IAF conducts landing exercise on Lucknow-Agra expressway. Here is all you need to know

In a massive show of strength and to prepare for war-like situations, Indian Air Force today conducted a touch and go landing exercise on a stretch of the Lucknow-Agra Expressway.

The exercise commenced with a short landing by the C-130J transport aircraft, which dropped IAF's Special Forces Garud commandos and their vehicle.

As many as 20 aircraft are taking part in the exercise including French Dassault Mirage-2000, Jaguar, Sukhoi-30 MKI, AN-32 transport and Super Hercules C-130J.



The exercise is taking place near Bangarmau in Unnao, about 65 km from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow. The two-hour drill, officials said, was to train the Air Force fighters and personnel to deal with emergency situations like an aerial attack or destruction of a base, which would require immediate touch down and take off from other places to retaliate.



IAF had also performed a similar touchdown exercise in May 2015 when a Mirage 2000 fighter had performed the touchdown on the Yamuna Expressway near Delhi. In November 2016, Sukhoi-30MKIs and Mirage 2000s had landed and taken off from the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.




The Air Force wants to use public roads and highways as alternative runways to provide an alternative for launching operations if key airfields are targeted by the enemy.

Air force has 53 airfields across the country and identified about a dozen highways for landing operations to be used in case of emergencies.

Other countries known to have emergency airstrips on highways include China, Germany, Sweden and Singapore.