seemingly abandoned in a local forest, but army officials insisted there was nothing unusual about it.

The tanks -- nearly 100 in all -- were found near the Elanovskaya railroad station about 100 kilometres (60 miles) outside the Urals Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, the Kommersant daily reported on Saturday.


Their presence was revealed after a local news website posted a video of the tanks, covered in a deep layer of snow and resting peacefully between the railroad and the woods with no military personnel in sight.


"There are tanks all over the forest, abandoned. If you need one, come and get it," an unnamed person behind the camera says in the video posted on E1.ru, as the camera spins around to show dozens of unguarded tanks.


A spokesman for the Volga-Urals Military District, the branch of the Russian army which oversees the area, said the tanks were being transported to a storage site as part of a routine logistical operation.


"Work on their transport to the storage base is going according to plan. All the vehicles are under guard by military patrols consisting of officers and soldiers," the spokesman, Dmitry Burdakov, told Kommersant.

[Legbreaker]

I first heard about this around 17-18 years ago. Apparently as part of the breakup of the USSR and subsequent disarmament they had to destroy a huge number of tanks, so many that their factories simply weren't up to the job.
To placate the inspectors, they drove them into isolated forests, took out a couple of vital components (little better than pocketing the keys so to speak) and walked away.

I'm guessing these T-80s are one of the "dumps".

[WallShadow]

I was Google-mapping central Maryland, near Thurmont, when I found a large manicured lawn-like area in the Catoctin Mtn Park. The odd thing is that this lawn has a worn area that looks suspiciously like the footprint of a large helicopter. Hmmmm.... Camp Shangri-La, anyone?

[Cdnwolf]

You mean this place on the edge of town with the guard tower?

[chico20854]

found this blog that has lots of interesting Google Earth finds, and, just as impressively, an intelligent analysis of what they all add up to. I have a feeling several days are about to be wasted...

http://geimint.blogspot.com/

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

I was Google-mapping central Maryland, near Thurmont, when I found a large manicured lawn-like area in the Catoctin Mtn Park. The odd thing is that this lawn has a worn area that looks suspiciously like the footprint of a large helicopter. Hmmmm.... Camp Shangri-La, anyone?

Camp David.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Camp David.

I guess we all play intelligence analyst at times. I am always looking for secret volcano hideouts.

Perfect reminder about the wiki tags
http://forum.juhlin.com/misc.php?do=bbcode#wiki

you can just do
[wiki]Camp David[/wiki]

eg Camp David (caps sometimes matters depending on the term)

[jester]

Where are they in relation to Georgia or Ukraine? If they are close then they are a hidden reserve or a localy known reserve to give a little bit of political incentive.