Project "Have Blue"

The F-117A was the first warplane to be specifically designed from the outset for low radar operability. The Lockheed Advanced Development Company (better known as the "Skunk Works") began working on stealth as far back as the late 1950s, and low radar operability had played a role in the design of the A-12/YF-12/SR-71 series of Mach 3+ aircraft.

During 1975, Skunk Work engineers began working on an aircraft which would have a greatly reduced radar cross section that would make it all but invisible to enemy radars, but would nevertheless still be able to fly and carry out its combat mission. The technique that they came up with was known as faceting, in which the ordinarily smooth surface of the airframe is broken up into a series of trapezoidal or triangular flat surfaces arranged in such a way that the vast majority of the radar incident on the aircraft from a source will be scattered away from the aircraft at odd angles, leaving very little to be reflected directly back into the receiver. An additional reduction in radar cross section was to be obtained by covering the entire surface of the aircraft with radar absorbent material (RAM). One of the disadvantages involved in the use of faceting on aerodynamic surfaces was that it tended to produce an aircraft which was inherently unstable about all three axes - pitch, roll, and yaw.

In early 1977, Lockheed received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the construction of two 60-percent scale flyable test aircraft under a project named Have Blue. The name Have Blue seems to have no specific meaning, probably having been chosen at random from an approved list of secret project names. Shortly after the Have Blue contract was let, the project was transferred over to Air Force System Command control and became highly "black", with all information about it being highly classified and restricted to those with a need to know. Outside of a few people at Lockheed and the Defense Department, no one knew that Have Blue even existed.

The two Have Blue aircraft were built at Lockheed in only a few months. The first example was intended to evaluate the type's flying characteristics, whereas the second was to evaluate the radar signature. In order to save some time and some money, existing off-the-shelf components were used where feasible. The engines were a pair of standard production non-afterburning General Electric J85s, mounted in enclosures sitting atop the wings. The main landing gear was taken from a Fairchild Republic , and fly-by-wire components were scavenged from an F-16. The instrumentation and the ejector seat were taken from a Northrop F-5. The Have Blue aircraft had the same general shape as that which would later become familiar with the F-117A, except that the twin rudders were located forward of the exhaust ejectors and were angled inward rather than outward. The inward cant was about 30 degrees.

The leading edge of the semi-delta wing was swept back at 72.5 degrees. The wing featured two inboard trailing edge elevons for pitch and roll control. Four spoilers (two on top of the wing and two on the bottom) were mounted just forward of the elevons. There were no flaps or speed brakes. The wing trailing edge was less deeply notched than that of the F-117A. A single cockpit with an ejector seat was provided. The Have Blue aircraft employed V-type windshields (similar to those of the F-102/F-106). No weapons bay nor any sort of tactical equipment at all was fitted.

The Have Blue aircraft were equipped with fly-by-wire (FBW) flight controls which were adapted from the F-16 system. However, the system had to be modified to handle an aircraft that was unstable about all three axes (the F-16 is unstable only about the pitch axis). The problem of designing a stealthy system for airspeed measurement had not yet been solved, and the aircraft were equipped with a conventional pitot tube which was retracted when they were being tested for radar reflections. The inertial navigation system provided enough speed data for test purposes when the probe was retracted.

Two prototypes were built at a cost of $37 million for both aircraft. Lockheed workers assembled the two Have Blue aircraft in a cordoned-off area in Lockheed's Plant 10 facility housed at the USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. Neither aircraft ever received an official DoD designation, or did they get a USAF serial number. However, Lockheed did give the aircraft its own manufacturer's serial numbers: 1001 and 1002, meaning Plant 10, aircraft numbers 1 and 2.

The first example (1001) was finished in November of 1977. In order to keep the project away from prying eyes, the Have Blue prototype was shipped out to the Groom Lake Test Facility in Nevada in high secrecy for the test flights. Groom Lake is located in a particularly remote area of the Nellis test range complex, and is a good location for the testing of secret aircraft. A camouflage paint scheme was applied to make it hard for unwanted observers at Groom Lake to determine the aircraft's shape.

The first flight of the Have Blue took place in January or February of 1978 (the exact date is still classified), veteran Lockheed test pilot William M. "Bill" Park being at the controls. At an early stage, Bill Park was assisted in the flight test program by Lt. Col. Norman Kenneth "Ken" Dyson of the USAF.

Flight test of the Have Blue initially went fairly smoothly, and the fly-by-wire system functioned well. The landing speed was quite high (160 knots), as expected because of the lack of flaps or speed brakes. However, on May 4, 1978, Have Blue prototype number 1001 was landing after a routine test flight when it hit the ground excessively hard, jamming the right main landing gear in a semi-retracted position. Pilot Bill Park pulled the aircraft back into the air, and repeatedly tried to shake the gear back down again. After his third attempt failed, he was ordered to take the aircraft up to 10,000ft and eject. Park ejected successfully, but he hit his head and was knocked unconscious. Since he was unable to control his parachute during descent or landing, his back was severely injured on impact. He survived, but was forced to retire from flying. The Have Blue aircraft was destroyed in the crash. The wreckage was secretly buried somewhere on the Nellis test range complex.

Have Blue 1002 arrived at Groom Lake shortly after the loss of HB1001. It took to the air for the first time in June of 1978, Lt.Col. Ken Dyson at the controls. From mid-1978 until early 1890, Lt.Col. Dyson flew more than 65 test sorties, testing the response of the aircraft to various types of radar threats. The Have Blue prototype 1002 proved to be essentially undetectable by all airborne radars except the Boeing E-3 AWACS, which could only acquire the aircraft at short ranges. Most ground-based missile tracking radars could detect the Have Blue only after it was well inside the minimum range for the surface-to-air missiles with which they were associated. Neither ground-based radars nor air-to-air missile guidance radars could lock onto the aircraft. It was found that the best tactic to avoid radar detection was to approach the radar site head on, presenting the Have Blue's small nose-on signature.

It was found that the application of the RAM was rather tricky, and that ground crews had to be careful to seal all joints thoroughly before each flight. RAM came in linoleum-like sheets which was cut to shape and bonded to the skin to cover large areas. Doors and access panels had to be carefully checked and adjusted for a tight fit between flights and all gaps had to be filled in with conductive tape and then covered over with RAM. Paint-type RAM was available, but it had to be built up by hand, coat by coat. Even the gaps around the canopy and the fuel-filler door had to be filled with paint-type RAM before each flight. Ground crews had to even make sure that all surface screws were completely tight, since even one loose screw for an access panel could make the aircraft show up like a "barn door coming over the horizon" during radar signature tests.

Have Blue number 1002 was lost in July of 1979. During its 52nd flight, with Lt.Col. Dyson at the controls, one of its J85 engines caught fire. The subsequent fire got so intense that the hydraulic fluid lines were burned through. Lt.Col. Dyson was forced to eject, and 1002 was a total loss. It too was secretly buried somewhere on the Nellis test range complex.

Length: 38 ft Wingspan: 22 ft 6 in Height: 7 ft 6 in. Gross Weight: 12,500 lb. Propulsion: Two J85-GE-4A non-afterburning turbojets Max. Speed: Mach 0.8 Flight Time: 1 hour

Name/Designation	F-117A NightHawk 'Black Jet' 'Stealth Fighter'
Type	Low observable strike plane for precision attacks against heavily defended targets
Crew	One pilot
Length	65 ft, 11 in (20.08 m)
Height	12 ft, 5 in (3.78 m)
Wingspan	43 ft, 4 in (13.20 m)
Aspect Ratio	about 4.3
Wing Area	1,140.00 sq. ft (105.9 m²)
Frontal Radar Cross-section	(0.01 to 0.001 m²)
Propulsion	Two General Electric F404-GE-F1D2 non-afterburning engines
Engine Thrust	10,800 lb. (48.04 kN)
Empty Weight	30,000 lb. (13608 kg)
Max. Take-off Weight	52,500 lb. (23814 kg)
Max. Ordnance Load	5,000 lb. (2268 kg)
Max. Speed, clean	Just short of Mach 1
Max. Operational Speed at Altitude	Mach 0.9
g limits	+6
Range with Max. Load	600 nm 691 miles (1112 km)
Typical Weapon Load	Two GBU-27 2,000 lb. (907 kg) hardened laser guided bombs
Weapons Carried: GBU-12 500 lb. (227 kg) and GBU-10 2,000 lb. (907 kg) laser guided bombs. GBU-27 2,000 lb. (907 kg) hardened laser guided bombs.

In Late Nov 1977 at night the F-117s were loaded onboard a C-5 galaxy to be flown out to the desert for testing.

Lebanon October 23, 1983 a suicide truck-bomb attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon kills 241 and wounds 100 others.

Libya April 5, 1986 2:00 am - a bomb explodes in the La Bella Discotheque killing two GIs and a Turkish woman. The bombing is linked to Libyan sponsored terrorists through SIGINT (Signals Intelligence).

On December 19, 1989 six F-117as took off to attack targets in Panama in support of Operation Just Cause. Two F-117as turned back when their target strikes were cancelled. With two backup F-117as the remaining two conducted an attack on the barrack buildings near Rio Hato. The mission was to bomb close enough to a barracks to stun and confuse the occupants thus making there capture easier and hopefully reducing causalities.

A last minute change of plans led the first pilot to drop his bomb on the second plane's target and also fail to compensate for wind. The second pilot, briefed ro release his bomb at a fixed distance and bearing from the first bomb, missed the field he was supposed to hit. The two GBU-27 laser guided bombs exploded near a third barracks building wrecking it and burning out an empty cantina.

Despite the mix-up the mission goal was achieved as the special forces troops tasked with securing the barracks and their occupants found out. The barracks were taken with light casualties.

On August 19,1990 22 Black Jets from the 415th and a dozen KC-135Q tankers from Beale AFB left Tonopah for Langley AFB where the black jets would stay overnight. The next day, KC-10A's of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing from March AFB joined up with the F-117A's for the 15 hour trip across the Atlantic requiring 7 refuelings. Four spare F-117As returned to Tonopah, leaving 18 to continue to Saudi Arabia for Operation DESERT SHIELD.

On December 2, the second installment of 20 F-117As of the 416th took off for Langley AFB. The next day 18 of the 20 continued to Saudi Arabia. The black jets were based at Khamas Mushait, about 650 miles due South of Baghdad.

Combat Performance in Operation Desert Storm
Number of F-117A nighthawks Available	36 then 42 after Day 9 of the War 1/26/91
Number of Sorties	1,271
Days of Campaign	43
Total Combat Flight Hours	6,900+
Average Mission Length	5.4 hours
Total Bombs Released	2,040
GBU-27 2000 lb (907 kg)	739
GBU-10 2000 lb. (907kg) GBU-12 500 lb. (227kg)	1,301
Number of Hits Claimed	1,677
Range of Miss Distances for 360 of the claimed bomb "hits"	1.6 m to 164.5 m
Range of Miss Distances for the 70 identified misses.	3.2 m to 178.1 m
-	-
Number of Misses Identified	70
Number of Hits Confirmed	1,140
-	-
-	-
Total Tonnage Dropped	1,990
Losses	None
Damage	None

Failures That Prevented Bombs Being Dropped on F-117 Primary Strikes
	Number	Percent
Total primary strikes	2,271	100.0
-	-	-
Weather aborts	412	18.1
Air aborts	140	6.2
Ground aborts	17	0.8
-	-	-
Total primary strikes where no bombs were dropped	569	25.1
Total primary strikes where bombs were dropped	1,702	74.9

At 2:51 am (Saudi time) on January 17, 1991 Major Greg Feest struck the first blow to start Operation Desert Storm. His target was a sector operations headquarters that controlled all of the air defense radars in the Baghdad area.

Salata bombed Baghdad's , which directed all of the Iraqi air defense fighter aircraft, at H-hour-3 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1991-and a few minutes later he razed a radio relay station on his way out of the city. The first raid, carried out by 10 Nighthawks, was so unexpected the city's lights were still on when Salata released his first bomb.

A second wave of F-117A's reached Baghdad at 4:00 am. Following shortly was a third wave of eight Black Jets. Of the 60 LGBs carried by the F-117As that night, 11 were not released because the pilots were not able to get a positive identification of the target or were not confident that their weapons would guide properly. Of the 49 LGBs dropped, only 28 actually hit their aim point. Most of the misses were at outlying targets, away from densely populated areas. However, the F-117As had taken out the most heavily defended strategic sites and cleared the way for unstealthy Coalition aircraft to operate with some degree of safety.

On the second night there was a severe storm (the worse weather in 14 years) and only 23 hits were achieved. Despite this, one pilot bagged one of Iraq's three Adnan-2s' (Soviet Il-76s converted to AWACS).

Only six hits were scored on the third night. On the fourth night things turned for the better as 17 targets were destroyed. However, two air aborts, and one ground abort helped limit the number of hits on the fifth night to just 17 again.

The nights of the 21-22 had excellent fighting weather allowing 14 aircraft of the 416th to register 26 hits and two misses on targets in the Baghdad area. These targets included: The Ministry of Defense, the Air Force Headquarters, the GID (Internal Security) Headquarters, the presidential palace and retreat, HAWK sites of captured American made Kuwaiti owned surface to air missiles, and a biological warfare facility that Iraq later tried to pass off as a "baby milk factory". On January 26, eight more F-117A's arrived in Saudi Arabia bringing the total number of stealth fighters in the theater up to 42.

Aircraft #	Squadron	Stealth Fighter's Name	# of missions
786	416th TFS	"War Pig"	24
789	415th TFS	"Black Magic" (formerly "Night Stalker")	31
790	415th TFS	"Deadly Jester"(formerly "Obsidian")	30
791	415th TFS	"Lazy Ace"	33
793	415th TFS	"Wiley E. Coyote's Tritonal Express"	33
794	415th TFS	"Delta Dawn"	35
796	415th TFS	"Fatal Attraction"	29
797	416th TFS	"Spell Bound"	8(fewest)
798	415th TFS	"Aces and Eights"	34
799	416th TFS	"Midnight Rider"	21
801	415th TFS	"Perpetrator"	38
802	416th TFS	"Black Magic"	19
803	416th TFS	"Unexpected Guest"	33
806	415th TFS	"Something Wicked"	39
807	415th TFS	"The Chickenhawk"	14
808	415th TFS	"Thor"	37
810	416th TFS	"Dark Angel"	26
811	415th TFS	"Double Down"	33
812	415th TFS	Unnamed, flown by Brian "Axel" Foley	42(most)
813	416th TFS	"The Toxic Avenger"	35
814	416th TFS	"Final Verdict"	34
816	415th TFS	"Lone Wolf"	39
817	416th TFS	"Shaba"	18
818	415th TFS	"The Overachiever"	38
819	416th TFS	"Raven Beauty"	30
821	415th TFS	"Sneak Attack"	32
825	415th TFS	"Mad Max"	33
826	415th TFS	"Nachtflake"	29
829	416th TFS	"Avenging Angel"	23
830	416th TFS	"Black Assassin"	31
832	416th TFS	"Once Bitten"	30
833	416th TFS	"Black Devil"	30
835	416th TFS	"The Dragon"	26
836	416th TFS	"Christine"	39
837	416th TFS	"Habu II"	31
838	416th TFS	"Magic Hammer"	36
839	415th TFS	"Midnight Reaper"	39
840	416th TFS	"Black Widow"	32
841	416th TFS	"Mystic Warrior"	18
842	416th TFS	"It's Hammertime"	33
843	415th TFS	"Affectionately Christine"	33

On January 13, 1993 six F-117a's each carrying a single LGB attacked SAM sites, the SOC at Tallil and the IOC at Al Amara.

The facility at Al Amara was virtually destroyed but all of the SAM targets were missed due to broken laser locks caused by low level clouds. The SOC at Tallil could not be found by the Stealth Fighter assigned to it.

The military thinks that a combination of clever tactics, quick learning and luck came together in the downing of the F-117a stealth fighter over Serbia.

The F-117's, operating out of the Aviano air base in northern Italy, typically were flying missions at medium altitude, between 15,000ft and 25,000ft. That is close enough to drop their payloads with great accuracy, but out of reach of most of Yugoslavia's anti-aircraft batteries and surface-to-air missiles.

On the fourth night of the air war, March 27, around 8:45 in the evening an F-117 was heading back to base after dropping at least one of its 2,000-pound, laser-guided bombs on a target near heavily defended Belgrade. Suddenly, with little or no warning, an SA-3 missile flying at three times the speed of sound and guided by an improvised network of Serbian radars, exploded in a blast of shell fragments a fewft from the plane, slamming it into an uncontrolled dive. The missile's 130 lb warhead is designed to detonate when it gets within 20 ft of its target. Stunned by the explosion, the pilot struggled against what he said approached pressure five times the force of gravity to yank the handles below his seat to eject from the crippled warplane.

The SA-3 surface-to-air missile that brought down the F-117 was probably not used in a normal fashion, with its operators relying on their own local radars to detect the target leaving them vulnerable to anti-radiation missiles. Spotters in Serbia, and perhaps in Bosnia and along the Montenegrin coast, may have patched together enough quick glimpses of the warplane from scattered radars to track the elusive aircraft, however briefly, and to fire a missile at it from a battery near Belgrade.

Despite the extremely small radar signature of the plane a great amount of time goes into routing the flight path of each stealth fighter to minimize its exposure to known threats such as surface-to-air missile batteries and radar. At certain points in a mission however the stealth fighter can become quite visible to enemy radar. Turning suddenly at low altitudes can reflect radar waves right back to the radars that sent them. The most visible and risky moments are when the bomb bay door is open - briefly making the plane un-stealthy.

Military officials suspect that Serbian spotters, perhaps starting with agents in Italy watching the F-117's take off, were able to determine a time table of how long it took the planes took to cross the Adriatic and from there on to Belgrade. With this information Serbian radar operators had a better sense of when and where to watch for the plane. Once the aircraft's radar reflection crossed their screens all the radar operators would be alerted down the line. When the F-117 dropped one of its two laser guided bombs on a target near Belgrade this probably provided the final clues to fix its position and fire several missiles.

Enough was known to "cue" up the SA-3's own radar so the operator had only to briefly flip it on to track and fire. After the F-117 was shot down other planes on bombing runs recorded instances when the Serbian forces lobbed surface-to-air missiles at them without radar guidance suggesting that this indeed was the tactic used to bring down the stealth jet - minimal or partial radar data guiding a volley of missiles.

Seven hours after the pilot ejected, a commando team snatched the downed pilot from his hiding place and whisked him back to allied hands, first in Bosnia, then to Italy.

Without careful examination of the wreckage some questions may never be answered.

The dense clouds that night may have played a role by allowing the jet black plane to be silhouetted against the dull gray sky by the glow from ground fire reflecting off the cloud ceiling.
Below is data from Janes Information Group on the SA-3 missile:

Development of the former USSR S-125 Neva air defense missile system, designated SA-3 'Goa' by NATO, began around 1956, at the Lavochkin OKB design bureau. It was designed to complement the SA-2 'Guideline' at low to medium altitudes and is considered by some to be a rough counterpart to the US HAWK system. The design of the SA-3's command guidance system benefited greatly from earlier work on the SA-2, and the SA-3 system closely paralleled the SA-2D 'Guideline' Mod 3 with its associated 'Fan Song E' engagement radar. The propulsion system was the first Soviet air defense missile to use solid propellant motors in both boost and sustain stages.

The SA-3 missile is a two stage weapon with a large solid propellant jettisonable tandem booster fitted with four large rectangular stabilizing fins. One of the unusual features of the design is the configuration of these booster fins. Prior to launch, the fins are folded forward with the leading edge against the booster casing. At launch, they pivot back 90 degrees. The main body is cylindrical in shape with four clipped delta shaped wings with antennas (command and beacon) on the tips aft of mid-point, four small clipped delta moving control fins well forward on the nose taper and four rectangular fins at the rear.

The F-117A Nighthawk is the world's first operational aircraft designed to exploit low-observable stealth technology. The unique design of the single-seat F-117A provides exceptional combat capabilities. About the size of an F-15 Eagle, the twin-engine aircraft is powered by two General Electric F404 turbofan engines and has quadruple redundant fly-by-wire flight controls. Air re-fuelable, it supports worldwide commitments and adds to the deterrent strength of the U.S. military forces.

The F-117A can employ a variety of weapons and is equipped with sophisticated navigation and attack systems integrated into a state-of-the-art digital avionics suite that increases mission effectiveness and reduces pilot workload. Detailed planning for missions into highly defended target areas is accomplished by an automated mission planning system developed, specifically, to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the F-117A.

Streamlined management by Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, combined breakthrough stealth technology with concurrent development and production to rapidly field the aircraft. The F-117A program has demonstrated that a stealth aircraft can be designed for reliability and maintainability. The aircraft maintenance statistics are comparable to other tactical fighters of similar complexity. Logistically supported by Sacramento Air Logistics Center, McClellan AFB, Calif., the F-117A is kept at the forefront of technology through a planned weapon system improvement program located at USAF Plant 42 at Palmdale, Calif. The Air Force thinking today is that it will phase out the Nighthawks after 2018.

The first F-117A was delivered in 1982, and the last delivery was in the summer of 1990. The F-117A production decision was made in 1978 with a contract awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, the "Skunk Works," in Burbank, Calif. The first flight was in 1981, only 31 months after the full-scale development decision. Lockheed-Martin delivered 59 stealth fighters to the Air Force between August 1982 and July 1990. Five additional test aircraft belong to the company.

Air Combat Command's only F-117A unit, the 4450th Tactical Group, achieved operational capability in October 1983. Since the F-117’s first Air Force flight in 1982, the aircraft has flown under different unit designations, including the 4450th Tactical Group and the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Tonapah Test Range, NV; the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, Nellis AFB, NV; the 410th Flight Test Squadron/410th Test Squadron, Palmdale, CA; and Detachment 1, Test Evaluation Group, also at Holloman, which falls under the 53rd Wing, Eglin AFB, FL.

The stealth fighter emerged from the classified world while stationed at Tonapah Airfield with an announcement by the Pentagon in November 1988 and was first shown publicly at Nellis in April 1990. The 4450th TG was deactivated in October 1989, and was reactivated as the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing.

In 1992 the F-117A Nighthawk made its new home at Holloman Air Force Base. The official arrival ceremony for the F-117 to Holloman AFB was conducted 09 May 1992. The 49th Fighter Wing (49FW) at Holloman serves as the only F-117 Home Station. The 49th Operations Group operates and maintains the F-117A aircraft. The 7th CTS "Screamin' Demons" serves as the transition training unit, preparing experienced Air Force pilots for assignment to the F-117A Nighthawk. The 8th and 9th Fighter Squadrons are designated to employ the F-117A Nighthawk in combat. Once an F-117 pilot has successfully completed training, he is then assigned to one of only two operational Nighthawk squadrons--the 8th FS "Black Sheep" and the 9th FS "Flying Knights." The 49FW provides full compliment of flight-line maintenance capabilities as well as back-shop support. The F-117 deploys in support of contingency operations, as directed by National Command Authorities. Flight-line maintenance support is deployed concurrent with the aircraft. Depending on the deployment duration, varying levels of back shop maintenance support may also be deployed.

The F-117A first saw action in December 1989 during Operation Just Cause in Panama.

The stealth fighter attacked the most heavily fortified targets during Desert Storm (January-February 1991) , and it was the only coalition jet allowed to strike targets inside Baghdad's city limits. The F-117A, which normally packs a payload of two 2,000-pound GBU-27 laser-guided bombs, destroyed and crippled Iraqi electrical power stations, military headquarters, communications sites, air defense operation centers, airfields, ammo bunkers, and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons plants.

Although only 36 stealth fighters were deployed in Desert Storm and accounted for 2.5 percent of the total force of 1,900 fighters and bombers, they flew more than a third of the bombing runs on the first day of the war. In all during Desert Storm, the stealth fighter conducted more than 1,250 sorties, dropped more than 2,000 tons of bombs, and flew more than 6,900 hours. More than 3,000 antiaircraft guns and 60 surface-to-air missile batteries protected the city, but despite this seemingly impenetrable shield, the Nighthawks owned the skies over the city and, for that matter, the country. The stealth fighter, which is coated with a secret, radar-absorbent material, operated over Iraq and Kuwait with impunity, and was unscathed by enemy guns.

In the opening phase of Allied Force, aimed primarily at Yugoslavia's integrated air defense system, NATO air forces conducted more than 400 sorties. During the first two night attacks, allied troops in the air and at sea struck 90 targets throughout Yugoslavia and in Kosovo. F-117 Nighthawks from the 8th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base NM participated in air strikes against targets in the Balkans during NATO operations. One F-117 fighter was lost over Yugoslavia on 27 March 1999. A US search and rescue team picked up the pilot several hours after the F-117 went down outside Belgrade. On 01 April 1999, Defense Secretary William Cohen directed 12 more F-117 stealth fighters to join NATO Operation Allied Force, to join the total of 24 F-117s that were participating in NATO Operation Allied Force.

Losses
Date	Aircraft	Pilot	Location	Reason
1978 May 4	HB1001	Bill Park	Area 51	Engine flame out after several landing attempts following hard landing; pilot ejects but is badly injured
1979 July 11	HB1002	Ken Dyson	Area 51	hydraulic system failure; pilot ejected safely
1982 April 20	Aircraft 785	Bob Riedenauer	Area 51	pitch and yaw rate gyro input crosswire leading to loss of control immediately after takeoff; pilot badly injured
1986 July 11	Aircraft 792	Major Ross E. Mulhare	Bakersfield, California	fatigue and spatial disorientation controlled flight into terrain; pilot killed
1987 Oct 14	Aircraft 815	Major Michael C. Stewart	Nellis range complex	fatigue and spatial disorientation controlled flight into terrain; pilot killed
1987 Oct 20	A-7D	Major Bruce L. Teagarden	near Indianapolis airport	pilot ejected safely after loss of power. Nine people killed on ground
1992 Aug 4	Aircraft 801	Captain John B. Mills	eight miles northwest of Holloman AFB	pilot ejected safely, improperly reinstalled bleed air duct caused hydraulic failure and fire
1995 May 10	Aircraft 822	Captain Ken Levens	Red Mesa at Zuri Indian reservation	spatial disorientation controlled flight into terrain; pilot killed
1997 Sept 14	Aircraft 793	Major Bryan Knight	Baltimore, Maryland	pilot ejected safely after aircraft breakup, elevon fasteners not reinstalled after maintance
1999 March 27/28	Aircraft 806	Captain Ken Dwelle	Serbia, 40 miles from Belgrade	shot down by Serbian SA-3, pilot rescued

Specifications
Primary Function	Fighter/attack
Contractor	Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co.
Power Plant	Two General Electric F404 engines
Length	65 feet, 11 inches (20.3 meters)
Height	12 feet, 5 inches (3.8 meters)
Weight	52,500 pounds (23,625 kilograms)
Wingspan	43 feet, 4 inches (13.3 meters)
Speed	High subsonic
Range	Unlimited with air refueling
Armament	Internal weapons carriage Two each of: 2 MK84 2000-pound 2 GBU-10 Paveway II 2 GBU-12 Paveway II 2 GBU-27 Paveway III 2 BLU 109 2 WCMD 2 Mark 61
Unit Cost $FY98 [Total Program]	$122 million
Crew	One
Date Deployed	1982
Inventory	Active force, 54; ANG, 0; Reserve, 0
PMAI Primary Mission Aircraft Inventory Only combat-coded aircraft and not development/ test, attrition reserve, depot maintenance, or training aircraft.	36 aircraft

Specifications