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Air Force's stealth fighters making final flights

 
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selecta
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:45 am    Post subject: Air Force's stealth fighters making final flights Reply with quote



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DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- The world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology is slipping quietly into history.

The inky black, angular, radar-evading F-117, which spent 27 years in the Air Force arsenal secretly patrolling hostile skies from Serbia to Iraq, will be put in mothballs next month in Nevada.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, which manages the F-117 program, will have an informal, private retirement ceremony Tuesday with military leaders, base employees and representatives from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The last F-117s scheduled to fly will leave Holloman on April 21, stop in Palmdale, California, for another retirement ceremony, then arrive on April 22 at their final destination: Tonopah Test Range Airfield in Nevada, where the jet made its first flight in 1981.

The government has no plans to bring the fighter out of retirement, but could do so if necessary.

"I'm happy to hear they are putting it in a place where they could bring it back if they ever needed it," said Brig. Gen. Gregory Feest, the first person to fly an F-117 in combat, during the 1989 invasion of Panama that led to the capture of dictator Manuel Noriega.

The Air Force decided to accelerate the retirement of the F-117s to free up money to modernize the rest of the fleet. The F-117 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which also has stealth technology.

Fifty-nine F-117s were made; 10 were retired in December 2006 and 27 since then, the Air Force said. Seven of the planes have crashed, one in Serbia in 1999.

Stealth technology used on the F-117 was developed in the 1970s to help evade enemy radar. While not invisible to radar, the F-117's shape and coating greatly reduced its detection.

The F-117, a single-seat aircraft, was designed to fly into heavily defended areas undetected and drop its payloads with surgical precision.

A total of 558 pilots have flown the F-117 since it went operational. They dub themselves "bandits," with each given a "bandit number" after their first flight.

Feest, who is Bandit 261, also led the first stealth fighter mission into Iraq during Desert Storm in 1991. He said the fire from surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns was so intense that he stopped looking at it to try to ease his fears.

"We knew stealth worked and it would take a lucky shot to hit us, but we knew a lucky shot could hit us at any time," he said.

Incredibly, not one stealth was hit during those missions, he said.
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the_380
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the F-117s were shot during the Serbian Bosnian conflict in 1999. Initially Air Firce claimed it was a technical snag but later accepted it was a SAM hit.

Americans were shocked, although these aircrafts did not have a heavy payload as compared to others, these were excellent for bombing smaller targets like small factories and bunkers.
Maximum payload of 2x Mk84Ls or JDAM 500s.

Aircrafts look damn good and were also shown in a couple of movies, i can remember one name at the moment, Executive Command.

In the initial days of the testing of this aircraft, many of these sightings were considered as UFOs by people who happened to see them, until the USAF openly accepted that it was their plane.

Many people believed that this aircraft actually had the capacity to do such a stunt that was shown in the movie. Although it was never revealed publically. Indeed a good aircraft.

Served a great role in ODS, not even one hit although had a grave threat from Soviet made SA-6, SA-3, SA-2B/E and SA-8 (list of all SAMs with Iraq at that time Wink ). Was used a lot for Strike and AR missions.

Although the article says about F-22s replacing these, i feel the reason for this retirement was the entry of the F-35 Lightning JTF. The first one are already being delivered.
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sammyk
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Executive Decision" Wink

The F-35 is still a few years away from going into service.
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texdravid
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 4:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If the US thinks the plane is obsolete, then obviously they have an adequate replacement on its hands, the raptor or other stealth planes.

The question I have is why don't they sell the Raptor to India. India sure could use the stealth technology, and use that technology to develop its own aircraft.

The US really needs to think of India in the same way that it thinks of Israel militarily. Give them all of their toys, cultivate India's defense industry, and more importantly, cultivate the military brass (i.e. kiss their ass) so that India will continue to buy US military products for decades to come.
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the_380
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

texdravid wrote:
The question I have is why don't they sell the Raptor to India. India sure could use the stealth technology, and use that technology to develop its own aircraft.

If im not wrong some news channels had stated that US is considering an offer of F-16s/F-18s to India at the moment.
There was some news about F-22s and India's interest, but its very very expensive for our Air Force to afford.
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sammyk
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many countries are interested in the F-22 but the US is unwilling to share at the moment. They won't even sell them to Israel or Japan.
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the_380
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sammyk wrote:
Many countries are interested in the F-22 but the US is unwilling to share at the moment. They won't even sell them to Israel or Japan.

(completing the statement) Fearing the fact that these countries might end up making something like this.
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sammyk
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, that's part of it. It's also nothing new. When the F15/16/18/etc were new they also had similar restrictions.

The F-35 is different though, it was meant to be exported from the onset.
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