Tyndall AFB suffers massive damage; including irreplaceable F-22s

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yea I have gotten so annoyed with it I have started making up stuff about this.


Like the Hurricane was actually a weaponized attack by the Chinese against the mainland and we used HARP to disrupt the hurricane and that's why it rapidly spun up as it made land fall and the base was flattened by the release of energy as the hurricane fractured.


Or things like that.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I need to pass that one on to my maintainer group. They're getting just as irritated.

Dont worry we are getting hit with 'Killer Storms" here in SeQld at moment..Uuuummm...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I don't know what sources you've been reading...
But it must be hilarious. Sounds like folks that follow Elon Musk.

This was the last thing I checked put out yesterday by Col Brian S. Laidlaw:

Good afternoon Team Tyndall,

I have nothing significant to report since my last message to you. What I can say is that today is a better day than yesterday, and things are going to keep getting better. Each day we recover more of Tyndall Air Force Base. Teams from around the country have arrived with the people and equipment we need to recover from Hurricane Michael.

I want to take a moment to review some of the information we shared with you yesterday. Your primary source for information during this ongoing evacuation is www.AFPC.AF.mil/hurricane. You will find answers to many of your questions there. You can also call (210)-565-0102 for assistance.

Then we touched on some of the recovery teams, who have arrived at Tyndall and the great work they are doing here, such as combat COMMS, combat controllers, and Red Horse.

Finally, I worked with Maj. Anthony George, 325th Comptroller Squadron Commander, to amend the evacuation order to decrease the minimum and increase the maximum evacuation distance for you. I also did my best to address some of your questions. If you have more questions, send them to Tyndall's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/325FWTyndall. This will act as your direct line to me. I will continue to provide information to you in a timely manner.

Continue to take care of yourselves, and continue to take care of each other.

v/r
Col Brian S. Laidlaw
325th Fighter Wing Commander

I understand that you mentioned the base being closed and realigned (BRAC) IF NEEDED BUT NOT YET. And for now operations ( as I sit in my recliner ) perhaps may need to function elsewhere for the time being. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I am wondering if they'll spend greatly on a rebuild ( and I see someone thought the same ) spend a bit more on fortified RAISED safety bunker..
A BIG, REALLY BIG, BOMB RESISTANT HURRICANE PROOF BUILDING(S).
Or some durable just the right sized buildings to retreat to in a pinch. And Tyndall had barely a pinch in time.

Anywho, thanks for keeping us up to date.👍😊

According to the morning update, they're looking at a couple weeks minimum to get power restored. They're moving into phase two of recovery and trying go get the base safe for families to survey their homes and get property they had to leave behind. They're going to need a lot of help still, and for a long time to come.

The F-22s that were moved to Wright-Patt arrived at Langley today. They're going to fly out of there until they can go home again.

The AF isn't going to say how many aircraft were left behind. They're still trying to get into the hangars and access the aircraft, but early word is that visual inspection shows the damage isn't as severe as they feared. They won't know anything for certain until they can access the aircraft, but it sounds like at least many of the aircraft left can be repaired.

Tyndall update.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thank you for the updates.👍

The base will be open to residents from 1000-1500 tomorrow through Sunday to allow assessment and recovery of property. All personnel must be out of the area by 1500.

The storm went from a tropical storm to Category 4 hurricane in 48 hours. The base succeeded in evacuating at least 25 QF-16s, 2 E-9As, and 33 of 55 F-22s (known to be evacuated, rumors say 17 left behind) and 11,000 people that live on base.

According to both Mattis and Wilson, unless something unexpected is found when they remove aircraft from the hangar, they currently expect all aircraft left behind to be fixable.

m.aviationweek.com...

Great news lord knows we can Ill afford to lose any raptor airframes!

Unless there is some other underlying story, it is mind-boggling to me that 34% of the Raptors on site could not be put in the air for a relatively short hop in the span of a couple days. "Mission capable", okay, I buy that we are in such sorry shape that 30+% aren't mission capable on a given day. But "airworthy"? Over the course of a few days? I hope they start firing people in the Puzzle Palace soon.

originally posted by: RadioRobert
Unless there is some other underlying story, it is mind-boggling to me that 34% of the Raptors on site could not be put in the air for a relatively short hop in the span of a couple days. "Mission capable", okay, I buy that we are in such sorry shape that 30+% aren't mission capable on a given day. But "airworthy"? Over the course of a few days? I hope they start firing people in the Puzzle Palace soon.

Yeah I had brought up that that seems like a high number of birds down at one time makes you wonder about the real sortie rate for raptors.

a reply to: RadioRobert

There is a side effect to stopping production on an airframe, a parts shortage eventually rears its ugly head.

On the B-1 we routinely had to wait weeks or months to get parts we needed to get those pigs flying.

Also sometimes its just bad luck that the hurricane hit during a drop in MC rate, in nearly 20 years I have seen stretches where everything broke every time it took off followed by long stretches of everything landed in tip top shape.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I know how it works. I've seen all sorts of bizarre crap rear it's head occasionally. And something frequently pops up where something isn't available because noone ordered enough and there is a backlog, or production was halted completely on an older item. That's why I said, "unless there's an underlying story". But 34-44% airworthy at any given time (specifically this one) seems ghastly no matter the reason. If the reason is we don't have the parts in the supply line, there are people to be held to account for that, too.

The customer is broken.

a reply to: RadioRobert


When I was on B-1 we held a 0% MC rate for 6 months, not from a lack of work we were working 7 days a week 12-16 hours a day.

We would fix it, it would take off and IFE back in day in and day out while the maintenance crews were 50% manned and OP's was 125% manned.


The USAF has a laundry list of problems.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: RadioRobert


When I was on B-1 we held a 0% MC rate for 6 months, not from a lack of work we were working 7 days a week 12-16 hours a day.

We would fix it, it would take off and IFE back in day in and day out while the maintenance crews were 50% manned and OP's was 125% manned.


The USAF has a laundry list of problems.

Ouch nothing like feeling like ya made a difference at the end of the day eh?

Lockheed is sending an engineering team to Tyndall to assess the aircraft left behind.

a reply to: RadioRobert

Look at the timeline of the storm. The afternoon of the 8th, every model there was said it might reach a Cat 3 storm. You're not getting cann birds and phase birds flyable in less than two days.

a reply to: RadioRobert

It wasn't 34-44%. They have 55 birds, 33 went to Ohio, word is that 17 were left behind, meaning the other 5 were flown somewhere as well. That's higher than the fleetwide mission capable rate.