Posted on 07/10/2020 10:09:35 AM PDT by mowowie
A hurricane that struck Florida in late 2018 damaged and displaced so many of the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor stealth fighters that the flying branch resorted to desperate measures to ensure it could fly enough F-22 sorties.
It underscores how few Raptors the Air Force possesses, and how fragile the fleet could be if it ever sustains major losses in wartime.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I'm gonna start randomly posting military hardware, astronomy, technology etc.. articles here to at least try to give us something interesting to read once in a while...
Thanks, Obama!
They didn’t secure the planes or get them out of town?
I don’t believe it.
The best is the enemy of the good.
But we have plenty of F 35s. Just don’t fly them in the rain.
Many of the planes were trapped on the ground or in hangars [that were destroyed] because they couldn’t fly for one reason or another................
We should have lots of (comparatively) inexpensive warplanes instead of a few gazillion dollar video game based gadgets. A swarm of FA-18s, Warthogs, etc would be far better.
Some of the aircraft were non-flyable due to maintenance issues, and the hurricane proved to be worse and more damaging than forecast.
A sick-ass plane, where are the other 600?
imagine what the Block D, E, F would be like right now.
So stupid..
At least the illegals are eating good....
The article makes “hot seat swap” missions sound new. Did they get their info off of someone’s OPR?
The USAF has done this as long as I’ve been associated (1981).
And Japan, Australia, and Poland should each have a hundred or so of their own by now.
I’m gonna start randomly posting military hardware, astronomy, technology etc.. articles here to at least try to give us something interesting to read once in a while...
—
Cool!
For the USAF, cost considerations rule out massive swarms of aircraft these days. In addition, our adversaries are more certain to be deterred by a USAF that has combat aircraft with unique, near unbeatable capabilities than by one that instead attempts to rely on overwhelming numbers.
Thank Obama for destroying any hope we could manufacture more.
I wonder how CHINAA would be be behaving right now if they knew we had a top-line fleet of 750 Raptors just waiting to be put to use...
Guess we’ll never know....
Might be a good idea to buy a crap load of modern F-15SE+ on the cheap till something new and WORKS comes out 20 years from now.
In the mean time maybe in 15 years the F-16 replacement the F-35 will be fully operational to original specs.
Several at Tyndall AFB in Florida were in the hanger for maintenance and were destroyed or damaged during the hurricane. Direct hit there tore the hangers to pieces. I live near there and saw it with my own eyes
But we have plenty of F 35s. Just don’t fly them in the rain.
I did not see the article inquiring why 31% of a squadron’s planes are unflyable? Not unable to go into combat, UNFLYABLE.
In years past, a squadron commander who couldn’t save 30% of his squadron’s planes from being destroyed with at least 24 hours notice would have been removed from his command.
In this case it is likely that there was no maintenance money allocated. Thank you, Pentagon and Congress.
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