>More than a dozen F-22s were left behind as Hurricane Michael bore down on the base Oct. 10. Now, in Michael's wake, many of those are damaged, and some beyond repair, at a cost of more than $1 billion, Air Force officials said.
>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. Aerial video showed roofs and siding torn apart by savage winds and some hangars suffered severe structural damage.
Wow... the incompetence and corruption really has no bounds.
>and some beyond repair The real question is that has anything to do with hurricane, or it's just normal course of events for vanity plane which has been out of production for 5 years and probably experiences replacement part shortages at this point.
Connor Walker
kek'd
Jack Reyes
Well I read the article and answered my own question >Two had been cannibalized for parts, he said They are using good ol' "dismantle 2 planes and assemble 1 functioning one" technique already.
Luis Morales
This makes me sad, I've seen a few f22 raptor demos in person and it's very impressive.
Nicholas Martinez
how is that possible? I mean they knew how long they would be flying the F-22s, stands to reason you would keep the supply chain for spare parts up and running. Or at least order enough of them initially. This is iranian airforce tier if it's true.
Gabriel Reed
You can't keep planes which are out of production flying indefinitely. They were going to enter gradual retirement in 2025.
Dylan Adams
joking about US plywood construction is kind of a /diy/ meme but why the fuck would you not build hangars that can withstand a fucking hurricane in hurricane alley? Arabs do it for 50 year old soviet airframes, one would think the airforce could source a few sacks of concrete.
The magnitude of the incompetence displayed is staggering. They knew the storm was coming. Could've fucking loaded them up on trucks at least.
Camden Gonzalez
You'll feel better if you stop thinking the American military stands to reason anything. Why did they arm unreliable religious fanatics with billions in arms? Why did they build hundreds of F 22s, a plane that cannot be practically deployed overseas because it's not carrier borne? Why did they get repeatedly crash into civilian ships? Who knows
Brody Garcia
so it would stand to reason that you can keep the fleet operational until 2025 by storing enough spare parts, wouldn't it? Also i didn't knew they wer going to start gradual retirement in 2025 already.
Austin Jenkins
Its going to be retired in 2025? I can't find anything on this
Brody Bennett
Jesus. Meanwhile the A10 and F15 are staying around forever.
Carson Reed
That looks like it has nothing but dirt covering the sides.
Logan Torres
Dude it's a vanity plane with ton of obsolete systems including avionics. Sorta like those soviet Su-27 which need to be upgraded with modern stuff before they get any useful. They are simply not worth as much as general public thinks for actual combat purposes, so I guess the command decided to first evacuate actual combat-useful planes instead of half-deconstructed F-22 airframes.
You can't tell what parts will be needed in 10 years. So if you make a bit of everything but it will turn out that 80% of the planes developed stabilzer corrosion, you not only lost the planes but the money you spent on making extra engines, spare radars etc.
Ryder Davis
it's these concrete eggshell things, sometimes they cover the concrete shell with soil too. Granted, for hurricanes a set of doors would probably be advantageous but it can't be expensive
but production lines stay up until like half a decade after the plane leaving initial testing, that should be enough to roughly judge what wears the most. Tossing the extra shit at the end of the program is wasteful but something that's done everywhere in industry.
Production line for F-22 was stopped by 2012 with threat of veto from Obama if Senate didn't vote for it
Joseph Rogers
>The F-22s left behind could not fly for either mechanical or safety reasons Sounds like to me all the hurricane really did was reveal the pathetic state of F-22 logistics. They were already fucked, but the hurricane unveiled the truth.
Aaron Jackson
This. How many corners got cut with regards to spares and tooling once Obama cancelled the program in mid-production?
Juan Mitchell
>U.S.A.F. literally BTFO by gust of wind >i-its okay thats everything is built from plywood and squishy alumninium its cheap what did you expect? >i-its okay we where just canibalizing these for parts because all our funds go to Jewistan kek
A breakdown of why a base might have to leave behind 33-50% of planes.
Jack Morales
I bet there are storage units where people have their used diaper collection than can handle hurricanes better than USAF hangars for their top of the line air superiority fighter.
Isaac Wilson
a few more hurricanes and they will win by default
Owen Kelly
it's not like they could... fly away >they're f-22s oh.
Hunter Torres
I wonder how Americans plan to use F-35 for carrier operations when it will turn out that 70% are not combat-ready and they have to get back to US and get new ones.
Xavier Peterson
Your post makes little sense. And i doubt the F-35 will turn out to be more of a hanger queen than the vaunted F-14
Angel Kelly
L E T ' S G I V E ' E M A N A I R S H O W
Luis Jenkins
It makes sense. Arab and persian countries know they can face an air attack any time someone in the Knesset or the White House needs a diversion from domestic issues and/or to look strong, so they build the best hangars they can. USA and Israel know they could build hangars from matchsticks and it would know increase the threat to their planes.
Jonathan Russell
Good explanation. That just leads me to the question - why are they based in Tyndall? I get they might have certain requirements for regional air force facilities, but you would have thought even non-flight worthy F-22s were still secretive/costly enough to be sited in an area not prone to hurricanes. You would have even guessed they'd enjoy some proper protected shelters, too.
Jacob Lewis
Should have just bought Eurofighters in the early 00s.
Daniel Reyes
Only that fighters are supposed to get "combat-ready" (which is a way higher level) within 24h.
This wasn't some surprise hurricane but they had enough warning time to get them out of the zone of the hurricane.
Robert Morales
What, and miss out on the sweet production contracts in the states controlled by congressmen?
Jonathan Torres
>The Eurofighter has actually a more impressive combat record than the F-22
makes you think
Benjamin Torres
>a bunch of F-22s stripped for parts since King Nigger cancelled the program should be combat ready within 24 hours >a bunch of F-22s down for engine maintenance or airframe checks should be combat ready within 24 hours
Isaac Cooper
>LOL why didn't they hanger the planes. Any planes that could've flown would've evacuated to another base. Anything that stayed in the hanger wasn't air worthy.
>LOL F22 BROKE Having planes that aren't ready to fly doesn't necessarily mean they are broken. They could've been in for routine maintenance. Kind of hard to fly if all your fuel nozzles are pulled as part of a scheduled replacement or they have chunks of the plane removed for scheduled inspections or to install upgrades.
>LOL their hangars are made out of cardboard You don't understand the scale of a hangar or the magnitude of the 150MPH winds from the hurricane. Hangars are massive and their giant walls provide a lot of area for the wind to hit. The doors alone are 100' by 40' or bigger and they are inherently weak because they have to roll out of the way.
>Why didn't they just ship the planes by truck? Because an F22 weighs 43,000lbs and has a 44 foot wingspan. You can't just throw that on a truck and drive down the street with it without hitting lightpoles and shit and they didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare.
>Why did they build a base where it can get hit by hurricanes? It's tactically advantageous to have these planes protecting our Southeast border and they picked the gulf side of Florida since it gets hurricanes less frequently than the Atlantic side.
TLDR: before you post F22 a shit go read a fucking book
>You don't understand the scale of a hangar or the magnitude of the 150MPH winds from the hurricane. Hangars are massive and their giant walls provide a lot of area for the wind to hit. The doors alone are 100' by 40' or bigger and they are inherently weak because they have to roll out of the way. think this look like something that would get fucked by 150MPH winds? Not really, does it? How come fucking arabs are able to build something that would have saved those planes on a shoestring budget but the US isn't? Doors are inherently weak, muh windloads my ass. That's only a problem if you build the thing out of sheet metal and pop rivets. If you build a hangar for expensive equipment in hurricane alley you build it up to a higher standard than a drug dens in a south american favela.
former USN aircraft maintainer here, the AF is a joke and that Drive article earlier in the thread is so delusional that the author wants to choke on pentagon dick just to look good. the reality of it is if the military wanted those jets gone, they would have moved heaven and earth to get them out of the way, instead they fucked up down the line by underestimating the severity of this storm. the big takeaway from this is the F-22 fleet is comically inept at readiness and closer to hangar queens than the premier fighter aircraft we're lead to believe they are. if 22 airframes are down for whatever reason that's a fucking major maintenance issue no matter what the type or model. the air force fucked this one away, and in doing so exposed a lot of hard truths about the raptor. if so many of these planes were hard down and couldn't fly then these things require a FUCK TON of maintenance and probably wouldn't be viable options in a real shooting war. fucking farcical to be honest, what an utter waste of manpower and money to have these expensive platforms pissed away.
Hudson Edwards
155mph winds blowing through that tunnel would trash the fighter inside.
Henry Nguyen
Now build those bunkers large enough to do maintenance on a larger fighter.
James Hill
If you were actually a USN aircraft maintainer you would be talking about their Hornet fleet.
Cooper Garcia
you don't have to, you just use them as storm shelter for the stuff that can't fly when a hurricane hits
this one has doors
Isaac Miller
The weight of all that concrete and soil necessitates a small hanger that fits a single aircraft. Tyndall has dozens of aircraft and a limited amount of space so to make the best use of that space they build bigger steel hangars that can house more planes and those hangars are built to withstand the kind of winds that are typical for our area. A category 4 hurricane with 150mph winds on the gulf side of Florida is not typical for our area you colossal fucking retard.
Let me fet this straight, we lost a bunch of valuable fighters to a storm everyone saw coming because we were storing them in literal cucksheds?
David Wright
The hangers are normally a more than capable storm shelter, having a catagory 1 hurricane jump to an almost 5 in the day before it hits leaves little time to prepare for such a storm.
Caleb Nguyen
your comment is nonsensical and contributes nothing to this discussion. Hornets, for all their faults are relatively rugged aircraft that don't require an orthodox priest to wave his incense censer in the right direction just for a fleeting chance to have an airframe be on the flight schedule. we're talking about Raptors and their apparent unwillingness to fly despite the chance of certain destruction. I get that you would have perhaps 2-3 aircraft in phase maintenance per squadron at the time the storm hit, but TWENTY TWO aircraft completely down to the point that they couldn't be made airworthy before the storm hit either shows massive ineptitude on the part of AF maintainers or an indication of the aircrafts utterly fragile nature. it's not that fucking hard to get aircraft together in the span of a week, the Navy does it constantly AT SEA.
Jeremiah Long
The military airspace around Tyndall is gloriously huge. There's really nowhere else in the country that they can get that much airspace to play around in.
William Nguyen
No.
Samuel Jackson
>limited space looks like they have plenty >withstand the kind of winds that are typical for our area planes crashing is atypical too, yet you still see every major airport having a fire brigade
>LARP didn't actually address the state of the USN's Hornet fleet
Charles Reyes
>FUCK ME LOOKOUT SOME ENEMY'S EVERYONE SCRAMBLE, GET THESE JETS OUT OF HERE >FUCK ME LOOKOUT SOME AIR, EVERYONE SCRAMBLE, GET THESE JETS OUT OF HERE >Leaves 12 behind Maeks you think
Jayden Moore
>You can't keep planes which are out of production flying indefinitely Tell that to the A-10 >BUILD MOAR WINGS!
Ryder Long
Planes crashing are not uncommon, a near catagory 5 hurricane on the Florida panhandle is a unicorn.
Henry Ramirez
what's your point? the USN retired their fucking hornets, they all use Rhinos and Growlers now except for training/aggressor squadrons. and if you want a figure for those i can tell you right know operational readiness is pretty fucking normal for those aircraft. if you knew anything and weren't a shit for brains you'd be picking a fight with the squalor that is the USMC hornet fleet but you know absolutely nothing so fuck right off
>the USN retired their fucking hornets >LARP continues to dig his hole
John Powell
Have you ever worked on a Eurofighter? Have you seen how often they IFE for fuel issues, probe getting stuck in open or closed position, oil leaks, or software issues? I'm not saying they're complete trash, but they're far from perfect.
Levi Sanders
well, it's clear you're retarded so i won't bother. have fun being literally stupid. here's an article to prove your low IQ since you seem to be so dense
that's why you build some neat arab concrete shelters the second you station expensive air superiority fighters on that base
Aiden Sullivan
>a billion dollars worth of damage So one got scratched?
Nolan Myers
i don't know how rare of an occurence that actually is, i just read "storm of the century" in some news, that's probably not to accurate. If it is it sounds like something you'd be well advised to prepare for though
Cameron Thomas
nah that photo was from a real ex usn guy, if it was posted by him he's legit
Dylan Edwards
>Looks like they have plenty
Yeah at the ends of the run ways. Hey guys why don't they add hangars at the ends of the run ways? Or what about in the low level swamp to the north with the creek running through it?
Nope a few days before it hit it was just a tropical storm then over the course of a couple days it rapidly developed into a huge storm. I live in the pan handle stop being such a faggot and admit you don't know what you're talking about.
Planes are designed for about 30 year life cycle. If being out of production for decade becomes an issue, there are major fuckups in the system.
Cooper Rivera
So build a humidity and mold trap for a plane that is extremely sensitive to both aleady
Anthony Powell
all those forrested areas are not at the end of runways. Or is the USAF not only unable to get a few sacks of concrete but also not willing to source a chainsaw?
Jackson Kelly
your telling me they couldn't have just flown them to a nearby base somewhere safe?
they just fucking left them there to be at the mercy of the storm?
Jose Hughes
that doesn't respond to the point at all. You should build the shelters years/decades ahead of them being required
Nathan Bailey
being in a storm shelter for a week sounds better than having it exposed to a cat 5 hurricane
Nicholas Rogers
Oh you mean the fucking swamp land with a creek running through it? Gee I don't know why the Air Force doesn't just build hangars to house multi-million dollar aircraft in a flood zone.
the entire state of Florida is a flood zone. just like New Orleans it should have been abandoned long ago give it back to the crocodiles
Joseph Sanchez
yeah, because it's impossible to fix that. The dutch did it for the "altes land" in germany. 800 years ago. Creating the biggest contiguous fruit-producing region in northern europe. To bad the ancient and secret technology of moving a bit of fucking dirt has been long lost
Andrew Wright
You would be surprised how bare bones those parts sparing analysis come out to be when the gubbeemint close out an OEM contract
Justin Baker
There is no record of a hurricane force storm hitting Europe. The conditions are different.
Christopher Edwards
>Dutch annual rainfall 76.5cm
>Panama city beach annual rainfall 155cm and routine tropical storms
michael came with a 14 feet stormflood. The waterlevels in the area i mentioned change by more after heavy rainfall in downstream areas
yes, exactly, add more dirt. You're not trying to protect a city or infrastructure but a handful of storm shelters
James Watson
>Dutch annual rainfall. Can you even read? It clearly said Germany. Also people have been reclaiming swamp land for years. It's not that hard Honestly how tf can you even defend this shit. Its ramming into massive container ships all over again. The military can be incompetent get over it.
Austin Brooks
Why do you the F35 is a joint strike fighter? The airforce learned the hard way on F22 that you need volume manufacturing to keep lifecycle cost down
John Jackson
>You're not trying to protect infrastructure but a handful of infrastructure
Looking from the bright side, 2 dozens of destroyed F-22 mean there finally will be spare parts available for other planes. Maybe F-22 readiness rate will even surge above 50% now.
Aaron Lopez
>The word Infrastructure refers to the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or other area,[1] including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function.[2] Infrastructure is composed of public and private physical improvements such as roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunications (including Internet connectivity and broadband speeds). But yeah, let's go with your version. Despite its plethora of ressources the US is unable to build a concrete shed with reasonable structural integrity on a dirt mound
Jeremiah Sullivan
>concrete shed with no electricity or road to it Why bother to pave a road to the concrete shed that you cant open on your own because you didn't hook up power. Just throw more dirt down.
Anthony Allen
neither of those need to stay intact during the storm (although they most likely would).
Michael Mitchell
Guess who got dropped to Tyndall three weeks ago?
They flew 30 away, the 20 left behind were a combination of brokedick aircraft/not enough pilots.
Josiah Smith
>Guess who got dropped to Tyndall three weeks ago? Can't be McCain because he's dead, right?
Anthony Walker
Good thing he has a reserve chute that can be manually operated.
