So What's the Serbian Stealth Shootdown Story

Well it sure has a good ending......

BBC News - Foes now friends: US stealth pilot and the Serb who shot him down

 

The story at the time was that they could see the 117 only when the weapons bay doors were open, and that was for a limited time only.

That's very possible scenario, since the RCS is huge when the doors are open.

 

wow that's a cool story..had no idea.

 

There's lots of speculation about this, but one thing that is generally accepted is that these planes were flying the same routes night after night and the missile commander knew pretty well when and where they would be. In the video above, he even says that he shot at the aircraft from 15km, which is nothing.

Like solofast said, people think he may have been shot down when his bay doors opened to drop a bomb, but no one really knows. Either way it was both a great and a lucky shot..and before that it had never happened, and it hasn't happened since then either. No aircraft is invincible.

 

The radar used by the Serbs was low frequency, coupled with the fact that they flew the same routes night after night. Another contributing factor was that it was raining and it is believed that the F117s RAM coating effectiveness decreased when wet.

I asked an F117 pilot about it, but he glared at me and refused to comment.

 

They were low profile, but not "invisible".

One also crashed at an air show because a high-G maneuver broke the wing spar.

I thought to myself when I first saw one fly that a well piloted P-51 could have probably brought one down if it were in high visibility in the daytime.

It should be remembered that the SR-71 was also somewhat "radar resistant", but was fired upon many times in its career. It was never hit because the missiles at the time simply could not outfly it.

 

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” - G.K. Chesterton

Now they love what is in front of them.

 

See the other thread on the Iranian stealth fighter/drones, too.

 

IMO, it should never have been an "F-117"-- maybe an "A-117" or a "B-117."

 

The Fs get all the money so it probably worked out for the best.

 

It was a misnomer meant to throw off the soviets I think

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There were other 'odd-balls' that were designated "F", that were mostly "A" or "B";

F-101 Voodoo - Low Altitude small yield nuke delivery system
F-105 Thunderchief - Small conventional bomb delivery system, with a gun.

Politics made it "A" rather than it's superior "F" role

F-5 Agressor/Tiger/Freedom Fighter - Two F-5's consistently took out an F-15 Eagle in a gun fight in testing.

 

To be honest, I thought the original mission of the F-117 was to shoot down Soviet AWACs. I suppose that would justify the "F"-- or am I mis-remembering?

 

Don- No, she was always a ground attack aircraft with no radar fitted, just a FLIR and a DLIR, so no design capability against Soviet AWACS. Fitted weapons were nearly always PGMs, primarily the GBU-27, a modified Paveway III GBU-24 with smaller tail kit. They may have been outfitted with JDAMs late in their service life, but I am not sure about that.

 

That can't be right. Tom Clancy used that scenario in one of his books (Red Storm Rising ??). It must be true.

 

Jim- Funny thing about Clancy's books. An AF guy reads it and says "Well, he fouled up the AF part, but they sure nailed the Navy and Army parts." A Navy guy reads it and says "Well, he fouled....". You get the picture. In one book he also had FB-111As dropping GBU-15s. Was never going to happen.

 

So did Zoltan change the shape of the cake since he befriended Dale?