Posted on 10/16/2018 2:01:55 PM PDT by Beave Meister
The U.S. Air Force is assessing what damage more than a dozen F-22 Raptor fighters suffered when Tyndall Air Force Base sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. Up to $2 billion in fighter jets were trapped on the ground because of maintenance issues and forced to ride out the Category 4 hurricane. Photographs show the hangars where F-22s were parked suffered severe damage.
First, the good news: Although Tyndall Air Force Base took a hard hit from the hurricane, all 3,600 military personnel and their families living on the base were successfully evacuated beforehand. The 93 Air Force personnel who stayed behind to keep an eye on the base are all safe and accounted for.
On the other hand: Up to 17 of Tyndall’s F-22s might have sustained damage or been destroyed during the storm. The aircraft, each of which cost $150 million, were unable to escape with the rest of the base’s F-22 fleet to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The jets left behind were parked inside hangars and officials hoped for the best.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Maybe what the Air Force needs is an aircraft repair and Supply Center someplace reasonably safe, like Wright-Patterson.
Anybody remember Homestead AFB?
The stupidity of our government is astonishing. The jets were not flooded. They simply were damaged by hangers that could not stand the wind. A Marine unit with 4 days notice could have pulled wings and got those 150 million dollar aircraft outta there. Guaranteed.
The USAF does not have a mentality of “everyone a rifleman” and “turn to” in crisis mode. They have the book, and they stay by the book. And who’s bright idea was it to base a rare, important and expensive plane in hurricane alley with just a standard strength hanger? Having it in Florida i understand, unprotected I don’t.
In the cost of this program, two or three heavy duty concrete hangers of extreme strength would be -pocket change-. The morons running the USAF just build standard hangers and hoped for the best.
We lost 10% of the F-22 fleet essentially.
Why have an AFB that close to the ocean? In the past they closed some AFB why didn’t they close the ones next to the ocean, particularly in the Gulf?
I would never buy a house close to a beach, particularly in the Gulf, for that reason.
I consider this a Black Swan event. A borderline CAT5, with about 2-3 days notice, and a direct hit? Of course, all the arm-chair logisticians on this thread would have had it fixed in a jiffy.
“You can’t plan for every aspect of every disaster”
You can plan for high winds during hurricanes on every inch of the Florida coast. They should have been in a hanger with 3 foot concrete walls and a steel and roof that was 5x overbuilt. Concrete and Massive I-beams are el cheapo.
Pretend it’s a place where the gliteratzi in DC are going to run hid in during a nuclear war.
True. The planes were unable to fly - waiting missing parts or parted out. They were in non-flyable condition. There is no practical way to move them otherwise. The fault was not having hardened concrete shelters. They were in ordinary tin covered hangers like you see anywhere else.
No heads are going to roll.
For more complete details on what happened and why they were immobilized see
The Drive-the -war-zone
And you do all that in 3 days, not knowing 1) how strong the storm was going to be, and 2) where exactly it was going to hit
If the hurricane had fizzled, and the Air Force had moved heaven and earth to find flatbeds, disassemble the planes, get them on the flatbeds, and then ship them out (all in about 2 days), then you’d hear about what a waste of time and money all that was.
Here’s the bottom line. Sh*t happens.
You do not understand. The planes are 40 foot wide and weigh more than flatbeds can handle - removing the wings is not feasible. Even it they were on flatbeds they would have tied up several lanes of traffic during a major evacuation.
They are not toys. See: the Drive-the war-zone for more details
Did you see the damage this storm wrought? Out in the open one of these planes would have been torn apart.
The stupid on this thread burns.
Well, there goes 10% of the Raptors built.
Thanks, Robert Gates.
And I consider a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast to be an entirely foreseeable event. Just like I'd foresee snow at Minot, or the possibility of a major tornado at Tinker.
The thinking of the Air Force here mimics the lack of mental capacity of the senior Naval leaders who think it's a great idea to base all of the Atlantic fleet carriers in one location.
43,000 pounds empty. You might want to talk to a trucker about that. Flatbeds are rated 48,000 of freight weight with ease.
You are correct. You dewing and load 6 or so on a C5M Galaxy.... You truck them sans wings and tails. These are the USAs air superiority fighters, they are national defense priorities. This is not “normal”.
I am certain that there are contingency plans addressing this, my bet is that someone rather high in the food chain (3 or 4 star) used “hope” as a method. That does not work in the military. You plan, exercise every branch and sequel to every risk or capability of the threat and plan some more, then execute vigorously.
So, what we lose 1/5th of our latest fighters- but the Airmen are all safe....and looks like they didn’t have to break a sweat too.
True. It can handle 150 mile and hour easily. But not laterally or from behind. And hurricane winds change from one direction to the other as the eye passes.
You really think the Air Force determines where fleets are located? I think some politicians would disagree.
They cannot be towed at any meaningful speed even if they had tires or wheels that would permit it - moving them would have done more damage or at least as much - vthey are not toys they are not F-15s or the like.
They needed to be in hardened concrete shelters, as did some of the other not easily replaceable planes.
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