US Air Force Locations

[kalos72]

Has anyone done anything on all the various US Air Forces by chance

Only one I am aware of 3rd/16th and 17th but weren't there a dozen more or something

[Adm.Lee]

Pre-war, or in 2000

[kalos72]

Post war / 2000ish

[ArmySGT.]

Has anyone done anything on all the various US Air Forces by chance

Only one I am aware of 3rd/16th and 17th but weren't there a dozen more or something

Anywhere the highway regulations were adhered to and a B-52, F-111, or B-1 can land, refuel, and rearm

The revetments along the surviving portions of the Autobahn.

[pmulcahy11b]

Anywhere the highway regulations were adhered to and a B-52, F-111, or B-1 can land, refuel, and rearm

The revetments along the surviving portions of the Autobahn.

That's true about the road lengths in Germany and Sweden, but not in the US.

There's a lot of those "revetments" in the ROK as well. (And mined MSRs. And sections of natural rock face in the mountains that are not natural. And...)

[mpipes]

I remember some discussions of BUFFS using highways, but the consensus was that it would likely tear up and buckle the concrete when landing. Its a pretty heavy plane, BUT it can fit on many Interstate Highways. I don't recall anything on the B-1B. The FB-111As I think were approved for emergency landings on Interstates; not sure about using one as an airfield but I'm pretty sure an Interstate can handle the weight of one without buckling.

ROK highway system is interspaced with sections specially reinforced for use as airfields. I never saw anything on exactly what they were suppose to handle, but I suspect they were designed with C-141s in mind. They definitely were intended to handle F-4s.

[Adm.Lee]

Re: interstates as landing strips: I do know about a T-33() that is/was enshrined along a Pennsylvania interstate (I-79 at I-90; Swaghauler may back me up on this) as a veterans' memorial. According to my dad, the plane emergency-landed on a training mission on the interstate highway shortly before it was opened in the '60s, the plane was pushed off to the side, and turned into a park.

[kalos72]

I was thinking more along the lines of where all the different numbered Air Forces or wing would end up.

But the highway factoids were cool to know.

[Adm.Lee]

Would the Air Forces (as high-level formations) still exist Might they be turned into rear-area/cantonment security groups by the NATO high command Once the planes are grounded, you've got battalions of security troops and brigade-sized support-technical groups (wings), to take over rear-area security.

P.S. You've seen this, right https://www.scribd.com/doc/37695/NAT...of-Battle-1989 p. 37 is US Air Force in 1989, one could extrapolate for 1997, and then 2000, I think.

[Legbreaker]

I can't imagine too many planes being left in flyable condition anywhere. Many, many aircraft would have been destroyed through the war, either in the air or on the ground through nukes or conventional attack. The few that remained would suffer from lack of spare parts, and the last handful may not receive even the little maintenance that was possible as commanders put their limited resources towards maintaining the few vehicles they still have that could be actually used.
Seems likely that "wings" and "squadrons" are a thing of the past, at least in practice. The names may still exist, but that's about it.

[kalos72]

Perhaps, but if you can say that brigade of technicians that used to support the Air Force were "here", then that might give you a good sized technical force to help rebuild with.

Imagine what you could do with 3000 technicians and electronics experts if you had say two nuclear power stations in your campaign that needed rebuilding. All the materials in the world wont help if you have no one to install them.

Hardware/parts can be replaced or rebuilt, someone with the skill the install it is something else.

I am of the belief that SKILL is going to be the most rare and hardest to find commodity in 2000/2001.

[Legbreaker]

Except that 3,000 have already been either killed or reassigned (and then killed). They certainly won't be gathered up all in one spot doing nothing.
Support units probably took as much as a pasting in the war as combat units as the enemy sought to disrupt their opponents as much as possible.
Rear area units are generally somewhat less mobile than combat units, and so make much better nuke targets. They're also often located near transportation routes, power, food, and water supplies - all the things that enable them to do their job properly, but which are also important targets.

[ArmySGT.]

I was thinking more along the lines of where all the different numbered Air Forces or wing would end up.

But the highway factoids were cool to know.

Some Air National Guard units are co-located with civilian airports and may have survived if the civil target was spared. Additionally, the majority of Active Duty were probably killed and their equipment lost with the nuclear exchanges.

So, the proportion of Air National Guard and Reservists may be a higher percentage of those still capable of Service in T2K..... Same could be true among their naval counterparts.

[ArmySGT.]

But the highway factoids were cool to know.

It is why the landing gear of the B-52 and C-130 are built along the centerline of the hull. Other planes to, but I am a grunt not a zoomie.

U.S. Interstates are supposed to include mile long straight stretches without bridges, overhead structures, or things like power lines close to the path.

It was an Eisenhower administration stipulation in the 1950s when the nuclear fleet was intercontinental bombers. Even the rest stops are part of the plan.

[kalos72]

Sure they might not be in the same unit but they would be in the same theater at least. No one, at the time when the units air power was all gone/destroyed/out of fuel or parts, would have the ability to move them far from where they were stationed at that time.

According to that orbat, there were like a dozen at LEAST numbered Air Forces. Where would they have been stationed at the start of the war at least