By Wikipedia WASHINGTON — CIA Director Leon Panetta says that if the US captures top al-Qaida leaders Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, they would likely be…
Bagram Air Base - known and referred to by US military as Bagram Airfield - is a militarized airport and housing complex that is located next to the ancient city of Bagram, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) southeast of Charikar in Parwan province of Afghanistan. It is often referred to as Bagram Air Base, however the senior mission commander at Bagram is an Army two-star general, making it an Army Airfield in US military parlance. The base is currently occupied and maintained by the 5th Aviation Battalion (Assault) and 6th Aviation Battalion (GSAB) of the United States Army, with the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing of the United States Air Force and other U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard, and their coalition partner units having sizable tenant populations. Bagram Air Base has three large hangars, a control tower, and numerous support buildings. There are more than 32 acres (130,000 m²) of ramp space and five aircraft dispersal areas, with a total of over 110 revetments. Many support buildings and base housing built by the Red Army during their occupation were destroyed by years of fighting between various warring Afghan factions after the Soviets left. New barracks and office buildings are slowly being constructed at the present time. There is also Bagram Theater Internment Facility, a detention centre which has been criticized in the past for its abusive treatment of prisoners. The ICAO ID is OAIX and it is specifically at 34.944N, 69.259E at 1,492 metres (4,895 ft) above sea level. The base had a single 3,003 metres (9,852 ft) runway built in 1976. A second runway, 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) long, was built and completed by the US military in late 2006, at a cost of USD$68 million. This new runway is 497 metres (1,631 ft) longer than the previous one and 280 millimetres (11 in) thicker, giving it the ability to land larger aircraft, such as the C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III or the Boeing 747.
