‘Quiet shift in airpower doctrine’: The runway may be gone, the Air Force plans to keep flying

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aircraft touched down on a stretch of highway in Assam, the spectacle was a high-profile display on the surface. Beneath it, analysts say, was a signal about how India expects future wars to begin – and how it intends to continue fighting after the first blows land.

Brahma Chellaney, a geostrategist and professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, described the landing as evidence of a bigger doctrinal change.

“Modi’s high-profile landing on a national highway in Moran, Assam – one of 28 Emergency Landing Facilities (ELFs) being built across India – highlights a quiet but consequential shift in India’s airpower doctrine: the creation of real operational redundancy. The aim is to ensure the Indian Air Force can continue to fight even if an adversary succeeds in striking its major airbases,” he wrote on X.

That logic, he said, reflects a basic principle of air warfare: “wars in the air begin by neutralising the enemy’s air defenses and airfields.” The network of highway airstrips, he added, is intended to prevent such vulnerability. “The emerging network of ‘road-runways’ is designed to ensure India is never exposed.”

Built near borders, coastlines, and sensitive zones, the reinforced concrete strips can handle a 74-ton transport aircraft and the heat from fighter-jet afterburners. With basic air traffic control equipment and parking aprons, they function as austere but operational airstrips.

“Their operational value is considerable. In wartime, they provide the IAF with the flexibility to disperse assets and continue operations even if primary bases are damaged. The Moran strip, for instance, can serve as a direct backup to Chabua Air Force Station and Dibrugarh Airport. In a conflict scenario, highway strips are far harder to disable permanently and far quicker to repair,” Chellaney said. 

They also change deployment speed and enable rapid mobilisation. “A C-130J can land, offload an infantry platoon or light armored vehicles, and be airborne again within minutes, turning a stretch of highway into a forward staging ground at short notice. When activated, these ELFs can also host mobile radar and communications systems, functioning as temporary command-and-control nodes that support surveillance and electronic warfare,” the professor added. 

In regions prone to floods and isolation, the infrastructure has civilian uses as well. And their utility extends beyond conflict, Chellaney said. “In disaster-prone regions such as Assam, an ELF offers a crucial backup when conventional airports are flooded or cut off, enabling the rapid delivery of relief supplies and rescue teams.”

The geostrategist said that taken together, these emergency landing facilities are part of a broader effort to build resilience into India’s warfighting posture, so as to ensure that the country’s airpower remains survivable, flexible, and usable even under sustained attack.

The Moran landing

Prime Minister Modi on Saturday took off from the Chabua airfield and landed at the Emergency Landing Facility in Moran on National Highway-37 in Assam’s Dibrugarh district, inaugurating the Northeast’s first such facility. “It is a matter of immense pride that the Northeast gets an Emergency Landing Facility,” the prime minister said. “From a strategic point of view and during times of natural disasters, this facility is of great importance.”

The Rs 100-crore, 4.2-km reinforced stretch will function as a multi-purpose runway for fighter jets and transport aircraft, supporting defence operations, logistics, and disaster response.