There’s A First Time For Everything- Even for the Warthog
Four A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and a pair of C-146 Wolfhound airlifters operated from a closed stretch of Michigan Highway M-32 near Alpena on 5 August 2021. The aircraft were involved in Northern Strike 21, which the Air Force bills as a large-scale training exercise. Two of the Warthogs were assigned to the 354th Fighter Squadron (FS) Bulldogs out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB) in Arizona. The other two jets were assigned to the 107th FS Red Devils, Michigan Air National Guard (ANG) out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base (ANGB).
To the Video
Here’s a video of the Warthogs and Wolfhounds operating from M-32 uploaded to YouTube by MOTORIZADO. WARNING: The audio was recorded in extremely close proximity to these aircraft.
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Wolfhounds
The C-146A Wolfhound airlifters were assigned to the 524th Special Operations Squadron (SOS) of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) at Duke Field (part of the Eglin AFB complex) in Florida. The C-146A is used to conduct infiltration, exfiltration, cargo resupply, airlift and other military missions in prepared and semi-prepared airfields across the globe. C-146As are essentially Dornier 328s with mission-specific modifications
A First for Both Aircraft Types
This is the first time in history that the Air Force has purposely landed modern aircraft on a civilian roadway in the United States. But A-10s, including Michigan ANG Red Devil jets, have operated from highways and abandoned/austere strips in Europe at times for many years. According to the Air Force, “This proof of concept proves that we can land on any highway and continue to operate,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. John Renner, 354th FS flight commander and one of the pilots who participated in the highway landing. “The A-10 allows us to land a lot more places to get fuel, weapons and other armament so we can operate anywhere, anytime. This will allow us to get away from using built-up bases that our adversaries can target by moving much more rapidly.”
The Air Force Had Some More Things to Say…
“This is a small step toward increasing our confidence in operating from austere locations,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Gary Glojek, 354th FS commander. “We are increasing the number of areas we can operate from to generate and deliver attack airpower by operating from dirt and pavement runways. Accelerating change is all about seizing every opportunity to move forward to increase your readiness.”
“We are ready to get within striking range, and we are ready to go generate and deliver attack airpower from thousands of locations across the world,” Glojek said. “We are going to continue to get lighter, faster, more maneuverable and more flexible as we do that.”
Safety First
The closure of the highway lasted for roughly five hours. Officials from local fire departments and law enforcement were involved in the exercise. Some power lines were reconfigured to allow the aircraft to safely operate from the two-lane road. While the aircraft were flying from the roadway power was disconnected to homes in the immediate area as a safety precaution, but there were no incidents and power was reconnected soon after the exercise concluded.
