IAF fighter planes make a touchdown on Lucknow-Agra Expressway
Sukhois, Jaguars and Mirages of the IAF did a touchdown and take-off drill on a 4-km stretch of the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. While more than a dozen of the 16 planes that landed were fighter planes, the remaining were carriers. In November last year, a similar drill had been conducted with 8 fighter planes a few days before the inauguration of the 302-km Expressway by the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. A special US plane C-130 was also involved in Tuesday’s drill, officials said. The two-hour drill, officials said, was to train the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters and personnel to deal with emergency situations, like an aerial attack or destruction of a base, which would require immediate touchdown and take-off from other places to retaliate, an informed source clarified. The Agra-Lucknow Expressway has been thrown out of bounds for vehicular traffic for the past few days in view of the drill. -PTC News
