The annual “Baana” drill—baana is regional Finnish slang for “road”—is part of the Agile Combat Employment concept that scatters jets and crews across improvised strips to complicate enemy targeting.
“This is a great opportunity to gain experience of dispersed operations,” said Brigadier General Marcel van Egmond of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, noting that the Dutch last tried motorway landings 41 years ago with F-16s.
“Large, well-equipped bases are easy to hit—so we must be able to fight from smaller, mobile locations.”
After lifting off from Pirkkala air base, each F-35 swooped onto the highway near the Finnish Air Force Academy at Tikkakoski, kissed the asphalt at roughly 300 km/h and climbed away in a plume of dust without stopping. Finnish Hornets followed, repeating the maneuver.
Lieutenant Colonel Sami Nenonen, the exercise director, said Finland—NATO’s newest member—conducts such drills regularly because “our goal is not only to survive, but to fight.” He pointed to Ukraine’s use of dispersed airfields as proof the tactic works.
The highway drill runs until Friday and follows last year’s Baana, which involved German Eurofighters and U.S. F-35s.
Poland, another NATO state on Russia’s flank, has also ordered 32 F-35As, due to arrive from 2026.
(jh)
Source: Polskie Radio 24