page_title: Hardened aircraft shelter
section_title: Advantages
hierarchical_section_title: Hardened aircraft shelter / Advantages
caption_attribution_description: English: Weapons Storage and Security System (WS3) vault holding a B61 nuclear bomb (possibly inert training version). The vault is within a Protective Aircraft Shelter (PAS), with a F-16 Fighting Falcon in the background.
context_page_description: A hardened aircraft shelter or protective aircraft shelter is a reinforced hangar to house and protect military aircraft from enemy attack. Cost considerations and building practicalities limit their use to fighter size aircraft.
context_section_description: Reduces vulnerability of aircraft to all but the most accurate precision weaponry
  Provides protection against chemical weapon attack.
  Prevents satellite/aerial reconnaissance seeing whether aircraft are present.
  Permits aircraft maintenance and turn-round in  weathertight and relatively safe conditions.
  Combined with active airfield defences, increases survivability of defender's aircraft and cost to enemy's forces in destroying them.
  An alternative option, dispersal of aircraft to many different bases, reduces the efficiency of aircraft at both squadron and air force level.
  Weapons, including nuclear weapons, can be stored in the HAS, sometimes in a vault under the aircraft; e.g., the United States Air Force Weapons Storage and Security System (WS3).
caption: Inside a PAS, showing a Weapons Storage and Security System vault in raised position holding a B61 nuclear bomb
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