RAF fighter jets have landed and taken off from a regular road for the first time ever.
Two Typhoons took off from a single-lane road in Tervo, Finland, which was specially designed as an emergency landing strip.
The exercise was done to prove that pilots can outmanoeuvre adversaries and disperse to remote locations with minimum support, a current focus of the RAF.
The RAF used to take off and land from roads and fields during the Cold War in order to make aircraft harder to find.
Defence sources told the Telegraph that exercises like this are being done due to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
It has “reminded the West of the need to be able to disperse our aircraft and be more unpredictable”, they said.
Exercise Baana is part of the Finnish Air Force’s routine flying training and an annual exercise. This was the first time the RAF and the Norwegian Air Force took part.
The Officer Commanding of 41 Test and Evaluation Squadron took part, saying: “This is an opportunity to work with one of our newest NATO partners on an exercise in Agile Combat Employment.
“The Finnish have worked hard for decades on disparate operations should they be attacked and need to disperse their aircraft.
“Once we landed on the strip we stopped to refuel before taking off again, I couldn’t help but look around and think ‘I am sitting in a jet on a road in the middle of a forest in Finland’. That was pretty crazy and definitely a first.”
The second pilot, Jim, said: “This is a great step forward for RAF Typhoon capability. We often talk about capability being the stuff that we fly with such as weapons and sensors.
“What is great about this is it’s a novel way of employing the jet, improving our survivability against modern threats and operating from dispersed locations, and also doing that while working closely with our allies who are absolutely critical to future operations.”
