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The Full Metal Panic series is known to reference various real life location.

For an example the fictional Jindai
([陣代](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SebxL.jpg)) High School is based on the real
life Jindai ([神代](https://i.stack.imgur.com/g0tO4.jpg)) High School in Choufu,
Tokyo.

The closest station to the real life Jindai High School is the Senkawa
station, changed from [仙川](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9TQAN.jpg) to
[泉川](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9eGk6.jpg) (Izumikawa).

Is [Yamsk 11](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lHniW.png) based on a real life
location? If so where is the real like location of Yamsk 11, the secret city
where the Omni-Sphere known as TAROS resides?


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2013-01-30T02:19:26.617
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full-metal-panic tourism
Is Yamsk 11 based on a real life location?


According to the Russian [Full Metal Panic wiki's Yamsk-11
article](http://mithril.msk.su/wiki/%D0%AF%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA-11) (Янск-11, see
reference), it says that Yamsk-11 is here: **60° 8' 10.66" N 153° 54' 20.60"
E** (East Siberia). " _Yamsk-11_ " is not the name of the city, but a postal
code for mail delivery. There is a city, _Yamsk_ , 63 km to the south of "
_Yamsk-11_ ". It was common practice in USSR to give a postal code name with a
number for [closed towns](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city).
Apparently, there was a town at those coordinates that's been closed. For
another example of this, see [Wikipedia's page for
Arzamas-16](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarov) or
[Chelyabinsk-65/40](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozyorsk,_Chelyabinsk_Oblast).

So looks like there is a real location but not sure if it has anything in
common with the fictional "Yamsk 11" in FMP (but who knows), and the name
"Yamsk 11" is a postal code from the USSR days.


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It's definitely a soviet-era "postal code" for a remote location near the city
of Yamsk, but whether a military installation actually existed at that
location is unknown. Obviously, google maps shows nothing but taiga at the
alleged coordinates.

However, the author certainly did his homework coming up with a believeable
and realistic location.

It's very likely "Yamsk-11" was inspired by a real-life, spectacular and
highly mysterious cold-war era installation called Duga-3, a huge OTH Radar
system (google for "Russian Woodpecker") - there were persistent theories this
massive installation, with its absurdly powerful output able to disrupt radio
signals throughout Europe, was used for experimentation on mind control. Very
much in line with the spirit of FMP.

Bottom line, a real location, but with heavy embellishement (though inspired
by real life cold-war mysteries).


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