Frag Out! Magazine

The Polish Way" The DOL story in Poland began in 1968 when it was de- cided to tailor a section of the unfinished Berlin–Kaliningrad highway to handle aircraft take-offs and landings - near Szczecin. Over the upcoming years, 20 sections of public roads were adapted to handle aircraft operations. Due to the tasks and objectives envisaged by the Warsaw Pact, those highway strips were located primarily in Northwestern Poland. The Highway Strips were located in afforested areas, on secondary roads, and close to airbases if possible. However, this was not a strict rule. DOL strips in central Poland can be found in the middle of nowhere. A typical DOL highway strip had a runway consisting of a so- lid concrete or breakstone, and a thick layer of concrete tar- mac - locally reinforcing the road. It was 2,200 meters long and 12 meters wide, with an extra 3 meters of width on both sides of the road. That made it possible, in practical terms, for relatively heavy Su-22s or An-26s, to land there. Contrary to the Swedish highway strips - often described as the per- fect model to follow - the Polish DOL strips featured no in- frastructure, apart from aprons at the ends of the runway, allowing the ground crews to handle and maintain the air- craft. All assets and means needed to maintain and handle the aircraft, such as fuel, or armament, were transported to- gether with the personnel that was tasked with overseeing the operations. The Polish People's Republic was very good at protecting state secrets tied to defense. All DOL-related matters were kept secret, and no information on the highway strips was made available in the press or on the maps. However, dri- ving a car, one could easily realize what was the purpose of a perfectly straight, long section of road, with its surface in an immaculate condition. Local public road administration was assigned the task of properly maintaining the DOLs and their surroundings. The military was only responsible for the road when it was used in a highway strip role. Only a couple of road sections were used during the annual exercises. Most of them were never used and required some preparation before any operations. The „Parking-80" catalog published in 1980, with a list and description of all highway strips, usually lists a necessity to remove obstacles: cutting down bushes and trees, removing road signs, and designa- ting alternative routes. For some strips, the preparatory REPORT

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