Key Points and Summary – The F-117 Nighthawk, or, what we like to call the F-117 Stealth Fighter, the world’s first operational stealth aircraft, amassed a stellar and extensive combat record.
Debuting in Panama in 1989, it became legendary during Operation Desert Storm, where it flew 1,300 sorties and crippled Iraq’s air defenses.
It served again over Kosovo, in Afghanistan after 9/11, and in the “shock and awe” campaign of the Second Gulf War.
Its near-perfect record was marred by only a single combat loss, when one was famously shot down by a Serbian surface-to-air missile in 1999, an event that shocked the world.
The F-117 Nighthawk Had a Stellar Combat Record
The F-117 Nighthawk was a curious-looking bird, and much about it was kept a secret.
But the Nighthawk was a workhorse for decades and in numerous conflicts.
From the wars in the former Yugoslavia, to Operation Desert Storm, the Second Gulf War, and Afghanistan, the Air Force depended greatly on the Nighthawk, the world’s first operational stealth warplane.
Cutting Its Teeth Over Panama
The F-117 Stealth Fighter first saw combat during Operation Just Cause in Panama to remove drug lord and dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989. It was used to destroy a critical airfield and hamper Panama’s military response to the invasion.
The Nighthawk Enjoyed Destroying Many Targets in Iraq
In 1990 and 1991, the Nighthawk was instrumental in suppressing enemy air defenses during Operation Desert Storm. The F-117 went after numerous high-value targets, flying at least 1,300 sorties in Iraq.
By evading radar, the Nighthawk punished Saddam Hussein’s forces, hitting their command and control centers, radar, and surface-to-air missile systems with laser-guided bombs. The Nighthawk also dropped bunker-busting bombs on an Iraqi air-raid shelter, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths – a mistaken act that human-rights organizations decried.
In 1999, the F-117 played a major role in the war in Kosovo, during Operation Allied Force, bombing targets in Serbia. However, not all went well. On March 27, 1999, a Nighthawk was shot down over Serbia.
Two surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) engaged the F-117 – Russian-made Isayev S-125 “Neva” SAMs. The pilot took evasive maneuvers, but one missile hit dead-on. The airplane was going down fast, and Lt. Col. Darrell Patrick “Dale” Zelko punched out. He landed safely near the town of Ruma in southern Serbia. Zelko hid in a ditch until help arrived just hours later in the form of Air Force pararescue operators. The “PJs” took him out in a Sikorsky MH-53 helicopter.
Another F-117 was damaged during Operation Allied Force, but it returned safely to Germany.
Instrumental During the War on Terror
After 9/11, the F-117 Stealth Fighter was in the game again. The Air Force wanted to conduct massive aerial attacks against al Qaeda and Taliban militants to soften defenses for follow-on special operations forces. Since there were no SAMs in Afghanistan, the Nighthawk was able to drop its precision-guided munitions without resistance.
The next test for the Nighthawk came during the Second Gulf War. The F-117 participated in the shock and awe campaign against Iraq to prepare the way for ground troops to move in and eliminate the Hussein regime, take over Baghdad, and install a friendly government.
Hussein himself was a target for F-117s on the first night of the war. U.S. intelligence believed the Iraqi strongman was cowering in a command center in southern Baghdad’s Al Rashid district.
The two F-117s assigned to the mission were armed with bunker-busting EGBU-27 Advanced Paveway III bombs, and they dropped these effectively. However, Hussein was hidden elsewhere.
The Nighthawks required a significant amount of maintenance, but the stealth warbirds were pilot-friendly, as they locked in on targets. The fly-by-wire system worked well, although the jet could be unstable at times.
Maj. Gen. Greg Feest dropped the first bomb of Operation Desert Storm in an F-117, and he vividly recalls flying the airplane. “One advantage of the F-117 cockpit was its avionics. Most of it came from other aircraft and was familiar to the pilots. The engineers, after speaking with fighter pilots, put the displays and control boxes in the right place, making it easy for the pilot to operate. We had a head-up display (HUD) and the radios were in the right place. It was a good-sized cockpit, much like the F-15 with lots of space on both sides,” Feest told KeyAero.
Feest recalled that the F-117 was no hot rod. “The F-117 was not built for aggressive maneuvering like the F-22 or F-35,” Feest said during the KeyAero interview. “It didn’t have afterburners and was strictly a subsonic aircraft. Our job was to limit any excessive maneuvering, because any time you turned the aircraft, it changed the radar cross-section.”
Feest told the story of dropping the first bomb of Operation Desert Storm. “During the bomb-run I did not look outside of the aircraft. My head was buried in the cockpit. I concentrated on finding my target, a hidden bunker, and delivering my GBU-27. I was 15 seconds from bomb release when I identified my target. My bomb would be the first of the Gulf War. One last thought raced through my mind. Do they really want me to release this weapon and start this war? (I did not realize that Tomahawks had already been launched).”
In 4 Words: The F-117 Made History
The F-117 Stealth Fighter was a historic aircraft with numerous “first-in-history” combat records.
The airplane wasn’t fast and could not outrun all the SAMs fired its way, but it was nearly perfect in warfare.
Without the F-117, there would have been no F-22 or F-35. The Nighthawk was ultimately retired in 2008.
But it has been spotted flying in test runs, leading to some speculation that a handful of F-117s may be serving as “red team” aggressor aircraft in military drills.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
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