In first, F-35s land on Finnish highway to drill for future wars

The Air Force landed two F-35A fighters on a highway in Finland on Wednesday to practice how aircraft might operate in a high-intensity future war.

The F-35s, which were from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath in England, carried out the landings on the Hosio Highway Strip in Ranua, Finland, under the so-called agile combat employment, or ACE, concept. It was the first time the Air Force had landed its F-35s on a highway, the service said.

The Air Force worries that if war breaks out with an adversary boasting stand-off weaponry, like China, their military could target large American bases in places like Japan and Guam with missile barrages or other attacks. If the Air Force only operated from those bases, a series of those Chinese attacks could potentially devastate its ability to launch aircraft.

The service developed the ACE concept to counter that possibility. The Air Force plans to spread out operations across a given region in “hub and spoke” patterns, using a series of smaller, more austere bases. By dispersing these operations, the Air Force says, enemy forces would have to carry out many more attacks than if they were centralized.

Under ACE, the Air Force could create rough air fields for their distributed bases, or use existing local highways as runways.

The Air Force said the highway landings, which took place during the BAANA 2024 exercise in Finland, showed how NATO allies had improved their ability to work together, and operate under ACE tenets.

“The successful first-ever landing of our fifth-generation F-35 on a highway in Europe is a testament to the growing relationship and close interoperability we have with our Finnish allies,” Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, said. “The opportunity to learn from our Finnish counterparts improves our ability to rapidly deploy and employ airpower from unconventional locations and reflects the collective readiness and the agility of our forces.”

Finland and other Nordic nations have military-civilian integration, like warplanes using highways, baked into their national defense calculus.

Allied aircraft that also practiced highway landings included a German Eurofighter Typhoon and a Finnish Hawk jet trainer.

Finland formally joined NATO in 2023, spurred largely by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Air Force said Finland’s membership has increased U.S. airmen’s ability to train with Finnish airmen and learn from them, at events such as the 1v1 air superiority exercise held in June at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.