IAF Sukhoi-30 MKI on Saturday made a touch down on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao in a special landing exercise. The visuals showing the aircaraft making the touch down have also surfaced.
The exercise was done as part of the ongoing pan-India exercise, Gagan Shakti- 2024, which seeks to showcase IAF’s capability to carry out high-tempo operations. The exercise involves all air bases and assets scattered across India, Hindustan Times reported.
IAF aircraft, including fighters and transport planes, would be carrying out take-off and landing operations at locations including road stretches in UP and Jammu and Kashmir, the Economic Times reported.
The drills began on April 1 and will be carried out till April 10 in a realistic environment. This is also the last major exercise that will witness the participation of the MiG-21 Bisons ahead of their upcoming retirement, the report noted.
Through this exercise, the aircraft operations will showcase the growing infrastructure prowess of India.
Indian Air Force in coordination with the Road Transport Ministry, has created road patches built with runway specifications and without dividers, allowing both sides of the road to be utilised for operations.
These stretches have been created to deal with situations in conflicts n a situation where their own airfields are under attack. Such road stretches will be useful when a large number of their own planes are airborne and need space to take off and land.
Additionally, these road stretches can also be very useful in case of disaster, enabling the IAF transport planes and helicopters to reach the closest affected areas to provide support to the local population in need, the report added.
Gagan Shakti was last held in 2018 during which the IAF clocked more than 11,000 sorties.