Two-dozen F-22 Stealth Fighters gone missing after Hurricane Michael

According to the New York Times, Tyndall is home to 55 stealth fighters, which cost a dizzying $339 million each.

Before Michael hit, the Air Force evacuated at least 33 of the planes to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, however they would not comment on the status of the remaining 22 fighters.

After Hurricane Michael rendered Tyndall Air Force Base a complete loss from widespread, catastrophic damage – questions remain over nearly two-dozen F-22 Stealth Fighters which are unaccounted for.

Air Force officials have not disclosed the whereabouts of the remaining 22 planes, other than to say that a number of aircraft were left at the base because of maintenance or safety reasons.

But photos and video from the wreckage of the base showed the distinctive contours of the F-22’s squared tail fins and angled vertical stabilizers amid a jumble of rubble in the base’s largest building, Hangar 5.

Another photo shows the distinctive jet in a smaller hangar that had its doors and a wall ripped off by wind. Nearly 10% of the US F-22 inventory was damaged or destroyed or just plain missing without action.

F-22’s are notoriously finicky and, as the Times puts it “not always flight-worthy.” The Air Force reported earlier this year that just 49% of F-22’s were mission ready at any given time – the lowest rate of any fighter in the Air Force.

The total value of the missing fighters is around $7.5 billion.

The eye of Hurricane Michael traveled directly over Tyndall, peeling back storm proof roofs like tin cans and flipping over an F-15 fighter jet display at the base entrance.

The last Air Force Base to suffer catastrophic damage was in 1992, when Category 5 Hurricane Andrew slammed into Homestead Air Force Base just south of Miami with winds estimated at 150 m.p.h. Two years later it was reopened as a smaller, Air Force Reserve base.

Zero Hedge.com / AB Flash Point News 2018.