![]() Emergency runways have been designed on parts of the island’s highways, including some sections of the National Highway No-1, a north-south artery running down the island’s west coast from Taipei to Kaohsiung. The island has almost 1,000 kilometers of highways with at least four lanes and hardened road surfaces. The army is authorized to requisition some sections of Taiwan’s highway network for emergency landings and take-offs as well as warplane repair and maintenance during wartime. Photo: HandoutĪn air force colonel told reporters that Taiwan’s key airbases would all be targeted by the PLA should hostilities break out, thus a highway drill was necessary to hone the skills of airmen to land on and take off from highways to assist emergency response and withdrawal. ![]() ![]() Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, left, inspected the drill in Changhua on Monday. Taiwanese papers said it was the first time an F-16V had landed on a highway strip. On Monday morning, some 1,600 troops were mobilized in central Taiwan, and warplanes – an F-16V, a Mirage 2000-5 and an E-2K airborne early warning aircraft, among others – conducted landings on a closed section of a highway in Changhua county for refueling and ammunition loading before getting airborne again. The last time the Taiwanese Air Force conducted such highway strip landings in the annual Han Kuang drill was in 2014, a sign that the military now sees heightened threats from across the strait amid the PLA’s aggressive build-up and talk of a forced reunification. ![]() Taiwan’s ongoing anti-Chinese invasion drill has revealed how its airmen can steer fighter jets including the F-16 to land, refuel and rearm on the island’s purpose-built highways, simulating a scenario when runways at Taiwan’s major air bases – prime targets in the event of a war – are damaged in missile strikes by the People’s Liberation Army. ![]()
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