[omega4179]

Clinton failed to bomb the wreckage. A gift to his socialist handlers.

[JohnG45]

Clinton failed to bomb the wreckage. A gift to his socialist handlers.

That bears repeating. I remember it distinctly. Disgusting, along with his gift of space technology through Loral to the Chinese.

[Thunder90]

The F-117 is also where the Russians got the stealth technology for the SU-50 Firefox fighter.

[tanknetter]

Clinton failed to bomb the wreckage. A gift to his socialist handlers.

Probably not that much of a gift. The F-117 was very early Stealth technology, based on heavy use of faceting and 1970s/80s-era RAM (radar absorbent material). The "J-20" looks nothing like the F-117 (it looks almost exactly like the CALF demonstrator, see above), and if it uses reverse-engineered RAM technology the US is already at least 2-3 generations beyond that.

IIRC the most "complete" section of the shot-down F-117 was the canopy, which contained RAM-impregnated (gold-based) transparencies to limit the return from the pilot's head/helmet. But again, the F-117 canopy was designed with highly faceted-stealth, NOT what the US is currently using or what can be observed in the "J-20".

My conclusion would be that there was very limited tech transfer from the lost F-117. The tech that WAS transferred is now obsolete, and the US KNOWS how to counter it. The "J-20" may contain some of that tech (specifically the 70s/80s-era RAM, but not the heavy faceting) and this may explain the apparent fact that some F-117s are still flying out of Tonopah in a "Red Force" (oppositional training) capacity.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I criticized them at the time, on this forum, for not bombing the wreckage. It does sound like the wreckage was strewn over too wide an area to have made that practical.

During World War II, the U.S. had anti personnel artillery shells with radar fuses, that would blow up a precise altitude over the heads of exposed infantry. They were not used because of fears that if they fell into German hands they would be reversed engineered and turned against us. (The Panzerfaust was a reverse-engineered -and much improved- bazooka.) During the Battle of the Bulge, they were released for use, with devastating effect on the unprepared Germans. Some German infantry units mutinied, refusing to attack after they had witnessed the effect.

That's the lesson of the Balkan War. We lost a key technological advantage in a conflict with absolutely no strategic value to the United States.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

You can just imagine the bed-wetter Free Trade Commies now....”See, China is using American stuff...”

I guess with all the American wealth redistributed to Communist China via Free Trade....the Communist Chinese were eventually going to use some American parts for their military...

[Chode]

do I really have to say it???

[clyde260]

Oh, so this is how they’re going to package it. Clintoon in consort with his buddy BERNIE SCHWARTZ of the Loral Corp. SOLD our missile guidance system components (amongst other things) to the Chicoms. But we idiots out here in middle America are to dumb...

[Rappini]

We have to be the dumbest nation on Earth.

[2harddrive]

Thanks a LOT, Mr. Clinton! Your many DIRECT technology transfers to the Red Chinese weren’t ENOUGH, apparently.