Here’s how the Swedish Gripens could deploy to launch war missions from dispersed airfields

Cold War operations!

Towards the end of March 2016, the Swedish Air Force Gripens from F21 wing have tested a new way for sustaining war-time JAS-39 deployments at dispersed airfields with a ground crew of 6 utilizing 2 cars with trailers.

The new deployment method was tested at Vidsel test range, located some 900 km north of Stockholm.

Here are some interesting shots released by the SwAF on their website.

Road take-offs and deployments to dispersed airfields were part of the standard training conducted mainly in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe during the Cold War. With the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, highway take-offs and landings have become less frequent.

However, the threat of Russian bombers violating the airspace of Baltic countries requiring dispersion and QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) intervention, from any place is still alive.

Image credit: Swedish Armed Forces

About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.