[Sparticus]

They worked OK, but they weren't that great. They were incredibly expensive to maintain, subsonic, carried a small payload and were completely vulnerable to attack from fighter aircraft if spotted. The Yugoslavians managed to shoot one down in 1999 with a 70's Russian technology SAM (a SA-3). You'd probably be interested to know that while the F117 fleet was mothballed, they were not scrapped, and are being maintained in their climate controlled facility and could be brought back into service fairly quickly if needed.

[jttpwalsh]

Glad to hear the F-117 is available, as needed.

Heard, but can’t confirm, that the USAF got a bit lax when they sent them to Serbia, in combat. Supposedly, they followed the same route, every time, and spotters outside the base, in Italy, would phone home, when one took off.
Soon, it became just like clock work, about 35 minutes later, it would show up, in the same location, every time, so in addition to the AAA the Serbs had, they also used a tactic of opening up, with everything they had, at the right time, in the right place.

Also can’t confirm, but heard that the ‘accidental’ targeting of the Chinese embassy that year was planned, right down to the corner of the building, where the remains of the F-117 was being prepared for trans shipment, to Beijing.

An engineer I used to work with, said all of the “whiz bang” stuff we were seeing (circa 2008), he was working on, in the 80’s, and speculated that the cutting edge stuff being prepared nowadays is just mind blowing.

Thanks.