F-22s, QF-16 likely damaged after Tyndall hangars hit by hurricane

[jpak]

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/10/12/f-22s-qf-16-likely-damaged-after-tyndall-hangars-hit-by-hurricane/

The Air Force said Friday that an unspecified number of aircraft left inside hangars at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida were likely damaged when Hurricane Michael devastated the base, with imagery on social media showing an unknown number of F-22 Raptors are among those impacted.

Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in an email that some aircraft were left in Tyndall’s hangars due to maintenance or safety reasons, and all of those hangars were damaged when the Category 4 storm pounded the Gulf Coast Wednesday.

<snip>

Photos shared with Defense News on social media also showed a heavily damaged QF-16 aerial target aircraft, with its front nose-cone sheared off, as well as a hangar with an F-22 inside and its roof largely missing. A separate source told Defense News that as many as ten F-22s may have been damaged by the storm.

The same source said the damage to the F-22s should be largely repairable, but repairs will be costly — and come at a time that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has made increasing F-22 readiness rates a priority.

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[FBaggins]

1. Sounds like Mattis was right

They don’t leave planes in the path of a hurricane unless the plane can’t fly. If ten F-22s (brand new planes) fit that description... their readiness was obviously too low.

[flotsam]

2. If you were in Florida during hurricane season...

would you store your Lamborghinis in an "E Z up shelter tent" or look for something more substantial? F-22's list out at 339 million per copy-so if estimates are correct somewhere north of 6.8 billion dollars worth of unflyable aircraft....Have these boys never heard of bunkers?