{"id":32269,"date":"2019-07-01T23:06:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T23:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/01\/were-basically-building-an-entire-base-afwerx-brainstorms-ideas-for-massive-tyndall-reconstruction\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:20:15","slug":"were-basically-building-an-entire-base-afwerx-brainstorms-ideas-for-massive-tyndall-reconstruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/07\/01\/were-basically-building-an-entire-base-afwerx-brainstorms-ideas-for-massive-tyndall-reconstruction\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re basically building an entire base\u2019: AFWERX brainstorms ideas for massive Tyndall reconstruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The effort to rebuild hurricane-devastated Tyndall Air Force Base<\/a> will be daunting and unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtually all of the Florida base\u2019s roughly 480 buildings sustained at least some damage \u2014 and about 300 of them are beyond saving and must be demolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When all is said and done, perhaps six or seven years after Hurricane Michael slammed into the base Oct. 10, 2018, the Air Force will likely have spent $4.25 billion to resurrect Tyndall<\/a> \u2014 while still carrying on<\/a> some of the service\u2019s most crucial missions, such as F-22 training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get the job done, the Air Force is going to need some creative ideas, said Brig. Gen. Patrice Melancon, executive director of the Tyndall Program Management Office supervising the reconstruction effort, in a June 27 interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s face it, we\u2019re basically building an entire base,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just going to build the Tyndall that we had, we\u2019re going to build the base that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why last week, AFWERX \u2014 an organization set up in 2017 by former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to find rapid, innovative solutions to the service\u2019s challenges \u2014 brought in about 55 people for a two-day workshop on how to rebuild Tyndall. The June 25-26 conference included representatives and experts from the Air Force, the Army Corps of Engineers \u2014 which will oversee most of the base\u2019s military construction \u2014 industry, and local Florida communities around Tyndall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe point of it was to brainstorm the art of the possible for the rebuild,\u201d Melancon said. \u201cAll of this is being done in a very compressed timeline, and so we\u2019re looking at ways that we can accelerate all of the phases of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melancon\u2019s estimate of the costs of rebuilding Tyndall are higher than the Air Force\u2019s estimate in February, when representatives told industry and community representatives that the service planned to spend about $3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference hit on several topic areas, such as \u201csmart\u201d infrastructure that uses sensors and other technology to help track buildings\u2019 maintenance needs, cybersecurity to protect data collected by that technology, how to cut construction costs and get it done quicker, and how to make utilities more \u201cresilient,\u201d so the base can maintain power and water access to critical facilities, even during and after a severe storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat might it take to put a microgrid at Tyndall?\u201d she said. \u201cThat way, if the power goes down outside the base, we have a way to be self-sufficient for our mission-critical buildings. That, to me, was pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t