[…] During the 1990s Sweden sporadically employed road-based operations but in the 2010s they came back into vogue, and today once again serve as a routine element of air force training. The operations have evolved to take advantage of advances in communications technology, and today permit a very fluid form of warfare that is difficult to detect and disrupt.
That fluidity is the key to survivability. “If you operate from anywhere for long enough, a bomb will eventually find you,” said Adam Nelson, chief of the Swedish air force’s F7 wing at Såtenäs. “You have to keep on the move.”
Each “base” consists of numerous highway strips of a nominal 800-meter length and 17-meter width (around 2,624 feet by 56 feet). The strips serve as everyday roads but with some treatment to the surface applied to prevent them breaking up and causing foreign object damage. Discreet hard standings have emerged alongside the roads in the general vicinity, not only to provide parking stands for aircraft but to accommodate trucks and fuel bowsers when not required for combat.
Everything is kept small to minimize detectability and enhance survivability. A single strip might only be activated for a short time, the support personnel retreating to the safety of the woods some way away when they are not needed. Local police shut down the highway for only as long as required. Typically a Swedish Gripen will stay on the ground for around 15 minutes between sorties—time for it to be serviced, refueled, and rearmed by a team of just three trained conscripts and one full-timer. Läs artikel