[sailor76]

Maybe, but I think there is a good reason the planes didn't evac.

Probably because they weren't airworthy.

[afsnco]

Bingo. Planes break. Parts fail. What we used to do with B-52s was use one or two as “cann queens,” meaning cannibalization queens. We’d rob those birds to get other birds flying, and hope to eventually get the cann queen flying again. That number seems like a lot, though. If they’d done some more cannibalization, they could’ve gotten most of that 17 out of harm’s way.

[rdcbn]

Thanks to Obama funding priorities and the abrubt termination of the entire F-22 when Democrats took full control of our government , the F-22 program has not been properly funded or supported.

These planes were either grounded due lack of spares or were hanger queens that were being cannibalized for parts to keep other F-22s flying.

Looks like there may be lots of spare parts aircraft available to keep a significantly downsized Raptor fleet flying

The mind boggles :-(

[DownInFlames]

Take wings off and put em on a truck!

[Osage Orange]

Bingo!~

[PLMerite]

“Probably because they weren’t airworthy.”

17 out of 195 built. And that’s just at one AFB, unless that’s where they send them.