Thursday, April 23, 2020

The U.S. Air Force Is Going To Great Lengths To Sanitize Their F-15s In The U.K.

A 493rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit crew chief cleans a ladder to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, April 15, 2020. Airman 1st Class Rhonda Smith

Sputnik: Photos: US Air Force Wiping Down UK-Based F-15s to Keep Them Active During Pandemic

The US Air Force has implemented some extensive cleaning regimens in a bid to keep its F-15 Eagles flying out of its largest base in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic, including wiping down every cockpit used after every mission.

With at least 129,000 cases of COVID-19 recorded in the UK, keeping service members stationed at RAF Lakenheath, a Royal Air Force base that houses the largest detachment of US Air Force aircraft in the UK, has required extensive measures.

Some of those measures include the typical basics: making and distributing masks, converting to telework and marking out social distancing spaces in public places. But others involve some unique problems faced by the jets they fly out of Lakenheath.

Inside an F-15 Eagle’s cockpit are dozens of knobs, switches and dials used to control the advanced fighter, track the location of both the airplane and its adversaries, and to select and fire weapons if need be. Now, with the highly infectious COVID-19 coronavirus in danger of being spread by contact surfaces, all of them have to be cleaned.

Read more ....

Update: How Lakenheath is Fighting COVID-19 and Keeping its Eagles Flying (Air Force Magazine)

WNU Editor: These are definitely extraordinary times.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

@WNU.. My guess is that it's just another sign that the Pentagon must still assume or at least consider that covid-19 is a first strike weapon, considering the damage it did to naval readiness, the economy, morale, logistics/transportation exhaustion, resource exhaustion etc.

Unknown said...

I live on the flight path to RAF Lakenheath & see KC135s, C130s & F15s coming into land with the occasional C5. Yesterday I saw a RC135. The C5s are awesome. I just hope that there isn't a nuclear strike on the base. It wouldn't do my windows any good. 🖖😎

Anonymous said...

1st strike weapon?

Because it is emptying out the nursing homes? That was a Democrat trick if you must know. NY state policy is to return sick patients back to the nursing home (where they can spread contagion) instead of leaving them in the hospital. It is one reason NY state has such a high death rate." Thanx Cuomo, you FREDO!"


Wuhan laboratory scientists 'did absolutely crazy things' to alter coronavirus and enabled it to infect humans, Russian microbiologist claims

Currently, suspicions like the above article is the only reason I think it might be a weapon. But truthfully I am not knowledgeable to know. Sure you could use CRISPR to change up a virus to make it more lethal, but if the virus mutates fast enough it might be like blanketing an area with nerve gas on a very hot day with 100% humidity.