TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (WMBB) — Air Force officials laid out their plans Tuesday for rebuilding the Tyndall Air Force Base flight line.
The base lost more than 400 buildings in 2018, to Hurricane Michael.
Tyndall leaders kept their focus and have continued to do so four years later.
“Because we are maintaining our mission along with building an entire base at the same time– that is a challenge,” Natural Disaster Recovery Execution Branch Chief Judy Biddle.
With that in mind, Tyndall leaders held a ‘Roc Drill’ to mitigate the challenges while construction takes place on the flight line district.
The complex that will house the F-35 mission, alone, is a $604 million investment.
Officials met with rebuild project engineers, planners, and operational stakeholders to coordinate plans and suggest preventable future delays.
“We’re here to accommodate the mission that’s coming here– the F-35s that will be arriving sometime later next year,” Natural Disaster Recovery Division Chief Col. Rob Bartlow said. “We’re putting all of the infrastructures back in to ensure that mission has everything that it needs to support the Air Force and project power to anywhere in the world.”
The ‘Roc Drill’ produced a compiled list of possible weaknesses for this portion of the project.
Officials will come up with solutions and help keep project goals on track.
The F-35s are expected to arrive in September 2023.
The base rebuild will be completed in early 2026.
