Aviation

From The Cockpit: Highway Operations

Imagine for a moment, if you will, you’re a fighter pilot in an air force whose home station has just fallen victim to an airstrike.

You look out across the airfield and see the runway has been decimated. Some of the aircraft themselves have taken hits, but still others have survived unscathed. With no runway, how are you going to get those jets off the ground and into the fight?

Highways.

You've reached your daily free article limit.

Subscribe and support our veteran writing staff to continue reading.

Get Full Ad-Free Access For Just $0.50/Week

Enjoy unlimited digital access to our Military Culture, Defense, and Foreign Policy coverage content and support a veteran owned business. Already a subscriber?

Imagine for a moment, if you will, you’re a fighter pilot in an air force whose home station has just fallen victim to an airstrike.

You look out across the airfield and see the runway has been decimated. Some of the aircraft themselves have taken hits, but still others have survived unscathed. With no runway, how are you going to get those jets off the ground and into the fight?

Highways.

European Air Forces have been practicing for this very contingency for decades. Finnish F/A-18s, RAF Jaguars, Luftwaffe Tornadoes have all done it. Ideal environment for launching and recovering combat aircraft? Absolutely not. Could it be done in a pinch? Absolutely.

So today, FighterSweep Fans, we take you inside the cockpit for such austere environment training operations. You will be along for the ride with MiG-29s and SU-25s from the Russian Air Force, making use of a rural highway to validate the practice of finding alternate surfaces and means to get fighters into the sky for a worst-case scenario.

Certainly something you don’t see every day!!

(Featured photo courtesy of YouTube)

About Scott Wolff View All Posts

is the host, editor, and also a contributor to FighterSweep. He joined a well-known aviation lifestyle publication in early 2010 as a photographer, and a year later started writing feature articles. Since then, he has moved into a managing editor position at that publication. He holds a private pilot certificate and draws on his experience as a flight operations director in the airshow industry, as

COMMENTS

You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.

More from SOFREP

REAL EXPERTS.
REAL NEWS.

Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis.

TRY 14 DAYS FREE

Already a subscriber? Log In