C-130s Operate From A Wyoming Highway To Train To Fight Against A Major Adversary
The Hercules took to the road in Wyoming recently as the Air Force increasingly embraces austere basing operations.
By Thomas Newdick September 16, 2021
The War Zone
C-130J_Wyoming_highway
U.S. Air National Guard/Jacqueline Marshall
A U.S. Air Force C-130J Hercules airlifter landed on and then took off from a four-lane highway in rural Wyoming recently in the latest roadway landing exercise to take place in the United States. The maneuvers, which follow a previous drill conducted on a strip of Michigan highway last month, involving A-10 Warthog attack jets and C-146 Wolfhound special operations transports, reflect the service’s renewed interest in ways to operate in high-threat environments where access to conventional runways may be impossible, or at least greatly reduced.
The C-130J highway landing was part of the Air Force Reserve Command’s larger, week-long Rally in the Rockies exercise and took place on U.S. Route 287, north of Rawlins, Wyoming, for around three hours on the early morning of September 13, 2021. This required the public road to be closed off by the Wyoming Department of Transportation to allow safe operations by the four-turboprop transport, while the local surroundings stood in for enemy territory.
Once safely on the ground, the Hercules was used for a simulated personnel recovery mission — locating and recovering soldiers isolated from friendly forces.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42398/c-130s-operate-from-a-wyoming-highway-to-train-to-fight-against-a-major-adversary
