For the first time, US Air Force fifth-generation fighter jets have proved their ability to use European highways as runways.
Two F-35A Lightning II fighters landed on a strip of road of about 30 metres wide in the region of Lapland (Finland), as part of exercise Baana 24. This exercise ran from 31 August to 6 September 2024 and featured the participation of personnel and assets from Allied countries Finland, Germany and the United States. The Finnish Air Force routinely uses reinforced highways as backup runways, enhancing their ability to operate in the event of a conflict. Since Finland has joined NATO, Allied air forces have increasingly refined their ability to land on roads, strengthening their coordination with their Finnish counterparts in case of a crisis.
The landing was undertaken by two US Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 493rd Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, currently based at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom.
A number of other Allied aircraft also took turns landing on the highway for Baana 24. These included a Eurofighter Typhoon (Germany), an F/A-18 Hornet (Finland), a Hawk (Finland), a Pilatus PC-12NG (Finland), a Learjet 35A/S (Finland) and an MC-130J Commando II (USA).
After almost 30 years of close partnership with NATO, Finland joined the Alliance as a new member in April 2023.
Footage includes shots of US F-35As, a German Eurofighter Typhoon, a Finnish F/A-18 Hornet and a Finnish Hawk aircraft, plus soundbites from representatives of Finland, Germany and the United States.
Transcript
---SHOTLIST—
(00:00) VARIOUS SHOTS – US AIR FORCE F-35A LIGHTNING II AIRCRAFT TAKING OFF, FLYING OVER AND LANDING ON HIGHWAY
(00:42) VARIOUS SHOTS – GERMAN AIR FORCE EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON FLYING OVER HIGHWAY, TAKING OFF FROM HIGHWAY, TAXIING ON HIGHWAY
(02:03) VARIOUS SHOTS – FINNISH AIR FORCE HAWK AIRCRAFT FLYING OVER HIGHWAY
(02:15) WIDE SHOTS – FINNISH AIR FORCE F/A-18 HORNET LANDING ON HIGHWAY
(02:24) VARIOUS SHOTS – FINNISH AIR FORCE F/A-18 HORNET ON HIGHWAY
(02:36) VARIOUS SHOTS – FINNISH AIR FORCE COLONEL SAKU JOUKAS UNDERTAKING PRE-FLIGHT CHECK OF F/A-18 HORNET
(03:03) VARIOUS SHOTS – FINNISH AIR FORCE F/A-18 HORNET TAXIING ON HIGHWAY, FLYING ABOVE HIGHWAY
(03:35) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL DAVID DEAL, US AIR FORCE
“The US and NATO require that operational flexibility, like you mentioned, in Europe and this enables us to practise that so all aspects, both from the air crew side landing on a runway in an austere environment, runway in the middle of the forest that we're at right now. But also the ground crews, like this, this field truck behind me, the other ground crews that make this possible, to allow us to operate in the agile combat employment, way. The ACE way, using tactics that the Finns have been doing for quite a long time. And other nations thatare participating in Baana 24. And it allows us to learn from them, work alongside them and discuss how to employ this as a NATO alliance.”
(04:27) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL DAVID DEAL, US AIR FORCE
“I think the message that the US’s presence here, as well as that of the Germans and other NATO partners, is that we operate as an alliance, that we are there to support other members of the alliance. And, we train together, we make sure that our tactics are similar enough that we're able to fight together. And we make sure that if we have assumptions, we're testing those or validating that or going back to the drawing board where we need to, so we can operate effectively as an alliance.”
(05:00) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - COLONEL SAKU JOUKAS, FINNISH AIR FORCE
“The specific challenges are, I would say there are two - the visual image that you get for the runway or what you used to get, and then it's the emergencies. So first, the normal flying and the visual effect, this strip in here, for example, it's much more narrower than the actual runway, so your picture that you are imagining in your head, it's different here. So, you have to get used to that and that's why we train the young pilots in here. And when the weather gets worse, etc., etc., so you don't get the wrong impression and make stupid mistakes or bad decisions. And then the other one is emergencies. So you have to prepare yourself because we are closing the time frame in here. Should the engine fail or should we have a plane in failure on our landing gear, etc., we have to be ready for that and there's a little bit different decision, speeds, methods, etc. for that.”
(06:09) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL KÖTTIG, GERMAN AIR FORCE
“You need to be ready in a war scenario, you never know where you're going to end up, right? So, we are interoperable here with Finland. We are able to deploy to the High North quickly. And this is what it's all about, be quick and see where the opponent attacks and we're ready to defend.”
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