You know how some countries has roads and highways that are use by military aviation for emergency landing or exercises, if some of the highways and roads have enough distance to takeoff and land even with many cars, why not make more roads available to be use by military aviation? And why is it more common in Europe than anywhere else?
Different strategies, geography and history probably place a large part in this.
We have quite a lot of them here in Sweden.
I inserted your question about it being more common here into ChatGPT:
- Europe has shorter distances and many small countries, so military aircraft need multiple dispersed bases to survive an initial strike.
- During the Cold War, NATO and Warsaw Pact forces prepared for possible sudden attacks — dispersed operations from roads were seen as crucial to keep aircraft flying after airfields were bombed.
- In Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland, neutrality and “total defense” doctrines meant preparing to operate from anywhere, including highways.
- The terrain and infrastructure density in Europe makes it easier to find suitable flat roads, unlike mountainous or forested regions elsewhere.
So Road runways are brilliant because you can remain unpredictable with your fleet of aircraft and they are in use atm over in Ukraine (not trying to be political here) because they are receiving new grippens and F-16s you don’t want them to be seen and so road-based runways offer protection somewhat and is logistically easier I guess in transporting supplies