Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
IIRC, something similar happened back in the 80's, or early 90's, at Fort Hood with a bunch of Apaches getting knocked about by a microburst (or similar sudden and intense wind event). There may have been other helicopters damaged; the photo that made the rounds among the Navy safety folks briefing us about featured Apaches. FWIW, the MH-60 in the top picture in the OP does not have the blade boots on, which makes me suspect that they were planning on flying it at some point that day.
I was visiting the Apache Aviation Regiment at Illesheim, Germany, to get an early view of Apache operations and noticed that all the aircraft were chained to the flight line with some serious hardware. Now Germany does get the occasional severe storm, but nothing that bad. When I asked someone, I was told it was because of the Ft Hood event that all Apaches globally had to be chained down. Classic military CYA operation, but only after the event and with no regard to a detailed risk assessment. To this day, I believe Germany still get slightly less tornadoes and catastrophic storm fronts than Texas.