Tinker AFB

[PhiAlpha]

Cool, but not surprising. We are the sustainment hub for all the other bombers (B-1, B-2, B-52). All of the non-OEM bomber engineers reside at Tinker.

True, though it would've been really bad for the future of the base if we had not been selected.

[AFCM]

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/y...tealth-bomber/

[David]

So is this like getting Amazon HQ2? Lol

We didn't have to cough up like 2 billion plus in subsidies, so in some ways it's far better.

[HOT ROD]

Dont know how it could possibly be bad news. Sounds like we’re going to be the HQ for sustainment of our new flagship, long range stealth bomber which virtually ensures that tinker will remain very important to the Air Force for many years to come. Also, they look really cool.

100 B-21 bombers are planned for the fleet which is comparable to the KC-46 which is bringing 4100 jobs on it's own so it would be similar to that in economic impact. It also will almost certainly expand Boeing's presence in OKC and require more expansion of the facilities at Tinker.

and manufacturer Northrop Grumman

[Jeepnokc]

Makes us stronger if there are any more base closures.

[Laramie]

U.S. Air Force officials have selected Tinker Air Force Base to provide maintenance for the B-21 Raider once the bomber comes online in the mid 2020s, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced Friday.

Wilson said the Air Force hasn't determined how many jobs the new mission might create, but she expects it to be comparable to the KC-46A mission, which created about 1,350 jobs at the base. Wilson said she expected the base would need to expand its maintenance facilities to accommodate the new mission, although base officials have no plans to do so.

Oklahoman: https://www.oklahoman.com/tinker-air...rticle/5615270

[Laramie]

B 21 RAIDER: WHY RUSSIA & CHINA SHOULD FEAR IT? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9OGaLxU7Ds&t=324s

Got to keep our opposition in check. Hope we never have to use these planes to bomb any country; however if it keeps us safe--it accomplishes it purpose.

[PhiAlpha]

and manufacturer Northrop Grumman

Yep, my bad. Good catch.

[shawnw]

They put our a lot of scare tactics but it would incredibly difficult to both justify and execute a closure of Tinker. There are only 3 primary depots left in the AF and at ~5,000 acres we're among the largest bases in the service. OO-ALC [Utah] has PDM for bombs, bullets, landing gear, F-16s (probably F-35, and I'm sure others, it's been awhile since I've been in that loop), WR-ALC [Georgia] has PDM for cargo aircraft (C-17, C-5, C-130, etc), F-15s, probably F-22s, I'm sure others. We (OC-ALC) have bombers, tankers, engines, and lots of other little things. Plus we're a multi-service base with the Navy, Army Corp of Engineers, others (e.g. DLA, DISA [one of three remaining "defense megacenter" data centers]). And we're one of two CONUS MOBs for the E-3. Among other things. I definitely don't see us going down to 1 depot, and I doubt they'd go down to 2, but if they did, they'd be hard pressed distribute the things we do here to one of the other depots. They HAVE closed depots before, when I first worked at Tinker there were 5, and they closed two during a BRAC. If there were no barriers, sure, we could move engines to Ogden, tankers to Robins, but I'm not sure where we'd send the bombers. And none of that is to mention the contractor/support jobs. We have a lot of expertise here that might not want to move to the other places. Where would the E-3s go? What would the Navy do? Move their E-6s or keep the Navy part of the base open? Right now we have all of the 707 airframe maintenance at Tinker (E-3, KC-135, E-6)), so maybe it wouldn't make sense to keep the E-6s here once KC-135s and E-3s were gone. Anyway, just saying, it would be tough to pull off. Certainly hard to imagine.

[jn1780]

Actually it looks like the B-2 is currently slated for retirement in 2032 followed by the B-1 in 2036. Both will be eventually replaced by the B-21 which is supposed to go into service in the mid-2020s. We'll see if the Air Force actually holds to those dates. It seems way early for the B-2 but apparently the cost per plane to maintain them is too high due to there only being 20 of them in service.

The B-52 on the other hand just had it's service life extended to at least 2050 after a recent overhaul...which is crazy considering that will mean they will have been in service for around 100 years at that point.

Even crazier is that Russia still uses "The Bear" which was developed at the same time as the B-52 but is powered by four turbo-props with contra-rotating propellers, making it the only propeller powered strategic bomber still in service. As of right now, they plan to operate them into the 2040s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

Wow, thats crazy. Does the Navy even have ships that old?

[MikeLucky]

We are WAY PAST having to worry about Tinker closing. It's not even a topic anymore. Behind the Pentagon, Tinker has the #2 and #3 largest buildings in the US military (3001 and 9001). With the last round of consolidations Tinker became the only Air Logistics Center in the Air Force. Then you consider the new tanker facilities and this latest announcement, and Tinker is well past any closure consideration.

The B-21 Sustainment will bring something in the range of 500ish jobs, similar to the current B-2 Sustainment has at Tinker. But, the maintenance is a very significant addition that we don't currently accomplish here at Tinker for the B-2.

[Snowman]

Wow, thats crazy. Does the Navy even have ships that old?

While the Navy technically still has one that old in commission, if the USS Constitution (a wooden sail-powered warship, one of the earliest ships built for the US Navy, now 220 years old) is going into a warzone we have some major problems. The next oldest in the fleet is 47.

[dcsooner]

We are WAY PAST having to worry about Tinker closing. It's not even a topic anymore. Behind the Pentagon, Tinker has the #2 and #3 largest buildings in the US military (3001 and 9001). With the last round of consolidations Tinker became the only Air Logistics Center in the Air Force. Then you consider the new tanker facilities and this latest announcement, and Tinker is well past any closure consideration.

The B-21 Sustainment will bring something in the range of 500ish jobs, similar to the current B-2 Sustainment has at Tinker. But, the maintenance is a very significant addition that we don't currently accomplish here at Tinker for the B-2.

Man, you may be right but although unlikely with government anything is possible. I would not be complacent.

[bombermwc]

With the B-52 being phased out, this announcement will be a big sigh of relief for all of the engineers and office staff at Tinker that work to support that mission. Hopefully, they'll be able to migrate everyone over and not have to disrupt all of that too much. The era of carpet bombing is long gone and the radar cross-section of that monster is insane. Like driving a semi-truck through a hospital nursery.

[bombermwc]

Im wondering how many of those jobs will be transitions from the B-52 program support structure already at Tinker. I bet it wont be anything close to 1300 NEW jobs. Im betting people just transfer over as they migrate the duties from one platform to the next.

[PhiAlpha]

We are WAY PAST having to worry about Tinker closing. It's not even a topic anymore. Behind the Pentagon, Tinker has the #2 and #3 largest buildings in the US military (3001 and 9001). With the last round of consolidations Tinker became the only Air Logistics Center in the Air Force. Then you consider the new tanker facilities and this latest announcement, and Tinker is well past any closure consideration.

The B-21 Sustainment will bring something in the range of 500ish jobs, similar to the current B-2 Sustainment has at Tinker. But, the maintenance is a very significant addition that we don't currently accomplish here at Tinker for the B-2.

You would think it would be a larger staff than what currently handles the B-2 since there are only 20 B-2s and if all goes to plan, there will be 100 B-21s. The secretary of the AF said the staff would be comparable in size to what will be needed for the KC-46.

[PhiAlpha]

Im wondering how many of those jobs will be transitions from the B-52 program support structure already at Tinker. I bet it wont be anything close to 1300 NEW jobs. Im betting people just transfer over as they migrate the duties from one platform to the next.

Its actually the B-2 and B-1 that are being phased out in the 2030s. The B-52 just had its service life extended to at least 2050.

[Laramie]

Former GM plant & complex (top & 3rd pic) now operated by Tinker AFB Oklahoma City

First new Tinker hangars nearing completion

Col. Kenyon K. Bell gives briefing about current construction progress of the maintenance facility at Tinker Air Force Base that will support the Air Force's new tanker, the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus. Two hangars are visible behind Bell, the 72nd Air Base Wing Commander at Tinker. [Photos by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman]

Construction workers first broke ground on the new series of hangars in 2016. The base now provides Oklahoma with an economic impact of more than $4 billion, and is the largest single-site employer in the state.

"You think about adding 1,300 jobs to that, it is going to only increase the economic impact we have on our local community," said Bell.

Saturday, January 26, 2019 | by Dale Denwalt: https://www.oklahoman.com/first-hang...rticle/5621260

The first KC-46 Pegasus has been delivered to the U.S. Air Force from its manufacturer Boeing just as the first of 14 maintenance hangars for the aircraft are nearing completion at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.

[bombermwc]

I'm curious what happened with the plans for the MROTC. They only ever built 3 hangars on the east side of Douglas, but i think the plans had 17, or some crazy number like that. Although, if the B1/B2 are being phased out, then it wouldn't make sense to me to build those things. Was it as simple as that?

[Paseofreak]

I don't know what changed, but there were originally 21 hangers t be built at completion. However, there was lso plans for several buildings to house a multitude of vendors that would conduct their work on site rather than shipping parts all over. Essentially a shopping mall for aircraft maintenance and upgrade services (Tramell-Crowe rep's words, not mine). Tramell -Crowe originally developed the site and I think sold it to the Air Force pretty early on.

[OrangeLemon]

https://journalrecord.com/2019/04/16...act-to-boeing/

Not behind a paywall

[Laramie]

Tinker has always been a boost to our metro-state economy. A portion of those $14.3 billion dollars are coming thru Boeing and central Oklahoma to be distributed throughout the country over a 10 year plan. Boeing has a presence in Oklahoma

Look back at 1995 round of base closures era--Tinker survived; Texas' Kelly AFB in San Antonio was affected; many of those families were offered transfers to the OKC area. Kelly was similar in size personnel wise to Tinker. Closure to Tinker would have had a devastating affect on the OKC economy.

Oklahoma obtained our 1st major professional sports franchise through the NBA around that time the U.S. economy was recovering. I remember the initial meeting with the Spurs and there were plenty of Spurs' supporters, don't know if Tinker transfers played into that or not. But man, the enthusiastic support for SA was evident.

[mugofbeer]

From a distant perspective, it looks like the future of Tinker is very bright. New programs, new construction, new hiring, public/private projects. Nevertheless, it should be the plan to do whatever is needed to keep the base - can new land be found for expansion?

[BoulderSooner]

From a distant perspective, it looks like the future of Tinker is very bright. New programs, new construction, new hiring, public/private projects. Nevertheless, it should be the plan to do whatever is needed to keep the base - can new land be found for expansion?

If there was ever a need all of the land east of Douglas between 240 and 40 has already been identified

But right now everything in the current plans will fit on base

[Snowman]

From a distant perspective, it looks like the future of Tinker is very bright. New programs, new construction, new hiring, public/private projects. Nevertheless, it should be the plan to do whatever is needed to keep the base - can new land be found for expansion?

Two areas have been acquired around the last decade, several years ago they acquired a decent size of land east of Douglas and set up a plane crossing over the road. Though the closing of the GM plant opened the much more preferable way to expand, along with acquiring the former rail yard between Tinker and the GM plant since they were easily merged with south side of the base without any road crossing and even putting those behind the fence line does not even change the amount of fence line that needs to be secured.

Theoretically they could expand to open land south of 240 via a jet bridge in the future but it could nearly double amount of maintenance buildings & ramp-area on current property before that would be needed.