Libyan factions building matching UAV bunkers

A feed from the camera on an Akinci UAV as it taxis at a location that could be identified as Mitiga Air Base in Tripoli is seen in a photograph from Exercise ‘Storm 1' held in eastern Libya on 12 February 2026. (General Staff of the Libyan Armed Forces (Tripoli))

“Identical” underground facilities for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being built at airbases controlled by Libya's rival factions, according to the latest report by the United Nations Panel of Experts on Libya.

Released on 20 April 2026, the report said the E-shaped facilities that are under construction at Mitiga and Misrata in western Libya and Al-Khadim in the east are “ground-control stations” for UAVs. Their main 110 x 50 m areas are capable of accommodating 12-13 aircraft of different sizes and the protruding 30 m extensions are potentially intended for ammunition storage, it added.

Work began first at Mitiga in Tripoli in July 2023, then at Misrata in March 2024. Both bases are controlled by forces loyal to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh's Turkish-backed government in Tripoli.

Work on the facility at Al-Khadim, which is controlled by the rival Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) led by Khalifa Haftar, began more recently in October 2025.

The Panel of Experts said the underground UAV facilities were evidence that “some member states [have] extended support across the political divide in Libya”. It did not name the state responsible for building the facilities, but said they were designed for Turkish-made Bayraktar UAVs.

Bayraktar TB2s were first deployed to western Libya in 2019 and were credited with playing a significant role in defeating an LAAF offensive to capture Tripoli the following year.