I am sure they moved the Dooms Day plane.
can see it or it’s mirror... up the full pan photo in the article— which may, or may not be it. There is a nearly full runway with turnaround available other side of the flooding, so access.
Shouldn’t and doesnt stay there anyway. Loose lips.
If you look at the first photo, an E-4 is top center. Two KC-135s are to the left.
You can bet that the others are still operational.
SAC hq and ancillary facilities are up on a hill, discrete and secure.
They did. The alert bird moved immediately (probably to Wright-Pat or Andrews) and one of the back-up jets deployed last weekend as well. A third E-4B has departed as well.
If you look at the first photo in this threat, you can see the last remaining National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) bird sitting on a ramp off the “dry” end of the runway. I believe there are a total of four E-4Bs (doomsday birds); three are now off-station and the one on the ramp is not threatened by the flood.
Thankfully, none of the E-4s or the RC-135 intel collection jets at Offut were in the maintenance complex when it was flooded. As of last weekend, nine of the 55th Wing’s aircraft had evacuated (that’s the unit that operates both the RC-135 and E-4 fleet), and remaining jets had been moved to dry parking aprons at Offut.
But here’s the problem: the simulator buildings are underwater and the cockpit/mission crew sims may be a total loss. Not aware of any simulators at overseas bases where the RC-135 Rivet Joint/Combat Sent/Cobra Ball/Open Skies jets frequently deploy. Initial and upgrade training for front end and mission crew personnel will be impacted for several months—not sure how the USAF can work around that.
One more note: after a less severe flood damaged portions of Offut in 2011, FEMA ordered the levees protecting the base be raised by another two feet. It was supposedly a priority project, but (predictably) became bogged down in red tape. The “permitting” process (including environmental impact assessments) took more than six years and cost $6 million (total price tag for the project was only $25 million).
Final construction permits were issued—you guessed it—just weeks before the flood. That $6 million bureaucratic delay will now cost the taxpayers at least $1 billion, to clean up Offut and get it back to full operating capacity, and of course, raise those levees.
Easier to repair than major earthquake damage.