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Because the F-117 is not all that stealthy, and a good strategy for defeating it became known. In 1999 over Serbia, one F-117 was shot down and supposedly anot
by cameldrv 3y ago
Because the F-117 is not all that stealthy, and a good strategy for defeating it became known.
In 1999 over Serbia, one F-117 was shot down and supposedly another one was damaged. It was shot down by a Russian S-125, which is a missile system from the early sixties.
The Serb air defense officer that shot it down says that the F-117 was detected by his radar at 23km. He developed the tactic of moving his radar and missile launcher regularly, and then only turning on the radar for a short time and moving again. He says that the F-117s going into Serbia were following the same flight path over and over and he figured out a good time and place to turn on the radar.
In the book Skunk Works, there's some detail about the mission planning that goes on for F-117 missions. They have software that, given the positions and types of radars, will find the lowest risk path in to the target. This is also referenced here: [1]
Knowing all of this, you can surmise that the F-117 is detectible out to 20-30km (depending on angle), but they simply route the planes to go around the radars. Presumably if a new radar pops up, the F-117 can detect this (or be cued by an AWACS or EW plane) and fly another way, or turn around. However, if the radar pops up suddenly, it may be too late.
Once the effectiveness of this tactic was proven, the value of the F-117 went down a lot. Then you start looking at the other deficiencies of the plane. It has a small bomb load, not very long range, no supersonic capability, limited sensors, no air to air capability. If the plane is invincible, these are forgivable, but if not, then maybe not.
Anyhow despite all of that, they still fly the F-117 in retirement for training and testing purposes, and they still get sighted in the air and on ramps periodically.
- Glawen 3y agoGreat post, I knew about the story, but thanks for the detailed explanation.
- voxadam 3y agoI've always loved the "Sorry we didn't know it wasn't invisible" propaganda poster[0] created by the Serbians after they shot down that F-117. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Serbian_poster_%22Sorry_we_didn%27t_know_it_was_invisible%22.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Serbian_...
- wholinator2 3y agoAt first i thought it was just the same phrase repeated in multiple languages but then i saw "NATO" near the bottom. The Wikipedia file posting didn't have the translation so i pasted the file into Google translate repeatedly to get each line in its respective language and its very interesting. If anyone knows what Budanivci or Budjanovci is, i assume it's probably a name. Croatian - your plane is burning Serbian - Mine is visible but doesn't fall Aircraft waste budanivci Bosnian - WE ALSO HAVE PARTS FROM F - 117A Serbian - Suddenly the earth got in his way Bosnian - Missed the airport in Surčin Ukranian - Dad, types without a hand Serbian - WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE WHITE HOUSE? I'M GOING TO LIGHT IT UP Serbian - Last post office budjanovci Serbian - Give me another one....we need to cover the pigsty Serbian - What does a child know what is invisible Croatian - We will fuck NATO, my brother! Serbian - briefly but fucking
- arprocter 3y agoBuđanovci is the village where it was shot down https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bu%C4%91anovci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bu%C4%91anovci
- evilos 3y agoI thought that really only happened because they used the same route repeatedly and because they kept their bomb bay doors open longer than necessary which ruined the stealth?
- clbrmbr 3y agoGreat post. More interesting detail than the article.
- tiffanyh 3y ago> “ Because the F-117 is not all that stealthy” Is that accurate? I thought the F-117 was still more stealthy than 4th & 5th jets. https://photo2.tinhte.vn/data/attachment-files/2022/09/6118034_016_B-2_Spirit_Cross_Section.jpg https://photo2.tinhte.vn/data/attachment-files/2022/09/61180...
- simne 3y agoF-35 is not very good in dogfight, but it at least can do it. F-117 can not.
- evilos 3y agoThat's like faulting a can opener for not slicing pizza well.
- simne 3y agoAre you sure? Seriously, imagine, you got bad can opener with each bottle. Will you store HUNDREDS of unnecessary things when you have other good quality (F-35 instead of F-117)? Are you really know, how expensive jet service? What you know about top secret military jet service costs? Or may be you think, you could just drop F-117 on parking even without guard? Sure, why guard them, when they should guard themselves? ;)
- evilos 3y agoI'm just saying that faulting a F-117 for not being a dog fighter is silly when it was designed to be a bomber. The real reason to retire the F-117 was because the B-2 could stealthily deliver more bombs anyways and they wanted to free up funding for other projects, not because the F-117 couldn't dog fight. That wasn't its job.
- simne 3y agoWell, I partially agree. But F-117 is too tiny for bomber. It's like top trunk for auto. BTW, Lockheed offered to create larger variant, but Boeing project chosen.