Jet aircraft normally depend on large, identifiable bases and become especially vulnerable while on the ground, much as ships are vulnerable in port. V/STOL promised operations from many small or improvised sites, allowing damaged locations to be repaired while aircraft shifted elsewhere. Road-repair equipment and portable support could sustain more candidate locations than a conventional fixed-base structure. The resulting network would force an attacker to distinguish active positions from alternatives and decoys instead of striking a short list of known runways.
Chapter · 23:09-26:13
NATO pursued V/STOL to escape vulnerable fixed air bases
NATO's V/STOL requirements sought to disperse jet aircraft away from predictable Cold War runways and complicate enemy targeting.