Tornado damaged two U.S. Air Force E-4B 'doomsday' planes
Source: UPI
June 24 (UPI) -- A tornado at a U.S. Air Force base in Nebraska damaged 10 aircrafts including two E-4B "doomsday" planes.
The two E-4Bs, which serve as the military's National Airborne Operations Center during national emergencies, were knocked out of service when a tornado struck Offutt Air Force Base on June 16.
In the event ground bases are destroyed, the "doomsday" plane acts as the command and control hub for the president, secretary of defense and joint chiefs.
The U.S. military has a total of four E-4B planes in the fleet, but officials said it would still be able to carry out a mission with half the fleet damaged.
<more>
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/06/24/Tornado-damaged-two-US-Air-Force-E-4B-doomsday-planes/3991498309846/
= new reply since forum marked as read
We can't move every military asset every time there is a tornado watch in the vicinity. The planes were probably grouped together at the same base for logistic reasons. Just really bad luck, if you ask me. 
http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2010/06/prior-to-arrival-of-boeing-b-52.html
On Labor Day, 1 September 1952, many of the base personnel and flight crews had the long weekend off. Weather forecasters had predicted severe thunderstorms for North Central Texas that afternoon with estimated winds of 60mph. As few personnel were on duty, few precautions were taken other than securing the B-36 aircraft with 3/8 inch steel cables. At 6:42pm, a tornado touched down on the base perimeter and struck the B-36 flightline directly. Maintenance docks used to work on the large bombers outdoors were thrown about and the steel cables tying down the bombers snapped as the planes were thrown about by the tornado like toys. Ruptured fuel tanks spilled thousands of gallons of high octane avgas all over the ramps. The anemometer on the Carswell control tower registered sustained winds over 90mph before being torn away by the storm. As the storm subsided, operations had to be transferred to nearby Meacham Field and other bases in the Southwest.
Two-thirds of the entire B-36 Peacemaker force was either damaged or destroyed in the tornado. One aircraft was completely shattered and would have to be written off while 72 bombers on the flightline and adjoining aprons were damaged and unflyable. Fortunately there were no fatalities given the long holiday weekend. Another 10 B-36s parked at the Convair plant were also damaged. Some of the bombers were shoved on top of each other and many had lost wings, empannages, or large fuselage sections. Because of the national priority placed on the B-36 fleet, by 5:30 the next morning a repair plan was underway with 1/3 of the repairs to be carried out by SAC, 1/3 of the repair work to be done by repair teams dispatched from Kelly AFB in San Antonio (the site of one of the USAF's heavy logistics centers), and remaining 1/3 would be carried out by Convair. So urgent was the matter than a 1-page typed letter was the basis of a multi-million dollar contract for Convair for its share of the repair work. Project FIXIT returned one bomber to operational service the first week, and nine more B-36s in the second week after the tornado. In less than a month, the 7th Bomb Wing was back at full operational strength of only one B-36 had to be written off out of the 83 damaged. By the end of the month, the round-the-clock effort had the 11th Bomb Wing operational and by the first week of October, 51 more aircraft were returned to service. The last repaired B-36 returned to duty on 11 May 1953.
Erratic reliability led to the wisecrack, 'two turning, two burning, two joking, and two smoking, with two engines not accounted for."
