Photo by Joe Oliva OR 20 years, the Air Force has enjoyed a monopoly on stealth F combat aircraft. No other na- tion appears to be even close to deploying a capability like the F-117 Nighthawk, which made its first flight in June 1981. The Air Force plans to keep stealth at the center of its strategy, even as it evolves the technology and prac- tice of low observables to over- match the attempts of adversaries to counter it. “Stealth”—a catchall term that encompasses technologies and tac- tics intended to reduce the detect- ability of a vehicle—has given the United States a previously unimag- ined dominance in modern warfare. The F-117 was the star of the 1991 Gulf War, routinely destroying the most fiercely defended targets in Baghdad and returning untouched. In the 1999 Balkans war, the B-2 bomber, one generation of stealth beyond the F-117, stole the show in its combat debut by precisely hitting over a dozen targets per mission— against air defenses that had gone to school on the lessons of the Gulf War. It also returned without a scratch. In short, stealth contributed enormously to the lopsided victories of the last decade. Fielding of the next generation of stealth aircraft—the F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter—awaits the results of the Pentagon’s ongoing strategy re- view, due to be completed in the fall. Air Force officials, however, are confident the Bush Administration will see the indisputable value of stealth as the enabler of swift mili- tary victories. USAF plans an all-stealth force in its future, according to Maj. Gen. (sel.) David A. Deptula, the ser- vice’s national defense review di- rector. In March, Deptula told the House Armed Services subcommit- The F-117A stealth fighter first flew 20 years ago this month. By John A. Tirpak, Senior Editor tee on procurement that the Air Force’s stealth airplanes will be able to “operate with great preci- sion and survivability in the mod- ern air defense environment—an environment where nonstealthy air- craft simply cannot go.” America’s intelligence, surveillance, and re- Two Decades of Stealth connaissance assets, “networked avionics,” communications sys- tems—and stealth—represent “the 32 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2001 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2001 33 Photo by Joe Oliva OR 20 years, the Air Force has enjoyed a monopoly on stealth F combat aircraft. No other na- tion appears to be even close to deploying a capability like the F-117 Nighthawk, which made its first flight in June 1981. The Air Force plans to keep stealth at the center of its strategy, even as it evolves the technology and prac- tice of low observables to over- match the attempts of adversaries to counter it. “Stealth”—a catchall term that encompasses technologies and tac- tics intended to reduce the detect- ability of a vehicle—has given the United States a previously unimag- ined dominance in modern warfare. The F-117 was the star of the 1991 Gulf War, routinely destroying the most fiercely defended targets in Baghdad and returning untouched. In the 1999 Balkans war, the B-2 bomber, one generation of stealth beyond the F-117, stole the show in its combat debut by precisely hitting over a dozen targets per mission— against air defenses that had gone to school on the lessons of the Gulf War. It also returned without a scratch. In short, stealth contributed enormously to the lopsided victories of the last decade. Fielding of the next generation of stealth aircraft—the F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter—awaits the results of the Pentagon’s ongoing strategy re- view, due to be completed in the fall. Air Force officials, however, are confident the Bush Administration will see the indisputable value of stealth as the enabler of swift mili- tary victories. USAF plans an all-stealth force in its future, according to Maj. Gen. (sel.) David A. Deptula, the ser- vice’s national defense review di- rector. In March, Deptula told the House Armed Services subcommit- The F-117A stealth fighter first flew 20 years ago this month. By John A. Tirpak, Senior Editor tee on procurement that the Air Force’s stealth airplanes will be able to “operate with great preci- sion and survivability in the mod- ern air defense environment—an environment where nonstealthy air- craft simply cannot go.” America’s intelligence, surveillance, and re- Two Decades of Stealth connaissance assets, “networked avionics,” communications sys- tems—and stealth—represent “the 32 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2001 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2001 33 stealth expert with Lockheed Martin, now working on the F-22 program. “However,” he continued, “the real technological advantage is the inte- Photo by Joe Oliva gration and systems engineering. It’s not just having some material in your hand that’s able to absorb X number of [decibels]. “It’s the ability to take that and design it in, produce it, deploy it, and support it. A lot of people can build models that are high perform- ing, but when you have to put wheels on the ramp and then support those, that’s where the real technology is.” Don’t Ask, Won’t Tell The Air Force has been under- standably reluctant to discuss the Twenty years later, no other nation has yet fielded a stealth aircraft comparable specifics of how the F-117 was to the F-117. It applies a variety of techniques—shaping, materials, tech- brought down in Kosovo, preferring nology—to hide from sensors as sophisticated as radar down to the human eye. to keep US adversaries in the dark about what tactics might have been effective against the stealth fighter. United States’ asymmetric advan- Senior service leaders say that, However, senior USAF officials re- tage and are key to retaining our while it would have been preferable port privately that stealth technol- position as the world’s sole super- to keep pieces of the F-117 from ogy itself was not to blame in the power,” he told the House panel. enemy hands, neither stealth in gen- loss. USAF’s still-strong enthusiasm eral nor the F-117 in particular are in According to these officials, the for low observable technology, how- especially greater peril because of true culprits were NATO constraints ever, is tempered somewhat by the what happened in the Balkans. on how F-117s could approach Ko- reality that, after 20 years, the con- “It doesn’t worry me,” said Gen. sovo in the early days of Operation cept of stealth—once a word not John P. Jumper, head of Air Combat Allied Force, the intense media cov- even uttered for fear of compro- Command. erage of aircraft taking off from mise—is no longer a secret. The From the pieces of the F-117 alone, Aviano, Italy, and the presence in principles underlying stealth are now Jumper said, it would be “very, very Italy of spies who sent immediate widely understood, and the nation’s hard to duplicate” a stealth aircraft reports of air activity to Serbian gun- adversaries have had 13 years to by reverse engineering it. ners. These factors allowed the Serbs study the F-117—from a distance— He went on, “There are intricacies to make gross estimates of the where- and attempt to calculate its weak- to stealth that come with our many abouts of aircraft en route to targets nesses. years of experience.” Pieces alone— in Yugoslavia, the F-117 among them. without the means to duplicate the “We were more predictable than we Stealth’s Mystique way they were manufactured or their should have been, under the circum- “Stealth is a huge advantage,” said overall shape on the aircraft—could stances,” said one senior official. Gen. Michael E. Ryan, USAF Chief only give small hints about what About 20 miles outside of Bel- of Staff. However, he added, stealth makes the F-117 stealthy. grade, the F-117’s luck ran out. An aircraft are “not invisible,” and the One program official speculated undetected surface-to-air missile mystique of stealth as a cloak of that US adversaries have probably battery was lurking in the darkness invulnerability, allowing solo pen- already formed some ideas about below. It had not appeared on in- etrations of enemy airspace under how the F-117 works after watch- telligence maps of the area, and the any conditions “simply isn’t sup- ing it for 13 years. Being able to F-117 pilot was not aware of it. When ported by science.” “put a micrometer on [some of the the F-117 became briefly visible on What might have been the most pieces] isn’t going to tell them a radar as it opened its bomb bay doors, sobering event in the short history of whole lot extra that they didn’t al- Serb radar operators on the ground, stealth was the loss, in March 1999, ready know.” He added that Air aware that an F-117 would be enter- of an F-117 to enemy fire in Kosovo. Force “Red Team” specialists— ing their area, had a momentary op- It shattered the aura of invincibility whose job it is to look for and iden- portunity to shoot. It is possible that that had been enjoyed by the aircraft tify vulnerabilities in stealth—still they didn’t even have a radar lock on until that point. The Serb foe pa- find the F-117 “a challenge, and the stealth airplane but were close raded the wreckage on television. they have all the data” on it.