JOIN USIndia lands military aircraft on highway near border with Pakistan, demonstrates war-preparedness
India on Thursday demonstrated its preparedness for war by landing a C-130J Super Hercules military aircraft on a national highway close to the country’s border with Pakistan in a mock emergency drill.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) also inducted the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) Barak 8, as the country’s security environment turned more challenging with continuing military stand-off with China and Pakistan gaining a strategic edge with the return of Taliban in power in Afghanistan. The MRSAM Barak 8 missile system was developed jointly by the Defence Research and Development Organization and the Israel Aerospace Industries, in collaboration with private and public sector companies in India.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the MRSAMs would prove to be a game-changer in the air-defence system of the nation. “We have taken a giant leap towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said after the first deliverable Firing Unit of the MRSAM was handed over to IAF at the Air Force Station in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
Singh and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari earlier flew aboard the IAF’s C-130J aircraft, which landed on the Emergency Landing Facility (ELF) built recently on the Satta-Gandharv stretch of the National Highway 925 A near Barmer in Rajasthan, just 40 kilometres away from the India-Pakistan border. A Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jet of the IAF also took part in the mock emergency landing on the national highway to mark the inauguration of the ELF.
This is the first time a national highway has been used for landing military aircraft. The Agra-Lucknow expressway, which is controlled by the Uttar Pradesh government, also had such an emergency landing strip and the fighter jets had in the past landed and taken off from it as part of drills.
“Construction of the emergency landing field in the vicinity of the international border signalled how prepared we are to protect the sovereignty of our nation from any threat,” Singh said. Gadkari said that similar ELFs would be built at 19 other places across the country.
The work on the ELF commenced in July 2019 and was completed in January 2021 with a total expenditure of Rs 32.95 crore. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) engaged a private company to build the 3.5-kilometre-long landing strip under the supervision of the IAF. It will be used for the flow of normal road traffic. But in case it has to be used as an ELF during an emergency situation like war or natural disasters, the service road will be used for the smooth flow of road traffic. The ELF will be able to facilitate landing by all aircraft of the IAF.
In addition to the ELF, three helipads were also constructed in nearby Kundanpura, Singhania and Bakhasar villages, as required by the IAF and the Indian Army.
The ELFs are being built on the expressways and the National Highways so that they can be used by the military aircraft for landings and take-offs in case the normal runways and landing strips in the IAF bases or the civilian airports are damaged by enemy bombings during the war. They can also be used during other emergencies, including during natural disasters.
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