Four U.S. Air Force A-10 “Warthogs” jets landed Monday on the remote Jägala highway in Estonia near the Russian border, the first such practice road landing in over 30 years.
(CNN)- The maneuver in Estonia, a NATO member that shares a 183-mile long border with Russia and sits about 100 miles from St. Petersburg, comes amid heightened tensions with Russia.
These so-called “austere” highway landings were relatively common during the Cold War as military planners sought contingencies in case air bases were destroyed in a large-scale conflict.
But the Air Force has not seen the need to practice this type of landing in the last three decades. Retired Air Force Col. John “JV” Venable told CNN that these landings would be critical if Russia were to ever mount an attack on NATO’s Baltic members.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are definitely “targets of interest for (Russian President Vladimir Putin) and Russia,” he said.
He added that in the event of an attack, one of the first things the Russian military would do would be to strike the region’s limited number of airfields, thereby making alternative landing areas critical to defending the alliance’s eastern flank.
“This was the first time in a long time that we had the opportunity to conduct a highway landing,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Alex Griffin, a U.S. Air Force-Europe public affairs officer. “It was important because it’s necessary our aircrew are familiar with this skill.”
The landing was part of a U.S. Army-Europe-led military training exercise, Saber Strike 16, which involves 13 countries training throughout Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. According to U.S. Air Force Europe, the goal of the exercise is to ensure that NATO and its partners “are ready for and capable of dealing with any contingency.”