Muskö Naval Base

{{Short description|Naval base in Sweden}}

{{Expand Swedish|topic=struct|Musköbasen|date=October 2019}}

{{Infobox military installation

| name = Muskö Naval Base

| ensign =

| ensign_size =

| native_name = Musköbasen

| partof =

| location = Muskö

| nearest_town =

| country = Sweden

| image = HMS Sundsvall in Tunnel.jpg

| alt =

| caption = {{HSwMS|Sundsvall|J12|6}} entering one of the openings to the naval base.

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| type = Naval base

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| built = 1950–1969

| used = 1955–present

| builder =

| materials = Concrete, stone, steel

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| battles = None

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File:HMS Småland in Tunnel.jpg

File:Muskötunneln 2012b.jpg

Muskö Naval Base ({{langx|sv|Musköbasen}}) is a Swedish Navy underground naval facility on the island of Muskö just south of Stockholm in Haninge Municipality.

The construction of the base started in 1950 and was completed 19 years later in 1969. During the construction about 1.5 million tons of rock were removed. It has 3 docks, originally designed for destroyers and submarines. The underground base itself has an area of several km²{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} and is connected by {{Convert|20|km|abbr=on}} of underground roads.

In order to connect the base to the mainland, the {{ill|Muskö road|sv|Muskövägen}} was built at the same time as the base. This crosses several bridges and intermediate islands before finally accessing the island of Muskö through the {{ill|Muskö Tunnel|sv|Muskötunneln}}, a {{Convert|3|km|abbr=on}} long road tunnel running some {{Convert|70|m}} under the sea.{{cite web

|first1=Ilkka

|last1=Salo

|first2=Ola

|last2=Svenson

|title=Safety Management: A Frame of Reference for Studies of Nuclear Power Safety Management and Case Studies from Non-Nuclear Contexts

|url=http://www.nks.org/download/pdf/NKS-Pub/NKS-88.pdf

|accessdate=2010-11-27

|series=Nordic nuclear safety research (NKS)

|volume=NKS-88

|date=September 2003

|publisher=NKS Secretariat

|location=Roskilde, Denmark

|isbn=87-7893-146-0

|pages=9–13

}}

During the Cold War the underground facility was kept highly secret and not much information about it was known to the public.{{cite web

|url = http://www.kmk.a.se/ImageUpload/kmkNytt0110.pdf

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100812051822/http://www.kmk.a.se/ImageUpload/kmkNytt0110.pdf

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 2010-08-12

|title = Musköbasen 40 år

|first = Helene

|last = Skoglund

|author2 = Nynäshamns Posten

|date = January 2010

|publisher = Kungliga Motorbåt Klubben

|location = Stockholm

|pages = 4–7

|language = Swedish

|trans-title = Muskö Naval Base 40 years

|accessdate = 2010-11-09

}} In 2004 the Swedish government decided that the navy should be concentrated to two bases only, the Karlskrona Naval Base and the Berga Naval Base, and much of the Muskö base was closed. However some parts of the facility were still used by the military. The underground shipyards were being operated under contract by Kockums AB{{cite web

| url = http://www.kockums.se/en/products-services/marine-services/musko-facilities/

| title = Kockums shipyard facilities at Muskö

| author = Kockums AB

| accessdate = 2010-11-09

}} and Muskövarvet AB. In the autumn of 2019, as part of an upgrade of defence facilities and manpower, the naval base was revived, and it was announced that it would also serve as seat of the main headquarters of the Swedish Navy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/30/swedish-navy-returns-to-vast-underground-hq-amid-russia-fears|title = Swedish navy returns to vast underground HQ amid Russia fears|website = TheGuardian.com|date = 30 September 2019}}

One of the Swedish submarine incidents in October, 1982, took place just off Muskö Naval Base.{{cite book

|author=Ola Tunander

|title=The secret war against Sweden: US and British submarine deception in the 1980s

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cN-ETroO0zEC&pg=PA35

|accessdate=8 November 2010

|date=24 September 2004

|publisher=Psychology Press

|isbn=978-0-7146-5322-8

|page=x}}{{cite book

|author1=Keith Hartley

|author2=Todd Sandler

|title=The Economics of defence spending: an international survey

|year=1990

|publisher=Routledge

|isbn=978-0-415-00161-8

|page=154

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PtINAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA154

|accessdate=9 November 2010}}

A survey carried out in 2000 concluded that sedimentation in the tunnels leading to docks contained PCBs, organotin compounds and heavy metals, mainly mercury and copper.{{cite journal

|author = Ulf Qvarfort

|author2 = Annie Waleij

|author3 = Henrik Mikko

|date = March 2002

|title = Sedimentundersökning i förtunnlarna vid Musköbasen

|journal = Proceedings of the ... Swedish American Workshop on Modeling and Simulation

|trans-title = Survey of Muskö Naval Base foretunnel sediments

|page = 3

|publisher = Totalförsvarets Forskningsinstitut

|location = Umeå, Sweden

|issn = 1650-1942

|id = FOI-R--0497--SE

|url = http://www2.foi.se/rapp/foir0497.pdf

|language = Swedish

|accessdate = 2010-11-10

}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In 2019, Swedish naval command in the form of the Naval Staff returned to Muskö.{{cite news

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/30/swedish-navy-returns-to-vast-underground-hq-amid-russia-fears

| title= Swedish navy returns to vast underground HQ amid Russia fears

| date = 2019-09-30

| newspaper= The Guardian

| accessdate = 2019-09-30

}} In early 2020 it was confirmed that the base would be fully reactivated.{{Cite news|last1=Warrell|first1=Helen|last2=Milne|first2=Richard|date=2020-12-20|title=Swedish navy chief says military cutbacks 'wrong decision'|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/40220d72-a0b1-4254-ab82-9e09104bc774|access-date=2022-02-21}}