Watch fighter jets use freeway as airstrip

Fighter jets and other combat aircraft used Taiwan's main highway as a makeshift airstrip Tuesday as part of a dawn drill that simulated an attack from China.

Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) said the aircraft practiced emergency take-offs and landings near the city of Chiayi, on a section of the main north-south route that runs along the island's west coast. Ground crews practiced refueling and re-loading ammunition, CNA said.

The drill is part of Taiwan's annual "Han Kuang" exercises that last five days and test the military's combat readiness in the event of an attack from China, said J. Michael Cole, a correspondent for IHS Jane's Defense Weekly and a fellow of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham in the UK.

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