How did the Yugoslavs shoot down a stealth plane with a Soviet missile? (4 photos). Visible invisibles: the most famous stealth aircraft Current state and overall assessment of the project

How the Serbs destroyed the "invisibility" - the most "secret" aircraft of the US Air Force

The Serbian military in March 1999 managed to destroy the most "secret" aircraft of the US Air Force - F-117А. About how this operation went, the Voice of Russia was told by its participant, Dragan Matic

Material from the series "The Balkan Diary of a Russian Journalist"

Guide in Brussels March 27 1999 could not recover for a long time. For the first time in the history of combat operation of the most “secret” US Air Force F-117A aircraft, it was not only detected by radar air defense Yugoslavia, but also shot down in the sky near Belgrade.

- The man who shot down the "Stealth" over Yugoslavia - Has Serbia forgotten that it was bombed.

It was the strongest blow to the American military-industrial complex and the Lockheed Corporation. AT The Pentagon assured that there was a technical error and the "invisible plane" just crashed somewhere in the forests of Serbia. US military not recognized until November 25 that the F-117A was destroyed by a Soviet missile. The truth was hidden not only from ordinary Americans, but also from numerous customers who had already signed contracts with Lockheed. "Invisible" was then very popular in the world. And the pride of the American aircraft industry was destroyed, the machine, worth about 50 million dollars, was a Serbian anti-aircraft missile system with the stigma "Made in USSR". And the first to press the "Start" button Dragan Matic. Then he told me the details of this operation in detail:

“On March 24, 1999, we left our military unit where we were deployed and moved to the suburbs. The three days were relatively quiet. We worked as a team, the usual procedure that we carried out on the instructions of our commander. The main thing is not to fall under the AWACS radars, which usually accompany NATO aircraft. Especially the ones like the F-117A.

We were standing near the village of Shimanovtsy. On March 27, in the late afternoon, our entire brigade was on duty. A colleague from the tracking service reported that there is strong interference on the air. And that every second the signal is getting closer to our position. Literally 5 minutes later, radio intelligence transmitted that a target was approaching our calculation. Our commander carefully looked at the monitor and received instructions from radio intelligence. The target was on us. We discovered it. I looked at the monitor and saw a clear target signal. We began to follow the target, it was visible very clearly. I reported to the commander that the target was fixed by our instruments and we were ready to hit it. After the “fire” command, after 17 seconds, the target was hit by our missile. First rocket tore off the "Stealth" wing, and the second we shot down the plane itself. The pilot ejected and the plane crashed to the ground.

It's a fantasy American engineers and pilots that - invisible. All Stealth technologies ensure its "invisibility" only in the high-frequency radio range. For radars operating at low frequencies, it is quite noticeable. Therefore, we spotted it another 50 kilometers from us and waited for it to pass by our calculation in order to destroy it.

Yes, its radiation signal is weaker than that of conventional aircraft, but it still appears on the radar screens. Maybe the pilot made a mistake, maybe he got lost, but he flew at an altitude of only 5 kilometers and hit our sights. We hit a scary, fantastic car - most secret plane Air Force. The pilot ejected, hiding in the woods. Five hours later, a group of American special forces arrived in several helicopters and took him away. The very next day he was at the Aviano base, not far from Venice.

When we managed to shoot down the plane, we immediately left the position along with the equipment. The faster you relocate, the more chances the entire crew has to stay alive. So we did 24 times during these three months of aggression. And it saved our calculation. None of the team was hurt. Although our team air defense 9 people died.

After Dragan Matic and his comrades shot down F-117A, The White House and the Pentagon turned to the leadership of the FRY with a request to return the wreckage of the aircraft and everything that was left of it to. But Belgrade, of course, refused. Now the downed "Stealth" is exhibited in aviation museum. Here we continued the conversation with Dragan Matic:

– Your calculation worked clearly and smoothly. How did the Americans, with their AWACS and the latest electronics, miss the Soviet missile and put the Stealth under attack?

“We defended our homeland and did our duty. We were also targeted, we were also followed by American satellites, we were detected by AWACS. And so we tried not to allow any signals to air. If you are on the air or on enemy radar for more than 20 seconds, you are already dead. Expect "tomahawks", "cruise missiles" or some powerful bomb. My opinion on "stealth"? They put them into production to sell to their allies in . The car is insanely expensive over 50 million every instance. They talked a lot about these "stealths", but all this is an advertisement for the Pentagon. He did not have a high flight speed, he did not have good protection and only two bombs on board. Another drawback of this “bird” is that it flew very close to the target. And only after that could she deliver her mortal blow.

- What other aircraft did your team manage to hit?

- In the first days of aggression against Yugoslavia, the Air Force began its raids after 20.00. All planes always followed the same route. In the same way they returned to their bases. We quickly realized this feature. Most of the planes hit our sights 40-50 kilometers before our position. American pilots and their colleagues always adhere to the rules and clearly follow the commands. There is a route, there is a task, and they do not deviate even a millimeter from it.

We read their plans between the lines, and it saved us and ours. air defense. Our calculation struck, except for the first F-117, another car. We hit her, but she reached Croatia and landed there. True, there is no official confirmation of this. Newspapers wrote about it, there was a photograph. It happened on May 30th. And before that we shot down F-16. The pilot was the squadron commander, which specifically destroyed . He was sent a special group in helicopters to save such an important person. 4 helicopters and 10 aircraft provided support for the paratroopers.

This pilot took part in Operation Desert Storm, bombed the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was a very experienced pilot and a reliable pilot. But we managed to hit his legendary plane. On account of our team and B-2. True, again there is no evidence. But our radio interceptors picked up a conversation between the pilot and AWACS. The pilot shouted: "I got hit by a rocket, I need to be rescued." He made it to Hungary. We fought and shot down the enemy - we have old equipment, and they have the most modern weapons, but we turned out to be more cunning and showed that we can fight back.

Stealth technology - the pride of American engineering, which allows the aircraft to become invisible, has dispersed like dust in the wind. This happened on March 27, 1999 near the city of Ruma, 50 kilometers from Belgrade. The "Triumph of Engineering" was hit by a Soviet missile by the Serbian air defense system. After this incident, the NATO leadership banned the flights of all aircraft of this type over Serbia in order to avoid further losses of this aircraft. The Stealth technology itself is truly unique. And the niche for its use was chosen in the best possible way - to create an aircraft that none of the existing air defense systems sees is a truly great task.
In the USSR, the first mention of technology and the principle of operation dates back to 1962. Then in Moscow, the publishing house "Soviet Radio" published a very interesting book called "The method of edge waves in the physical theory of diffraction." Its author, an ambitious and talented scientist Pyotr Ufimtsev, described a method according to which it is possible to design a unique shape for any aircraft, it will refract rays from target detection systems (radar) and not reflect them, but refract and direct in different directions, thereby making the aircraft invisible to the enemy. However, by a strange coincidence, the military did not find understanding of the new theory. Behind the mean army "production has no basis" was the rejection of perhaps the most promising project of our time. Later, aircraft scientists who studied this work well discovered that the book describes an algorithm for calculating the optimal aircraft profile to ensure minimal reflection on radars. On the other side of the ocean, in the USA, they have been working on the creation of this type of aircraft for many years, but numerous calculations, experiments tests did not give positive results. Everything constantly went awry, until one day radar specialist Dennis Overholes saw the very work of Peter Ufimtsev. Excited, Overholes, sweeping away everything in his path, rushed to the office of the general designer of the project, Ben Rich. After studying the book, Overholes and Rich came to the conclusion that the Soviet scientist’s book described the very method of calculating all the necessary quantities. Then the idea came to the minds of American scientists that the surface of an aircraft could be divided into hundreds of straight parts, thereby providing an effective area for refraction of radar rays.
However, not everyone believed that an aircraft with such a shape would be able to move at all. When Lockheed Martin's lead aerodynamic engineer saw what the aircraft was turning out, his legs buckled. According to all existing principles of aircraft construction, such an apparatus could not fly. Kentrell gave his engineers a simple task: to make the plane able to take off and fly at least for a while. So the Americans managed to create a reference stealth aircraft. However, the euphoria from success quickly passed. There were no more than 10% of metal parts in the airframe design. The rectangular shape of the fuselage and the V-shaped tail plumage worsened the piloting of the aircraft so much that it was sheer torture for the pilot who flew it. This design put an end to supersonic speed for the aircraft, significantly reduced its combat radius and payload. In addition, during the flight mission, all communication systems, the "friend or foe" identification system, and even the altimeter had to be turned off in order to avoid targeting air defense systems. The plane turned out to be so clumsy that the Americans themselves doubted its effectiveness to the last. Associate Professor of the Kazan Scientific Research Technical University (KAI), an expert in the field of avionics, Ilya Matveev, shared his opinion on the control systems in this aircraft in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel: “ Due to the design features, the aircraft could only be controlled through a special fly-by-wire system, in which double duplication of control channels was used. Due to the aerodynamic characteristics, the aircraft was extremely unstable in pitch and yaw, therefore, these parameters were also monitored by a computer, which was called the “stability control computer”, and in addition to it, an automatic engine thrust control was installed a little later, which, To be honest, it wasn't reliable." Bombs against palm trees The first "combat" use of the F-117 took place during the operation by American troops to overthrow the ruling Manuel Noriega of Panama. It is worth noting that Panama did not have any air defense system at that time, so the Panamanian troops could not provide even the most meager resistance. "Stealth" was successfully bombed and returned back to the airbase. The next "publication" took place in the Persian Gulf in 1991. The anti-aircraft missile systems at the disposal of the Iraqi air defense forces were not properly used due to the low qualification of combat crews, so the Stealths worked almost freely. On the night of January 17, a flight of 10 aircraft from the 415th squadron launched the first strikes. At three o'clock in the morning, the planes bombed the air force control centers in Baghdad, the air surveillance control center in Al-Taji. During air strikes, American pilots were forbidden to fall below 6 thousand meters, so as not to fall under the fire of short-range air defense systems and anti-aircraft artillery, which, unlike more powerful air defense systems, could still identify a low-flying target and fire at it. Yugoslav shame The NATO operation in 1999, aimed at overthrowing the Milosevic regime, was truly the "finest hour" for the use of the F-117. However, not all plans for the use of this machine were destined to come true. On that black day for the US Air Force, on all central channels one could observe the wreckage of a once formidable military vehicle and local residents jumping on these remains. commanded by Zoltan Dani. Zoltan himself, in subsequent interviews, said that from the very beginning he had no illusions about the technical superiority of these machines. Plus, there were about two hundred soldiers under Dani's command, in which the commander was sure.
Before placing missiles in positions, Dani ordered to deploy not radio stations for communications, but cable communications. Thus, the Yugoslav officer solved several problems at once: the cable lines could not be intercepted, jammed or eavesdropped, which excluded the possibility of unmasking the positions of the air defense complex.
Nevertheless, "catching" this "miracle of American thought" turned out to be a difficult task. Since the Yugoslav air defense crews turned on their radars for a short time, it was an incredibly difficult task to see an inconspicuous aircraft in this "corridor". The target, according to the stories of Zoltan Dani himself, was captured at the very last moment, literally a minute before the forced shutdown of the radar. The stealth aircraft approached the air defense battery so close that the probability of its destruction was almost 100%. The calculation of the Yugoslavs was simple: let them approach as close as possible, launch and hit the plane, without giving it a chance for an anti-missile maneuver. When Zoltan realized that the Stealth had been shot down, he measured the distance. It turned out that the plane was hit only 13 kilometers from the positions of the air defense battery. The ammunition consumption of the air defense system amounted to two 5V27D missiles. The first cut off the plane's wing, and the second landed in the fuselage. In the case of the loss of their best aircraft, the Americans made not only a technical, but also a tactical miscalculation. The NATO command was so confident in the invulnerability of its aircraft that it sent it on a mission without any cover. Moreover, the course that the pilot of the plane Dale Zelko took to enter the target was used for the fourth time. If we go into the technical side of this issue, then, of course, the decisive role was played by the symbiosis of the experience of the Yugoslav commander Dani, the radar of the air defense system of the S-125 missiles. The whole point of this air defense system is that for radars operating in the long-wave range, it is not difficult to detect an aircraft even with such a bizarre shape. Of course, they cannot determine the location of the target with an accuracy of up to a meter, but they are able to indicate the direction, course and height. In addition, the F-117 was characterized by extremely low maneuverability at low altitudes, and it was not a maneuverable aircraft in principle, precisely because of its airframe and design itself. Thus, the F-117 became an ideal target for the Yugoslav air defense system. The NATO command has not yet recognized other losses of this aircraft during the Yugoslav aggression. According to the jfdefence.com portal, US and NATO aviation lost from 4 to 5 F-117 aircraft, but there are no official documents on this subject in the Pentagon. After the American plane was shot down, the pilot still managed to eject and subsequently successfully evacuate from the place of the fall. Despite this, the plane shot down in the vastness of Yugoslavia has become the subject of constant criticism around the world. NATO realized that the technology was likely to be disclosed, so they took additional measures to protect the F-117. These planes never again did the work alone: ​​they were constantly accompanied by a pair of F-15 / F-16, equipped with HARM missiles, which were aimed at the signal of the ground-based air defense radar. An incident that occurred in 1999 severely killed the bravado of American and NATO pilots, and the technology by which the super-expensive aircraft was built was soon found to be ineffective. The end of the American machine came really suddenly. In June 2005, the Pentagon held closed hearings on the F-117 program and aircraft based on it, and in 2008 the aircraft was officially decommissioned. An inglorious end to an expensive and obscure program, which was once again beaten by reliable Soviet weapons.

The latest best military aircraft of the Air Force of Russia and the world photos, pictures, videos about the value of a fighter aircraft as a combat weapon capable of providing "air supremacy" was recognized by the military circles of all states by the spring of 1916. This required the creation of a special combat aircraft that surpasses all others in terms of speed, maneuverability, altitude and the use of offensive small arms. In November 1915, Nieuport II Webe biplanes arrived at the front. This is the first aircraft built in France, which was intended for air combat.

The most modern domestic military aircraft in Russia and the world owe their appearance to the popularization and development of aviation in Russia, which was facilitated by the flights of Russian pilots M. Efimov, N. Popov, G. Alekhnovich, A. Shiukov, B. Rossiysky, S. Utochkin. The first domestic machines of designers J. Gakkel, I. Sikorsky, D. Grigorovich, V. Slesarev, I. Steglau began to appear. In 1913, the heavy aircraft "Russian Knight" made its first flight. But one cannot fail to recall the first aircraft creator in the world - Captain 1st Rank Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky.

Soviet military aircraft of the USSR of the Great Patriotic War sought to hit the enemy troops, his communications and other objects in the rear with air strikes, which led to the creation of bomber aircraft capable of carrying a large bomb load over considerable distances. The variety of combat missions for bombing enemy forces in the tactical and operational depth of the fronts led to the understanding of the fact that their performance should be commensurate with the tactical and technical capabilities of a particular aircraft. Therefore, the design teams had to resolve the issue of specialization of bomber aircraft, which led to the emergence of several classes of these machines.

Types and classification, the latest models of military aircraft in Russia and the world. It was obvious that it would take time to create a specialized fighter aircraft, so the first step in this direction was to try to equip existing aircraft with small arms offensive weapons. Mobile machine-gun mounts, which began to equip the aircraft, required excessive efforts from the pilots, since the control of the machine in a maneuverable battle and the simultaneous firing of an unstable weapon reduced the effectiveness of firing. The use of a two-seat aircraft as a fighter, where one of the crew members played the role of a gunner, also created certain problems, because an increase in the weight and drag of the machine led to a decrease in its flight qualities.

What are the planes. In our years, aviation has made a big qualitative leap, expressed in a significant increase in flight speed. This was facilitated by progress in the field of aerodynamics, the creation of new more powerful engines, structural materials, and electronic equipment. computerization of calculation methods, etc. Supersonic speeds have become the main modes of fighter flight. However, the race for speed also had its negative sides - the takeoff and landing characteristics and the maneuverability of aircraft deteriorated sharply. During these years, the level of aircraft construction reached such a level that it was possible to start creating aircraft with a variable sweep wing.

In order to further increase the flight speeds of jet fighters exceeding the speed of sound, Russian combat aircraft required an increase in their power-to-weight ratio, an increase in the specific characteristics of turbojet engines, and also an improvement in the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft. For this purpose, engines with an axial compressor were developed, which had smaller frontal dimensions, higher efficiency and better weight characteristics. For a significant increase in thrust, and hence the flight speed, afterburners were introduced into the engine design. The improvement of the aerodynamic forms of the aircraft consisted in the use of wings and empennage with large sweep angles (in the transition to thin delta wings), as well as supersonic air intakes.

Russia has long been vying with the United States for priority in building a twenty-first century fighter that combines the characteristics of a supersonic super-agile combat vehicle with stealth technology. An aircraft with such qualities should not be detected by radars and infrared surveillance equipment. The construction of such a fighter of the future is not only able to dramatically increase the efficiency of the national air force, but also provide a weighty argument in the competitive struggle on the world arms market.

Until quite recently, the leading design bureaus and aircraft manufacturers could not combine such technologically contradictory characteristics in one combat aircraft. Moreover, Russia was predominantly in the role of catching up. Combining all these qualities, the aircraft built using the Stealth technology should become a major trump card in solving various geopolitical problems.

For example, the MiG-29 was developed as an adequate response to the creation of the American F-18 fighter, and the Su-27 was a kind of counterbalance to the F-15. And although all these models at one time became a real breakthrough and a major achievement in the field of aircraft construction, modern doctrines require the development of a fundamentally new fighter that combines excellent flight characteristics with stealth technology. The aircraft, the construction of which is based on such a concept, should not only be inaccessible to radar, but also have the qualities of a multi-purpose supersonic and super-maneuverable combat vehicle.

The American stealth aircraft F-117 could not bring its designers closer to the desired goal. This machine had very modest flight characteristics and could not take part in serious air battles. The United States Air Force spent huge budgetary funds on the development of a truly effective and invisible winged predator. However, they were able to get closer to the implementation of this task only in the fall of 1997, when tests of the F-22 Raptor fighter began.

But this time, American aircraft manufacturers could not count on unconditional superiority. Since the Sukhoi Design Bureau began flight tests of the S-37 Berkut machine only two weeks later than its competitors. According to authoritative estimates by military experts, the Russian fighter is significantly superior to the Raptor, mainly due to the unique reverse-swept wing. All this brought the competition between engineering and technology to a new round of confrontation.

After the ambitiously named "Desert Storm" operation to take over the Iraqis, US military officials tirelessly praised their Lockheed F-117A aircraft. These "black ghosts", who carried out several devastating raids on Baghdad, could not even be seen by the Iraqi air defenses on the monitors of their radar stations. This Stealth aircraft, whose photo shows the ideal geometry of the machine, was the embodiment of thirty years of efforts by American engineers to develop this technology.

Back in 1962, Lockheed made attempts to create an A-12 stealth aircraft. At first, these attempts did not bring the desired result. You can also recall the Stealth aircraft, the famous SR-71 aerial reconnaissance aircraft of that time, which received its nickname "Black Bird" due to the special coating that absorbed radio waves in the corresponding color. In the early 1970s, with the rapid development of computer technology and programming, it became possible to simulate flight on a computer. So the car was designed, which had minimal radio visibility. Already in 1975, Lockheed designers created the first prototype of a stealth aircraft. In the winter of 1977, the new generation F-117A combat vehicle took off for the first time, and six years later it was adopted by the US Air Force.

Encouraged by this success, the Pentagon instructed the Northrop company to develop a new strategic bomber using the same technology, invulnerable to enemy air defenses. The work, which lasted nine years, ended with the construction of the machine, which received the code designation B-2. When creating all their “invisibles”, the Americans did not use the technologies of aliens, which was a lot of fables, but the theoretical developments of our compatriots.

To absorb radio radiation, they used a special ferromagnetic coating on the case. In addition, the Americans resorted to many additional tricks. For example, in the car itself, almost all elements were made of non-reflective composite materials, such as All engines were equipped with noise-reducing shrouds and forced cooling systems that reduce the intensity of infrared emissions. And a lot of other things were used in the American "invisibles".

But here a reasonable question arises about the effectiveness of all these tricks. And then it turns out that huge funds (many billions of dollars!) Wasted in vain. First of all, these machines turned out to be so capricious in operation that it was possible to prepare them for flight only at base airfields. In addition, it turned out along the way that as soon as the Stealth gets wet, it begins to clearly appear on the radar screens, like the invisible man from the famous novel by HG Wells. Perhaps for this reason, during the hostilities in Yugoslavia, the F-117А was shot down in one of the very first sorties.

But finally, the research of American scientists and aircraft manufacturers in this area was finally finished off by an invention made in Russia, where a fundamentally new technology for creating radio invisibility was developed. Near the aircraft, special plasma clouds are generated that absorb electromagnetic waves so intensely that the visibility of the machine on the screens of radar stations is reduced by more than a hundred times.

Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk American tactical bomber developed by Lockheed Martin in the late 1970s. The first serial aircraft based on the use of stealth technologies.

History of the F-117

The ability to create a combat aircraft that would be invisible to enemy radars has been a dream of the military since the advent of air defense radars. Even during the Second World War, German aircraft designers tried to make their cars invisible, and this work continued after the war as part of various research programs. In the 1960s, as part of a project to create a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, some techniques were actively used, however, due to the enormous power of the engines and the speeds that literally heated the hull, the aircraft did not become invisible. However, the potential was noticeable.

In 1977, the Pentagon formed an experimental committee "XCom", whose task was to bring stealth technology to the level of practical applicability. It was then, based on the developments in SR-71, as well as the test results for the secret XST program, that the committee authorized the Senior Prom programs (the ACM stealth cruise missile grew out of it), ATB (which became a bomber), and, finally, Senior Trend, which resulted in the F-117.

Since most of the work on the Senior Trend was carried out in the Skunk Works laboratories, the development contract went to the owner of the laboratories, Lockheed Martin. The requirements of the secrecy regime were ultra-high, evidence of this is the name of the aircraft - the F-117 fell out of the general line of aircraft:, and so on. According to an unspoken rule, in the US Air Force, secret aircraft received three-digit numbers.

F-117 design

The design of the aircraft is based on stealth technology. The aircraft itself was built according to the aerodynamic scheme "flying wing" with a V-shaped plumage. Completely uncharacteristic for subsonic aircraft, a large swept wing (67.5 °) with a sharp leading edge, a wing profile outlined by straight lines, a faceted fuselage formed by flat trapezoidal and triangular panels are located in such a way relative to each other to reflect electromagnetic waves away from the radar enemy. Flat air intakes located above the wing on both sides of the fuselage have longitudinal baffles made of radio-absorbing materials. Part of the cold air flow is separated at the inlet to the air intakes and, bypassing the engines, enters flat nozzles shielded by the wing, the bottom panels of which are covered with heat-absorbing ceramic tiles, which significantly reduces the infrared visibility of the aircraft. The aircraft has no external suspension, all weapons are placed inside the fuselage.

The aircraft design widely used polymer composite materials and radar-absorbing materials and coatings, only 10% of the structure is made of metals. tens of times less than the EPR of conventional aircraft of similar sizes.

Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk - the first stealth. Skyships channel video

It is worth noting that for the high stealth performance had to pay low flight performance. The plane is very difficult to control - a sophisticated automatic control system was developed just to keep it stable in the air. Naturally, in the event of visual detection by enemy fighters, the F-117 was doomed - its maneuverability is barely higher than that of the Shuttle. In addition, the shape of the aircraft completely excluded the possibility of breaking the sound barrier. Nevertheless, when criticizing the machine, it should be borne in mind that the F-117 is a tactical bomber, not a fighter, and maneuvering combat in targeting was not provided for such an aircraft at all.

Weapons compartment - two-section, with a system of retractable beam holders. Typical weapons are two GBU-10 or GBU-27 guided aerial bombs. It is possible to install AGM-88 HARM, AGM-65 "Maverick" missiles, B-61 or B-83 atomic bombs (two each), GBU-15 bombs or BLU-9 container. It is possible to install rail guides for AIM-9 "Sidewinder" on the beam.

Production

All production aircraft were produced in modification "A". 64 units produced, the last serial copy was delivered to the US Air Force in 1990.

F-117 operation

The fact of the existence of the F-117 aircraft was first officially recognized on November 10, 1988, when the Pentagon issued a press release describing the history of the aircraft and released one retouched photograph. The first public display of two F-117s took place on April 21, 1990. At the air show in Le Bourget, the aircraft was first presented only in 1991 after Operation Desert Storm.

Accidents and disasters

In the entire history of the operation of the F-117 aircraft, according to official figures, 7 aircraft were lost, including one F-117 was shot down during the fighting.

Combat use

• US invasion of Panama (1989)
• Gulf War (1991)
• Operation Desert Fox (1998)
• NATO war against Yugoslavia (1999)
• Iraqi War (2003)

Decommissioning

The US Air Force planned to use the F-117 until 2018, but the increase in program costs and the obsolescence of the bomber in front of the new fighter forced the F-117 to be abandoned in favor of the F-22.