Swiss as role models?: Foreign countries are amazed by air force maneuvers on the highway

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc”>

The Swiss Air Force wants to rehearse emergency takeoffs and landings from the road for the first time in June after a ten-year break. The last time such tests were conducted was in the 1970s and 1980s on aircraft types of that time.

Abroad is listening. Because part of the A1 southwest of Bern is closed for a maximum of 36 hours and traffic is diverted. The plans of the Swiss army are causing surprise across the border. The Swiss, it is reported, would respond to the new security situation with such military exercises.

Such emergency ramps still exist in Germany

In Germany, the media wonder whether such maneuvers are also possible in their country. “In the event that the existing airports and air bases in Germany were insufficient or were destroyed, there were also military exercises in Germany with highway landings,” the German news agency explained.

In March 1984, NATO air forces practiced deployment and operations on the A29 near Bremen. Once upon a time, there were several dozen highway sections throughout Germany that could have served as emergency landing sites within a short time. These have largely disappeared during construction work on repairs and widening in recent decades. Central reservations were replanted, parking spaces were demolished or built on. Emergency lanes are only visible on a few highways.

Ösis takes old plans out of the drawer

Now that the Swiss fighter jets have been launched onto the highway, such plans are now being pulled out of the drawer in Austria. Such tests have already been carried out in Austria, the Kleine Zeitung reports.

In 1986, similar tests were conducted on a highway that was not yet open to traffic at the time. “At the time,” says the newspaper, “about 20 more such alternative routes were planned in Austria, including camouflaged shelters and telecommunications facilities. But that was not implemented.”

Now they want to take the plans from the Cold War and ‘space defense’ out of the drawer again. The Austrian Air Force confirmed the first discussions about this. The question is whether these will also be implemented. We are highly dependent on cooperation with civil and road authorities.

Source:Blick