Stealth fighter honored at Wright-Patterson

by Derek Kaufman, 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
A military and civilian crowd watches as two F-117 Nighthawk aircraft taxi into position during the F-117 Nighthawk Farewell Ceremony at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, on March 11. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Joshua Strang)

Blog Editor note: There is information on a future event involving the display of the F-117 on the west coast mentioned in this article.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The Air Force-industry team responsible for providing program oversight to the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter aircraft said farewell during a ceremony March 11 here.

More than 350 Airmen, base employees, industry partners and family members gathered for one last close-up look at the F-117, which made its first flight in 1981, just months after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th U.S. President.

Three F-117s and Airmen from the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. were on hand to enable Air Force Materiel Command and Aeronautical Systems Center officials an opportunity to reflect on the jet's legacy. The ceremony concluded with a fly-by of one jet painted red, white and blue on its belly.

"The United State Air Force developed, in partnership with industry, an airplane that has served this nation remarkably well over a quarter of a century," Gen. Bruce Carlson, the AFMC commander said.

The Air Force decided to retire the F-117 fleet because a new generation of stealth aircraft including the B-2 Spirit, F-22 Raptor and soon-to-be-fielded F-35 Joint Strike Fighter have better capabilities, and because the F-117 is expensive to fly and maintain, General Carlson said.

"Taking them out of service will allow us to use that money to recapitalize the Air Force," he said.

The F-117s will be placed in storage at an airfield in the Tonopah Test Range, Nev., where the jets flew in total secrecy and only at night until November 1988.

Holloman AFB's 49th FW became the F-117's home in 1992.

In 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, F-117s flew nearly 1,300 sorties over Iraq and Kuwait without a single combat loss, General Carlson said. Nighthawk pilots flew only two percent of the total combat sorties but struck 40 percent of the most highly defended, strategic targets.

"It was a remarkable contribution to that war and all done over one of the most hostile air environments in the history of the world," he said.

Lessons learned operating and maintaining the F-117 contributed significantly to the development of the new mix of U.S. stealth aircraft which now have vastly superior capabilities, General Carlson said.

"This airplane was the foundation for low-observable technology in the United States of America," he said.

The F-117 is nearly completely covered with a radar absorbing material which is laborious and expensive to maintain. After each mission, maintenance specialists closely examine the aircraft's special coating to identify any needed repairs. If required, coatings are reapplied, allowed to cure, and re-inspected, said Col. George Torres Jr., the commander of Holloman's 49th Maintenance Group.

"We can do a quick turn and get these aircraft up very quickly to support operational training requirements," said Colonel Torres. But in combat situations, extra time and attention are the rule of the day to ensure the F-117's stealth characteristics are intact.

"The aircraft won't go out until it's ready," Colonel Torres said.

Few people realize the F-117 has no defensive systems or radar, said Col. John Forsythe, the 49th Operations Group commander. "We depend exclusively on the stealth provided by our maintainers."

Holloman AFB's pilot and maintenance teams will launch their last "4-ship" of stealth fighters on April 21, Colonel Forsythe said. They will make a brief overnight stop at the F-117s logistics support center in Palmdale, Calif., for a final ceremony before retiring to Tonopah where their wings and tails removed and the aircraft stored in protective hangars. A portion of the fleet will be rapidly recallable to fly again, if ever needed.

The 49th Fighter Wing's focus will then turn to getting ready to receive the Air Force's newest stealthy jet, the F-22 Raptor.

An F-117 Nighthawk taxis into position during the F-117 Nighthawk Farewell Ceremony at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, on March 11. The ceremony consisted of mulitple guest speakers, a piece by the Air Force Band of Flight and concluded with a single ship flyover. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Joshua Strang)

Nighthawk pilots reflect on F-117's legacy

By Derek Kaufman, 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs


(Editor’s note: The F-117 Nighthawk, the world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology, is retiring after 27 years of U.S. Air Force service. The aircraft made its first flight at the Tonopah Test Range, Nev., in June 1981, just 31 months after full-scale development was authorized. The Nighthawk program remained classified until November 1988, when a photo of the jet was first unveiled to the public. A retirement ceremony to honor the contributions of the F-117A Nighthawk, the world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology, took place March 11 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio)

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFMCNS) — Like most Americans, Col. Tom Bell experienced the spectacular display of American airpower during the opening of Operation Desert Storm while watching CNN on television.

Colonel Bell was then attending the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. An Air Force pilot, he was immersed in learning about Army doctrine and missions from Army officers, and sharing his Airman's perspective on aerospace power with them.

Saddam Hussein's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the U.S.-led coalition's response in January 1991 had transformed academic discussions on strategy and tactics into lively critiques as the war unfolded live on television.

He extolled to fellow classmates how a single-seat fighter airplane could be employed for strategic effects, or a bomber employed tactically. Precision F-117 Nighthawk attacks on a key communications node to take down Iraqi command and control was a good example of the former.

Today, as commander of the Air Force ROTC Northeast Region at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the former F-111 Aardvark, F-117 and B-1Lancer pilot can offer to future officers another example -- using B-52 Stratofortresses or B-1s in a close-air-support role to strike insurgents fighting in close proximity to friendly ground forces.

Into the heart of the storm
Brig. Gen. Greg Feest, then a major, saw Desert Storm from a slightly different perspective.

Flying the lead F-117 stealth fighter, his mission was to drop a two-thousand pound laser-guided bomb onto an Iraqi interceptor operations center. The weapon impacted on time, on target, marking the opening of the air campaign.

He then headed to strike his second target, a sector operations center. With the target in his jet's crosshairs, he watched as it recorded a direct hit.

The F-117, at the time already 10 years old, and its "game changing" combination of stealth and precision was being tested in what was then the world's most densely concentrated network of air defenses.

"It was like flying into the biggest fireworks demonstration you have ever seen," General Feest said reflecting on that first night over Iraq. "Realize, we were in the heart of it. Because of the delivery system we had at the time, we had to be down low. We couldn't fly over the AAA (anti-aircraft artillery), we had to fly into the heart of it."

Before taking off that night, nearly all of the F-117 pilots were leery of how well its stealth characteristics would protect them from radars that would direct thousands of Iraqi guns and surface-to-air missiles. Since the Nighthawk's targets, including many in downtown Baghdad, were highly defended, wing leaders had privately prepared themselves for F-117 losses as high as 50 percent on the first night.

"We didn't know if it was going to work," General Feest said of the black jet's stealth. "The engineers all assured us that it would."

Coming off their targets to return to their operating base on the Arabian Peninsula, General Feest listened in as the F-117 attack fleet began checking in to refuel with an airborne tanker. Carrying a list with call signs for each pilot, he started checking off names.

"At the end I was amazed to see I had a checkmark next to every call sign and every pilot's name, knowing we were all coming home."

After landing, every jet was inspected by maintainers for evidence of battle damage. No F-117 had been hit. The amazing milestone was repeated again the next night.

"After about the fourth night we realized this stealth technology really worked and we were begging to get back up into the air and fly as many missions as we could," General Feest said.

After 1270-plus Desert Storm sorties, not one F-117 ever received battle damage, he said.

Secret beginnings
From its inception in the late 1970s until it was publicly acknowledged in 1988, the very existence of the F-117 was known only to those directly involved with the program.

The first Nighthawk pilots were assigned to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and would leave their families on Monday flying aboard contract airlift to Tonopah Airfield, Nev. There they flew only at night in a secret world, returning to Las Vegas typically midday on Friday to spend the weekend with their families.

"We didn't want to acknowledge the existence of the stealth fighter to any of our adversaries, so we kept it in the black world," General Feest said.

By the time Colonel Bell joined the program in 1991 to fly the F-117, the cloak of secrecy was off. Families knew exactly where their military members were going and that it was to fly and maintain the F-117.

"My family didn't have to go through that great unknown of 'where are you,' 'what are you doing,' and 'why can't you tell me what you're doing,'" Colonel Bell said. "I have tremendous respect for the families that went through that."

There were some advantages to the Tonopah arrangement. Airmen were home every weekend, they couldn't run into the office or bring work home. So weekend time was truly family time.

Flying all week at night and spending weekends presented unique challenges for military members as well. They were essentially changing 10 time zones, twice a week.

Eventually cost, the need to begin flying during daylight, and the requirement to train and fully integrate the F-117 with the rest of the Air Force's combat pilots, demanded the program be publicly acknowledged. A few years later, the F-117s left Tonopah to join the 49 Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.

New capabilities, difficult decisions
Officials at Aeronautical Systems Center here oversaw a number of changes to enhance F-117 capabilities throughout its life, including software modifications in laser-guided weapons and avionics-enabled employment from higher altitudes. The aircraft was certified to carry satellite-guided and hard-target penetrating bombs. Since its unveiling, the Nighthawk has flown in every U.S. armed conflict.

Lessons learned while working with the F-117's low-observable materials have been incorporated in the development of the stealthy B-2 Spirit, F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning.

Eventually, cost of operating and maintaining the jet came under scrutiny. The Air Force imperative to modernize was a key factor in accelerating the retirement of the F-117 fleet, so savings generated could be applied to buy new aircraft. The last jet is scheduled to depart Holloman April 21 and go into recallable storage at Tonopah.

Philosophically, Colonel Bell said he'll remember the F-117 as the airplane that "tipped the scales" from the era that measured the number of aircraft needed to destroy a particular target to the number of targets that could be taken out by one aircraft.

"Every fighter pilot looks forward to flying a single-seat fighter, and the F-117 was my opportunity to do that," Colonel Bell said. "It was at the leading edge of technology when I flew it and it met a great mission need.

"The work that Lockheed and the Skunk Works did in putting this airplane together will be heralded for many years to come," he added.

Both pilots said the unsung heroes of the F-117 program were Air Force maintainers, who spent countless hours ensuring stealth systems and coatings were kept pristine.

General Feest, now deputy director for force applications on the Pentagon's Joint Staff, agreed that the F-117 program was remarkable in essentially going from plans to first flight in only 31 months and that it was successfully kept in the black world for so long.

"I think the taxpayer got their money's worth out of the stealth fighter," General Feest said. "I'm sad to see it retire. However, it's based on older, 1970's technology, and we possess much better capabilities today."

A new crop of pilots, new directions for the Air Force
When Maj. Charles Cosnowski entered the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1991, the F-117 had already proven its mettle in Desert Storm. It was the fighter he wanted to fly.

He would get the chance, flying the F-117 for nearly seven years at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M.

Looking back on its impending retirement, Major Cosnowski said he will fondly remember the F-117 as a persuasive instrument of foreign policy.

"Adversary countries knew we meant business when the F-117 was being sent and would typically quit rattling their sabers while we were in town," he said.

Today, the remaining F-117 pilots and maintainers are being reassigned to other weapon systems.

As for Major Cosnowski, the Fighter Weapons School graduate and instructor is currently attending the Air Force Institute of Technology and will graduate in June with a Master of Science degree in Cyberwarfare.

Air Force plans retirement ceremony to commemorate F-117

By Derek Kaufman, 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs


WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFMCNS) — A retirement ceremony to honor the contributions of the F-117A Nighthawk, the world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology, will take place here March 11.

The event will begin at 10 a.m. and will take place at Base Operations Hangar 206N. An F-117A from the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman AFB, N.M. will be displayed and a flyover is scheduled to occur at 10:25 a.m. to conclude the ceremony.

The Air Force decided to accelerate retirement of the venerable stealth fighter fleet to free up funding for modernization. Ten aircraft were retired in fiscal 2007 and 27 so far in 2008. Holloman AFB's remaining aircraft will go into storage next month, said Diana Filliman, director of the 650th Aeronautical Systems Squadron here, which provides F-117A program management.

"With aging aircraft fleets and infrastructure, senior Air Force leadership has made hard choices to pay for modernization of our overall aircraft inventory," Ms. Filliman said.


A total of 59 production black jets were built. While not invisible to radar, the Nighthawk's distinctive, faceted shape and a special low observable coating combined to greatly reduce its radar cross section and any adversary's ability to target it.

Although the strike aircraft has been in service for 27 years, its existence was first publicly acknowledged only in November 1988, when the Air Force released a grainy photograph of a Nighthawk in flight. Its first formal public appearance came in April 1990 at Nellis AFB, Nev.

In the program's early years, Airmen from the 4450th Test Group assigned at Nellis AFB would commute via contracted airlift to the Tonopah, Nev., airfield from which the F-117s flew almost exclusively at night.

Later, publicly acknowledging the fighter became a priority to enable daylight flying, as well as exercise and deployment participation and full integration into the combat air forces. Men and women associated with the 4450th Test Group continued to fly and maintain the F-117A at Tonopah as members of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing.

The F-117A fleet relocated to Holloman Air Force Base reflagged to the 49th Fighter Wing in 1992, where the active fleet remains today. Beginning early in 2009, Holloman AFB is slated to replace its retiring F-117s with two squadrons of F-22 Raptors.

Combat debut for the F-117A came in December 1989, during Operational Just Cause when Maj. Gregory Feest led a flight of two jets which dropped laser-guided bombs to shock Panamanian Defense Forces in preparation for an assault by U.S. Army Rangers.

Major Feest and the F-117A would return to combat in January 1991, when Nighthawks opened Operation Desert Storm by destroying critical and highly defended targets throughout Iraq and Kuwait. Despite thousands of anti-aircraft guns and batteries of surface-to-air missiles, F-117s flew with impunity over Baghdad, precisely striking targets with its payload of two 2,000 lb. GBU-27 laser-guided weapons.

The jet's combination of stealth and precision made it the natural choice for opening strikes over the former Yugoslavia during Operation Allied Force in 1999 and again over Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

Of the 59 F-117s, seven were lost, including one in combat during Operation Allied Force. All of the remaining jets will return to their original secure home at Tonopah and placed in "recallable storage," Ms. Filliman said.

The F-117 production decision was made in 1978 with a contract awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, the "Skunk Works." First flight over Tonopah Test Range was on June 18, 1981, only 31 months after the full-scale development decision, Filliman said.

"We are extremely proud of the long legacy of the F-117 and are committed to retiring this first generation stealth fighter with honor and dignity," Filliman said. "The F-117 program created a revolution in military warfare by incorporating low-observable technology into an operational aircraft."