Description

A highway strip, road runway, or road base is a section of highway, motorway (autobahn), or other form of public road that is specially built to act as a runway for (mostly) military aircraft and to serve as an auxiliary military air base. These runways allow military aircraft to continue operating even if their primary air bases, which are vulnerable targets in wartime, are rendered unusable.

C-130 Hercules landing on autobahn A29 near the city of Ahlhorn during a NATO exercise, March 1984. Source: Wikicommons, Author: US DOD

Countries that have built highway strips for military use include Germany, Russia, Estonia, China, Japan, Singapore, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Switzerland, Poland, India, Pakistan and the Czech republic.

Highway strips are also to be found in Australia, where they are used by the Flying Doctor service.

Design

The strips are usually 1 to 2 nm straight sections of the highway, although short runways have been built to support operations by STOL aircraft. Any central median along the roadway is partitioned by crash barriers that can be removed quickly to allow aircraft to use the whole width of the road. The road will need a thicker than normal surface and a solid concrete base in order to take the loading of large aircraft. Specialist equipment is often stored nearby to enable rapid conversion for aircraft operations within 24 to 48 hours.

The road must be swept to remove any debris before use by aircraft.

C-130 Hercules landing on autobahn A29 near the city of Ahlhorn during a NATO exercise, March 1984. Source: Wikicommons, Author: US DOD