The details: Lengyel told reporters at a briefing on Friday the western eye wall of the storm went over Tyndall, leaving all of the housing "uninhabitable." He said Michael was "a violent wind event ... more like a tornado than a hurricane."
"Roofs have been ripped off buildings, it's fundamentally an unusable airfield, there are maintenance facilities that have been ripped up, housing is ripped up, water doesn't work."
— Gen. Joseph Lengyel
Damage to Tyndall AFB's infrastructure, including fighter jet shelters (top center). Satellite images ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company; NOAA.The impact: A QF-16 aerial target aircraft was "heavily damaged," according to Defense News, "with its front nose-cone sheared off, as well as a hangar with an F-22 inside and its roof largely missing... as many as ten F-22s may have been damaged by the storm."
The big picture: According to Defense News, "damage to the F-22s should be largely repairable, but repairs will be costly." Defense Secretary James Mattis has prioritized increasing F-22 readiness by 80% over the next year, which the publication cites as "a number well above the mission capability rates those aircraft now achieve."
All of the airmen that were assigned to ride out the storm at the base are safe and accounted for, according to the Commander of Air Combat Command, Mike Holmes. However, he describes "significant and widespread damage to the base" and advises that it isn't safe to return.
