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| Note: This article wasn`t written by AZIZ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Lost Illusion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| It's now official - Americans lost their pride and joy at least one of USAF's stealthiest aircraft, the F-117A Night Hawk, is lost to Yugoslav anti-aircraft defenses. Russian Minister of Defence Igor Sergeyev announced that the stealthiest of the world's aircraft was brough down by two SA-6 surface-to-air missiles. Yugoslav Air Force officials said that the F-117 was also hit by one AAM launched from a MiG fighter aircraft. The downing of the invisible plane follows an announcement by NATO's command that they "feel comfortable sending NATO pilots on low-altitude, low-speed missions over Yugoslavia, now that Yugoslav air defenses are effectively suppressed. Pentagon now officially confirmed that the F-117A was tracked by an unidentified ground radar and that two SAMs were fired at the aircraft. First reports suggested that the F-117A might have been tracked by a Czech-made Tamara passive radar - three passive receivers, each mounted a truck. Yugoslavia operates such radars in a somewhat modified form. However, latest information suggest that the F-117A was tracked by an old Soviet radar - a mid-1950s radar operating in 165-190cm wavelength range. According to American aircraft designers and military, long-wave radars present a serious threat to stealth aircraft operated by the US. More info here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Civilian witnesses to the downing of the F-117A said that they observed SAMs being launched and anti-aircraft artillery being fired in the same direction from which shortly after a ball of fireappeared and crashed into the ground. This was a 45-million-dollar USAF F-117A. The American pilot ejected and, according to NATO, was picked up by friendly forces (perhaps a rescue team). NATO spokesperson said that the pilots is in good shape. I find this questionable, however, because NATO also claims to have no knowledge as to the details of the F-177's loss. This either means that these unknown details are very grim for NATO's immediate plans of low-altitude bombing, or that the pilot is not OK. In any case, I am glad that the pilot is alive and I am even happier that he wasn't picked up by Serb soldiers. ABC News has recently published the details of the rescue operation: ...the rescue of the pilot of a stealth fighter jet downed northwest of Belgrade on Saturday was led by the Air Force using ?Pavelow? and ?Pavehawk? helicopters. The helicopters are specifically modified with global navigation systems and sophisticated radar allowing them to hug the terrain and avoid enemy detection. Once he parachuted to earth, the pilot most likely signaled his location with a handheld transmitter. The pilot was picked up by the smaller Pavehawk and flown back to his squadron at Aviano Air Base in Northern Italy. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the jet?s downing wouldn?t affect the expanded attacks. A senior U.S. defense official said there are strong indications that the aircraft was hit by a surface-to-air missile. |
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| Landing gear of F-117A. Was the pilot trying to crash-land the aircraft? He's quite an optimist... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| F-117A wreckage on fire. I don't know about how stealthy this plane is but it sure burns quickly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| There is still some confusion in the press in regard to the model of SAM system that brought down the F-117A. Many American newspapers mistakenly call the system SA-3 (or even SA-7), while it was actually the SA-6 Kub self-propelled SAM system. This system has a triple-missile launcher (called among NATO pilots as three fingers of death) mounted on a tracked chassis. Pentagon announced that the F-117A was indeed tracked by a Yugoslav ground radar and two SA-6 missiles were fired at the invisible aircraft. The doomed F-117A took off from the Aviano base in Italy, released its payload of precision bombs over Yugoslavia and was heading back to its base. The F-117A was detected by a ground radar and shot down by SAMs and probably by a AAA or a fighter aircraft, since there are bullet holes visible in the wing of the aircraft's wreck. The unidentified pilot ejected and landed some two miles away from the crash site. At 15:00 EST the pilot was reported missing and an USAF rescue team was dispatched on a HH-60G helicopter(s) protected by several NATO fighters. At 21:35 EST the pilot was picked up by the rescue team. At 21:52 EST the rescued pilot and the rescue team were out of Yugoslavia heading for the Aviano base in Italy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A US military emblem on the downed F-117. A sign of things to come? Most likely... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Soon after, Yugoslav television showed a video footage shot by the military on the scene of the Night Hawk's final landing. I was really enjoying an argument between two BBC reporters one of whom was claiming that a military aviation expert determined that the wreckage shown was that of F-15E strike aircraft. I know one expert like this... Interestingly enough, Adolph Clinton said he's ...tremendously proud of the skills of the pilot... in reference to the pilot of the destroyed F-117. Perhaps now American aircraft should be expected to go down in packs, as other US pilots will be anxious to deserve their president's tremendous pride. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The SA-6 Kub (Cube) - grandfatherof today's SAMs, entered service in 1967. Pentagon convinced American public that the F-117 is invisible" to radar. Evidently, Pentagon forgot to mention that to Yugoslav SAM operators. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Half a world away from the site in Yugoslavia where an American F-117 stealth bomber crashed, the flier's home base commander defended the warplane Sunday as a "premier weapon system,and vowed to send a couple dozen more, if asked. They are not invulnerable, they are not invisible, they are `low observable,'` the commander, Brig. Gen. William Lake, said at a news conference held here against the backdrop of a desert mesa. Rain was not a factor in the crash, said the commander of a base where pilots are accustomed to flying the cloudless blue skies of southern New Mexico. Asked if the kind of older radar used by Yugoslavia might have picked up the plane, he declined to answer. Although he described the jet as a top-secret plane, he said that NATO bombers have not returned to the site to destroy the wreckage. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| New photos of the shot down F-117A here. A video here (3,551Kb, mpeg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An official report by the Russian National News Service (03-28-99, www.nns.ru) indicated that a second F-117A was shot down shortly after. According to the report, Yugoslavs still haven't used their most advanced SAM systems, trying to save them until NATO resorts to low-altitude bombing strategy. In order to take out Serb tanks and artillery in Kosovo, NATO has no other choice but to send its ground strike aircraft on low-altitude, low-speed missions over Yugoslav army positions, well protected by advanced SAMs and anti-aircraft artillery. Serbs are also known to have a large number of modern man-portable SAM launchers that have proven to be exceptionally effective against low-flying aircraft in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. NATO may also be forced to use Apache helicopters against Serb tanks. Americans currently have 24 AH-64D Apache helicopters stationed in Bosnia. Helicopters present a particularly easy target for portable SAMs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| There is little question that a loss of the F-117A stealth fighter is a serious compromise of the aircraft's classified technology and, as a result, to F-117's effectiveness in the future. The wreckage of the plane will most certainly be analyzed by the Serbs and probably by the Russians as well. What information can possibly be extracted for a heavily burned wreck? Plenty, including the chemical composition of the materials used for the aircraft's construction and for its radar wave-absorbent coatings. I think that now it is entirely in Yugoslavia's interests to get the wreckage to Russia as soon as possible. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| For more information about other aircraft lost during NATO agression in Yugoslavia click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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