Several pilots in the Republic of Singapore Air Force exceeded the posted speed limit last November on a roadway outside Tengah Air Base, Singapore’s main fighter base. They weren’t driving sports cars or riding superbikes, though. They were flying Block 52 F-16s. Local police officials simply stood by and watched as the pilots roared by. These rare roadway activities are part of a runway exercise conducted every five years by the RSAF so pilots can practice emergency takeoffs, touch-and-gos, and landings.

The event provides useful insights to the specific operational requirements of Singapore’s airpower. For starters, the island republic is very small. Located about one degree north of the Equator and at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, Singapore has a landmass that measures forty kilometers long and twenty kilometers wide. The island is about three and one-half times the size of Washington DC. Still, it accommodates five airfields with close to 200 combat aircraft, three naval bases with submarines and missile strike craft, and a highly mechanized army of more than 300,000 regulars and national servicemen who can be recalled in less than six hours. Combined, these forces make Singapore one of the most densely defended countries on Earth.

The scarcity of land underscores the importance of public roads that can be turned into emergency runways—a logical option to enhance the sustainability of RSAF flight operations and its operational tempo. Converting highways to runways allows more aircraft to be launched and recovered quickly.

The RSAF lays out three objectives for the exercise: to hone its readiness and ability for wartime contingencies when its base runways are temporarily incapacitated; to exercise support procedures with civil agencies, such as the Land Transport Authority and Traffic Police; and to foster greater understanding of the RSAF with residents living around Tengah AB. In November’s drill, twelve RSAF fighters and one E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning aircraft performed a total of twenty takeoffs, touch-and-go maneuvers, and landings on Lim Chu Kang Road within eighteen minutes. All RSAF fighter types took part in the exercise. Including the E-2C in the exercise was challenging, though, as its wingspan is about a foot wider than the six-lane motorway.

Lim Chu Kang Road, built in the early 1980s, is 7,800 feet long and nearly eighty feet wide. It runs nearly parallel with Tengah AB’s main north-south runway, which is 9,000 feet long and 150 feet wide. The road’s layout and infrastructure are tailored to allow the RSAF to convert it into an austere airstrip within twenty-four hours. The RSAF conducted its first emergency runway exercise from Lim Chu Kang Road in 1986. RSAF fighters also hit the road in 1990, 1992, and 1997.

About 200 personnel from Tengah AB take two days to convert the road into an airstrip, though the actual time needed is much less. They prune scores of trees lining the road; remove 1,200 meters of drain railings; and unbolt more than 150 streetlights, forty road signs, seven traffic lights, and two bus stops. As the infrastructure is being dismantled, RSAF pilots use Tengah AB’s narrow taxiways to simulate takeoff and recovery operations on the road. The air force also rolls in a mobile air traffic control post, mobile arresting gear trailers, and approach lights.

The road is marked with large numbers at 1,000-foot intervals, beginning with seven at the takeoff point at the southern end of the road and ending with one close to the northernmost tip of the road. Any pilot not lifting off after passing the one marker knows he is in trouble, as the six-lane highway suddenly narrows to a two-lane affair with trees growing on the center divider.

If the end-of-runway obstacles do not present enough of a challenge, the deep drain and tall elephant grass flanking the east side of the road do. A cemetery and chicken farm border the west side. Such conditions call for nimble fighters with good lateral control, with short take off and landing runs, and arrestor hooks for catching the cable on the mobile arresting gear during emergency landings. RSAF F-16C/Ds and single-seat F-5S Tigers have such features. The A-4SU Super Skyhawks and E-2C, designed to launch and recover from carrier decks, are also well-suited for the makeshift airstrip.

Air operations in Singapore are conducted in weather that many foreign pilots consider uncomfortably humid. Surface temperatures range from mid- to high-twenty degree Celsius and humidity can range from sixty to 100 percent. Ground winds are usually light but weather conditions are unpredictable. During the twice-yearly Monsoons, Singapore is besieged by a low cloud base with strong wind gusts, heavy rainfall, and thunderstorms. Visibility in some of these conditions can be poor.

While RSAF F-16s don’t have drag chutes, landing the compact fighters is a pretty smooth affair. Pilots keep the F-16 nose high and the airbrakes open during the landing roll to bleed off ground speed.

The eighteen-minute emergency runway exercise capped some six months of RSAF planning, surveys, and community relations work to minimize inconvenience to the public. The RSAF’s ability to turn public roads into aircraft runways makes the air force one of the few in the world that regularly trains its pilots to use improvised airstrips.

David Boey is an aviation photographer based in Singapore.