Three of four submarines for scrap metal

These submarines were Albania’s pride during the Cold War. They arrived in the country after signing the Warsaw Treaty and were proposed to turn into a museum.

The Albanian-Russian joint military base of the 50s had 8 submarines, four of which left when Albania abandoned the military alliance of the communist countries.

The submarines operated for many years, but remained immobilized after 1997, when they were damaged as badly as they could sink.

The submarines were anchored at the Pashalimani base, for not moving anymore until the last days of their lives, when they were cut to pieces and were transported to the Elbasan Metallurgy.

On May 2010, the Albanian government announced the tender for their sale, with a value of 34.3 million ALL, and the operation for removing them from water ended only in the recent days.

The market value of the steel only, because the copper and alluminium is higher, is 78 million ALL.

Dozens of trucks went in and out the city of Vlore for several days, and the last pieces were transported this Friday, September 23rd.

The heavy equipments that were used for cutting the submarines are still at place, where they also cut a series of other heavy ammunitions, such as torpedoes, marine bombs and heavy weapons, now out of order.

The submarines weighted 650 tons each and were mainly made of steel and copper.

The names of the destroyed submarines are “Tufani 332”, “Vetetima 334” and “Rrufeja”. The “Submarine 105”, much used by the communist propaganda, was not destroyed.

These submarines are melting in the furnaces of Elbasan Metallurgy, same as the Fier Nitrogen Plan and the Maliq CBPP, together with many other out-of-order plants of the communist era.

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