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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 4/98 F-117A N IGHTHAWK REMAINS USAF STAR PERFORMER by Karl Schwarz The Lockheed Martin F-117A marked the beginning of the stealth era for the US Air Force at the beginning of the eighties. Now as then the war proven Nighthawks are amongst the most precious planes of the US Air Force. During the years of the Cold War, and especially during Ronald Reagan's presidency, Americans invested billions in strictly confidential "black projects". Whether the money was always invested wisely is doubtful. However, the US Armed Forces procured some aircraft which can only be classed as bargains from today's point of view. The development and construction of the world's first operational stealth plane amounted to $6.5 billion (DM11.8 billion) in total. Out of this sum Lockheed calculated a need of $4.27 billion for the production of 59 aircraft, which were delivered between 1982 and July of 1990. New military buildings, such as hangars and other constructions at Groom Lake and Tonopah, incurred further costs of 295 million dollars. According to this calculation there were around two billion dollars left for Lockheed's Skunk Works in Palmdale to get one of history's most revolutionary planes airborne - a most impressive achievement, which was awarded many important rewards. The investment into the program, which was known under the code name "Blue Haven" in the Gulf War in 1991, has paid off. During the Gulf War, the F-117, according to official information, destroyed approximately 40 per cent of all strategic targets, although the 45 deployed Nighthawks only made up for 2,5 per cent of the coalition's fighter jet fleet. Reportedly, 80 percent of the F-117's weapons employments resulted in hits (1669 hits, 418 misses). This quota had never been achieved before. Between 16 and 18 February, 1991, approximately 1275 sorties were flown without any damage to any of the F-117s. However, today these figures are being regarded with scepticism, as are many pieces of information concerning the Gulf War. Most of all, it must be considered that the fight against Iraq did not necessarily represent a typical scenario and, the overwhelming success was achieved under some very specific conditions. The F-117's Achilles heal are the aircraft's passive infrared sensors which only allow precision sorties during fair weather, i.e. in the absence of rain or thick cloud covers. After years of strict secrecy, during which training flights were only undertaken at nights, the F-117 fleet has become a fairly normal component of the Air Combat Command. Instead of secluding the aircraft in Tonopah, the F-117A are setting out from the Holloman AFB in New Mexico, from where the German Air Force is also accomplishing training missions with the F-4 and Tornado fighter aircraft. Even though the Nighthawk with its stealth characteristics is a revolutionary design, it represents the late 70s technology. It is now necessary to upgrade some of the systems. The three mission computers and the cockpit layout have been changed already. Colour displays are being installed. The autopilot has been considerably improved, decreasing the pilot's workload tremendously, especially in the target area. On 22 January 1997 Lockheed Martin delivered the first F-117A with the "RNIP-Plus"-navigation system from Honeywell after it had been overhauled in Palmdale (California). The F-117A now operates with laser gyroscopes and a GPS receiver, giving the aircraft a much higher precision than the inertia platforms did, which were previously used and which could show deviations of several hundred meters during a flight. Apart from this, the old system was more expensive to maintain. It is also planned to change the fleet to the US standard flight warning system (AFMSS, Air Force Mission Support System). As far as the F-117's weaponry is concerned, which was up to now limited to laser guided bombs, the jet will now be able to deploy GPS-guided bombs like JDAM or the distance weapon JSOW also. For this reason, interfaces to the aircraft's navigation system will have to be created, supplying these weapons with their precise release point. As far as the 49th Fighter Wing is concerned, technical experts are hoping to make progress by applying new coating materials and procedures. In this area, Lockheed is able to fall back on findings from the F-22 development. The maintenance of the coating is especially labour intensive since the radar absorbing materials are quite susceptible to rain and fuel. This is why during normal operation planes are rarely used with perfect coating. Provided they are treated well, the Nighthawks will have a long service life - a total of 6000 flight hours should not create a problem. Anyway, the USAF does not seem to think of retiring its first stealth fighter before the year 2018. The F-22 may become a possible successor, combining low detectability with supersonic flight. From page 14 of FLUG REVUE 4/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 4/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated March 6, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany