Air Force A-10s continue to prove that runways are for suckers
The Air Force landed A-10s on a Michigan highway to practice operating in austere environments without the large bases airmen are used to.
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED JUL 1, 2022 8:00 AM
The old saying “whatever goes up must come down” can be a real pain in the butt when you’re an airpower strategist planning for a possible war against China over the vast Pacific Ocean, where places to land heavy, expensive jets are few and far between. That’s why airmen from around the country gathered in the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Wednesday to practice something that does not happen very often: landing a military aircraft on an ordinary civilian highway, and then taking off again.
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The exercise is meant to prepare airmen in case they have to operate in “austere environments,” like remote Pacific islands where the only ‘runway’ available is an ordinary road or just a dirt strip, which is a possibility senior Air Force leaders are already working on in advance.
“We’ve surveyed almost every piece of concrete in the Pacific for whether we can use it for a hub or a spoke” for projecting airpower, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the head of Pacific Air Forces, told reporters last September.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-a-10-michigan-highway-landing/
