16 IAF planes land on UP road

New Delhi: Almost an entire range of Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft comprising three deep penetration Jaguars, 12 multi-role air superiority Mirage 2000s and Sukhoi-30 and a C-130J Super Hercules airlifter took part in a drill to touchdown and take off on a 3 km long stretch of the six-lane Agra-Lucknow Expressway on Tuesday underscoring skill and capability besides demonstration of military preparedness in times of war and other emergencies.

The drill is in line with the IAF’s stated policy of using National Highways stretches as ‘landing strips’ in an emergency as during wars as airstrips usually figure on the top of the enemy’s bombing targets so capability to land on road stretches assume critical value. The policy is being executed with the approval of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Many Western nations use their highways as alternate landing strips while India’s neighbours China and Pakistan have landed their fighter jets on their roads many years ago. Pakistan, for instance, landed its first fighter aircraft on the Islamabad-Lahore about 17 years ago. 

The Islamabad-Lahore highway is reported to be equipped with four emergency sections of nearly three km each which become fully functional runway strips by removing temporary concrete blocks.

The entire exercise on the expressway commenced at around 10:15 hrs and continued till about 12:00 hrs and took place near Bangarmau in Unnao District of Uttar Pradesh. The Sukhoi-30, Mirage-2000 and Jaguar fighter aircraft took off respectively from Bareilly, Gwalior and Gorakhpur while the C-130J Super Hercules took off from Hindon airbase.