Watch A-10 Warthogs Take Off From a Michigan Highway

• An A-10 Warthog with the Michigan Air National Guard took off from a stretch of highway on Thursday.

• During Exercise Northern Strike, the highway acted as an improvised airstrip.

• The U.S. is one of a handful of countries that use highways to practice launching and recovering airplanes.

The Michigan Air National Guard transformed a stretch of roadway into a working air base on Thursday, as A-10 pilots from across the country practiced takeoffs and landings. It's believed to be the first time in modern memory that fighter jets have utilized an American highway as a runway.

The maneuvers took place on a stretch of the M-32 roadway in Alpena County, Michigan. The exercise, known as Northern Strike, runs from July 31 to August 14, and takes place at the Michigan National Guard's sprawling Camp Grayling, as well as the Alpena Combat Readiness Center.

Four A-10s—based at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, and Duke Field in Florida—are taking part in the exercise, according to Local TV station ABC12.

The first jet taking off is from the Michigan Air National Guard's 107th "Red Devils" Fighter Squadron, and carries the squadron's pitchfork on the side of the starboard TF-34 engine. The jet is equipped with a Maverick air-to-ground missile on its left wing, and a Litening electro-optical targeting pod on its right wing.

A number of U.S. military personnel in camouflage are visible standing near the jet as it takes off. These are probably U.S. Air Force combat controllers. Combat controllers, who are considered special operations forces, "deploy undetected into hostile combat and austere environments to establish assault zones or airfields, while simultaneously conducting air traffic control, fire support, command and control, direct action, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, humanitarian assistance, and special reconnaissance."

Near the combat control team is a Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle. The Air Force's MRZR features a folding roll cage that allows a CMV-22 Osprey tiltrotor transport to carry it.

A-10s aren't the only aircraft taking part in the exercise. C-146 Wolfhound twin-engine transports from the Minnesota Air National Guard also practiced takeoffs along the highway, which was closed down for five hours, according to Michigan State Police.

The Air Force is practicing its ability to operate fighters from improvised air fields, from local civilian airports to strips of highway, in order to disperse air power and hide it from enemy forces. The practice was common during the Cold War in Europe, and the service revived it in the late 2010s, when combat controllers directed A-10s taking off and landing from highways in Estonia.

The combination of A-10s, C-146s, combat controllers, and MRZRs suggests that the Air Force designed this exercise to test the service's ability to quickly set up a clandestine airfield, while remaining undetected by enemy forces. An A-10 might take off from a larger base, attack an enemy target, rearm at the secret airfield with munitions flown in by Wolfhound transports, and fly another attack mission.

U.S. Air Force Col. James Rossi told ABC12 that the exercises are, "believed to be the first time in history that modern Air Force aircraft have intentionally landed on a civilian roadway on U.S. soil."

Other countries also practice using highways as ad hoc airstrips. In 2016, Republic of Singapore Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighter jets took off from a highway near an air base. Taiwan's air force also practices using highways.

Interestingly, a press release for Northern Strike 2021 states that organizers are expecting "units from the United Kingdom, Latvia, Liberia, and Taiwan."

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