Illustration via TerraMil
Eyeing Russia, Estonian Company Creates Underground Hamster City for Humans
With an aggressive Russia nearby, Estonia is making mobile underground bunkers. But other countries are buying them too.
LONDON — For centuries, soldiers have slept in ditches, trenches and foxholes while at war to avoid enemy fire. Now they might have another option.
An Estonian company is manufacturing large plastic tubes that link together like Lego blocks and can even withstand enemy fire. They’re kind of like hamster tubes turned into modular homes, buried under the ground.
There is an office model, a bedroom, bathroom, shower, freezer and even a morgue, according to Terramil, the company that makes it. The units start at $20,000 for a bedroom and more than $40,000 for a shower unit.
The concept is simple. Dig a trench, drop lay in the tube and cover it up.
In addition to Estonia, Saudi Arabia has purchased the “mobile underground city,” said Kristo Kirs, a member of the company’s board. The company has been meeting with other interested nations here at the Defense Security Exposition International, or DSEI, a major security conference and tradeshow in London this week.
The plastic walls of the shelter can withstand a 155-millimeter shell when buried six feet below the ground, Kirs said.
A metal grate lines the bottom of each the tube giving it a flat floor. In a demonstration model here, four sleeping bunks folded down from the walls. A machine gun was attached to the ceiling.
And unlike the muddy trenches, the underground tubes have power lines, network cables and even air conditioning.
In recent years, Estonia’s defense companies have increased their profiles at major arms shows like DSEI and the IDEX International Defence Exposition and Conference on Abu Dhabi.