15 Indian Air Force Fighter Jets, Super Hercules Transport Aircraft To Land On Expressway Near Lucknow

Asia

Sixteen planes of the Indian Air Force, or IAF, will perform touch and go landings on a stretch of the Lucknow-Agra Expressway today morning, starting with a 35,000 kg C-130J Super Hercules aircraft which will come to a full stop on landing to deploy Garud Special Forces commandos to secure the landing zone as part of the special drill. Fighter jets of the IAF including top of the line Sukhoi 30s and Mirage 200s won't, however, come to a full stop but will instead take off after touching down on the airstrip. The three-hour long exercise that begins at 10 a.m. stimulates an emergency situation when airbases, the first target of bombs and missiles, won't be available for air operations, necessitating use of highways as landing strips.

The aircraft touchdown exercise will be conducted on the stretch near Bangarmau in Unnao district, about 65 km from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow. Traffic restrictions had been introduced around this patch from yesterday,
Once the IAF's Special Forces Garud commandos get off the C-130J transport aircraft with their vehicle, they will take positions on either side of the expressway to secure "their airstrip" for the fighter aircrafts.
This is the first time a transport aircraft - a Super Hercules, which can carry 200 commandos - is landing on an expressway. Inducted into the air force in 2010, each plane costs nearly Rs. 900 crore.
"What is unique... is that we are also landing transport aircraft, the C-130 which is special operations aircraft," IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal SB Deo said on the sidelines of an event in Delhi ahead of the exercise.
For the next two hours or so, a fighter aircraft will carry out a touch and go manoeuvre on the expressway every few minutes.
Three Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft will be the first to land, followed up by six Mirage 2000 aircrafts flying in two formations and then, two more formations of three aircraft each of Sukhoi-30MKI.
The C-130 will return for another short landing to extricate the Garud Commandos. "It's a very important operational achievement... Highways can be very important during wartime when the runway is denied for some reason," Air Marshal SB Deo said.
IAF fighter planes, Mirage-2000 fighters and Sukhoi-30, have twice landed on expressways in Uttar Pradesh. The first was in 2015 when a Mirage-2000 landed on the Yamuna expressway near Delhi.
Last November, six multirole combat aircraft Sukhoi-30 jets touched down on a 3.3 km stretch of the Lucknow - Agra expressway. The Sukhoi-30 MKI, which forms the backbone of the IAF's fighter fleet, is capable of mid-air refuelling. The air force has over 270 aircraft in its inventory.
About a dozen highways that are wide enough and have a smooth road surface for the fighter jets - across the country have been identified for similar landing operations to be used in case of emergencies including disaster relief and war.