IAF Landing Exercise on Lucknow-Agra Expressway: List of Fighter Jets, Transport Aircraft That Perform Touch Down on UP Highway

As many as 16 aircrafts landed on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway during the exercise.

Lucknow, Oct 24: To check capability to land fighter jets on highways, the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted a major touchdown exercise on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 16 aircraft landed on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway during the exercise. Embarking on the touchdown exercise, C-130J Super Hercules carrying nearly 200 Garud Commandos landed on Lucknow-Agra Expressway and took off. (Watch: IAF Aircraft Land on Lucknow-Agra Expressway During Touchdown Exercise)

The IAF exercise started with a C-130J Hercules transport aircraft of IAF making an assault landing with Garud commandos.

These commandos then took up position on either side of the airstrip to cordon it off for the fighter operations.

During the exercise, the first Mirage 2000 aircraft flew past the Lucknow-Agra Expressway without touching it down. The next two Mirage 2000 touched down and flew off.

A Sukhoi-30MKI Fighter Jet flew past the Lucknow-Agra Expressway without touching it down.

This was followed by two Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets touching down the Lucknow-Agra Expressway one after another.

The aircraft didn’t really touch the runway down but came down and flew a little over it before flying off. The fighter jets also carried out flypast during IAF’s landing exercise.

#WATCH The first of 16 Indian Air Force planes lands on Lucknow-Agra expressway near Unnao pic.twitter.com/cx0GYkaonk

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 24, 2017

Indian Air Force jet planes lands on Lucknow-Agra expressway near Unnao pic.twitter.com/wMo1n9BdXT

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 24, 2017

IAF fighter planes, Mirage-2000 fighters and Sukhoi-30, have twice landed on expressways in Uttar Pradesh. A Mirage-2000 landed on the Yamuna Expressway near Delhi in 2015 as the first display of capability to land fighter jets on highways. In November last year, six multirole combat aircraft Sukhoi-30 jets touched down on a 3.3 km stretch of the Lucknow – Agra Expressway.