“I wonder if the one F-117 that was shot down was part of the reason to remove it from inventory.” [NY Attitude, post 49]
Coincidental.
The only loss of an F-117 to hostile fire happened because the pilot flew into a barrage of missiles that weren’t being guided at all...radars were unable maintain track on the aircraft. The groundhogs kept lobbing missiles into the general area until flaming bits of airframe rained down.
The F-117 - not a “fighter” (air-to-air combat craft) at all but a bomb-dropping platform - was more of a semi-experimental proof-of-concept machine than a viable combat platform. The simplest mathematical formulations (in radar terms; similar with other signatures) were used in designing its shapes and surface qualities. Once the aircraft proven the aeronautical (and operational) viability of low-observables engineering, it had served its purpose; otherwise, it was quite marginal in terms of basic performance and warload - no better than the F-100 in range and weapon hauling.
From this basic start, more advanced math was formulated and then used to design the B-2, and subsequent small aircraft.
Thank you for your response.