The plane I saw flipped looked like a display plane.
I saw a news report that said there were maintenance and spare parts issues so they could not be flown out. If true it’s pathetic.
The bigger question is, why were there only 33 out of 55 aircraft flyable leading up to the storm? That’s a pretty lousy readiness rate, especially for a top of the line fighter fresh off the assembly line.
Follow the money. New contracts for unions coming up.
Because new F-22’s are a lot cheaper than reinforced concrete bunkers. /sarcasm
I was told the current aircraft were flown to Texas and Ohio before the storm. I can not believe the AF would leave their favorite toys for the storm.
Take as many grains of salt as you need but here is one answer/excuse.
The F-22s left behind could not fly for either mechanical or safety reasons,
said a spokeswoman, who also said all the hangars on base were damaged.
combination of deadline aircraft, shortage of pilots, and loss of ferry time (ie...fly an f22 to LRAFB. 8 hours mandatory sleep, take a slow c130 back ...8 hours sleep, ferry another).
Should have been an EO putting all that safety shit on a wartime/national security footing to unass the AO with assets like that, IMHO, however, I’m thinking they had good reason. Mayhaps not. Hell if I know.
They could have been trucked out! If they had been 100 miles west they would have survived intact. Someone should be fired.
Probably being maintained at the time without enough warning to get them air worthy.
Normally you hurivac all flyable aircraft to a safe haven. Hangar queens you ry to move to the “safest” area and hope for the best.
I do not know the condition of the planes in the maintenance hangers, but an aircraft getting periodic maintenance is literally a totally disabled aircraft.
In civil aviation it is called a 100 hour inspection. Were you to look at one, you would wonder if it will ever fly again.
I suspect that military aircraft are maintained under a “progressive” method, similar to the airlines, but still the airplane is unflyable until put back together.
I doubt they had the manpower or the parts to restore 20 or 30 aircraft to flyable condition in a 3 day or so notice.
Don’t forget that this started out as an ordinary Florida type storm and only turned into the monster in the last few days.
We all learned a lesson from this storm. Here in Piedmont North Carolina, we expected a tropical low pressure system that had wound down to a heavy rain area with some flooding.
Instead we had a train wreck.
Some of the threads on this post are ridiculous.
No commander, no pilot, is going to order, or fly, a jet that is not safe.
Naturally, the F-35’s are taken to safety first, and maybe there weren’t any trained pilots to take the others away.
In the Navy, during emergencies, or wartime, planes damaged to non-flyable condition are routinely jettisoned over the side, into the deep blue.
There are always some planes down for maintenance, awaiting parts, or grounded otherwise. With a major hurricane bearing down, you don’t have the time to repair them. So they got the ones that were in flyable condition off the base by the time “Michael” hit the base.
Planes, in emergencies, are expendable...no matter what the cost.
The F-22’s are long-since paid for; There’s a good chance that some of them can still be put back into service, but once the storm is 30 miles off shore, and there are no parts, it’s just a little late for that.
Past jets, such as the Century F-series jets, were just as expensive in their day, but the ones that are not on static display, in museums, or at the “Boneyard”, were converted to remote control drones and used as targets.
Trump promised a lot of things, and he’s kept most of his promises, but he did not “promise” (or cause) the hurricane.
It’s not about unions, it’s not about any of that...it’s about an uncontrollable storm and the things that were caught in it’s path.
How about the rest of the area, how about Mexico Beach? Did Trump do that, too, for the “builders” unions?
Grow up people, shit happens.
Based upon other stories, most of the planes that were NOT removed from the base were undergoing repairs.
As I understand it, this is part of Obunga’s legacy. He left the military run down and wear out, and did nothing to maintain what we had, let alone order anything new.
When I was in the AF we evacuated the aircraft unless they couldn’t fly. Seems they need some new commanders.
The question isn't naïve but the idea that someone here might be close enough to whoever made those decisions to know the answer to it is.
Less than 2 years with Trump in office so much of what he is doing hasn't been fully realized at the operational/supply-line levels.