Highway strip A highway strip or road runway is a section of a highway or motorway that is specially built to allow landing of ( mostly ) military aircraft and to serve as a military airbase . These were built to allow military aircraft to operate even if their airbases , the most vulnerable targets in any war , are destroyed . The first highway strips were constructed near the end of World War II in Nazi Germany , where the well developed Reichsautobahn system allowed aircraft to use the motorways . In the Cold War highway strips were systematically built on both sides of the Iron Curtain , mostly in the two Germanys , but also in North Korea , Republic of China ( Taiwan ) , Sweden , Switzerland , Poland and Czechoslovakia . Design . The strips are usually long straight sections of the highway , where any central reservation is made of crash barrier s that can be removed quickly ( in order to allow airplanes to use the whole width of the road ) , and other features of an airbase ( taxiway s , airport ramp s ) can be built . The road will need a thicker than normal surface and a solid concrete base . The specialized equipment of a typical airfield are stored somewhere nearby and only carried there when airfield operations start . The highway strips can be converted from motorways to airbases typically within 24 to 48 hours . The road would need to be swept to remove all debris before any aircraft movement could take place . In the case of Finnish road airbases , the space needed for landing aircraft is reduced by means of a wire , similar to the CATOBAR system used on some aircraft carriers . Examples . Nations known to utilize the strategy of highways constructed to double as auxiliary airbases in the event of war are Singapore , Sweden " ( vägbas " , literally meaning " road base " ) , Finland " ( maantietukikohta ) " , Germany " ( NLP - Str - Notlandeplätze auf Straßen " , emergency airfields on roads ) , Poland " ( DOL - Drogowy Odcinek Lotniskowy " , lit . " road airfield section " ) , Republic of China ( Taiwan ) " ( 戰備跑道 " , lit . " war spare runway " ) , former USSR ( Аэродромный Участок Дороги , " airfield part of road " ) . After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus at three highway strips were built in the Greek part of Cyprus , easily recognisable by a runway center line and markings for the touch down zone . They also all have aircraft turning areas at either end . One is located on the Limassol – Nicosia Highway ( ) and one of the Limassol – Larnaca highway ( ) . The third is a much smaller strip located on the Limassol - Paphos Highway near to Paphos International Airport . In Poland , as of 2003 , only one highway strip is used annually for an exercise . In Pakistan , The M - 1 Motorway ( Peshawar - Islamabad ) and the M - 2 Motorway ( Islamabad - Lahore ) each include two emergency runway sections of length each . The four emergency runway sections become operational by removing removable concrete medians using forklifts . The Pakistan Air Force ( PAF ) has used the M2 motorway as a runway on two occasions : for the first time in 2000 when it landed an F - 7P fighter , a Super Mushak trainer and a C - 130 and , again , in 2010 . On the last occasion , the PAF used a runway section on the M2 motorway on 2 April 2010 to land , refuel and take - off two jet fighters , a Mirage III and an F - 7P , during its Highmark 2010 exercise .