.U.S. Doubts ’99 Jet Debris Gave China Stealth Edge

The New York Times ^ | 1/25/2011 | Elisabeth Bumiller

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Pentagon officials said Tuesday that they were unsure if some of the technology in China’s prototype stealth fighter jet had come from the wreckage of a first-generation American stealth fighter shot down over Serbia in 1999, but they expressed doubt that much could have been gleaned from the debris of a plane developed in the 1970s.

Pentagon officials did say they believe that the Chinese picked up pieces of the plane, an F-117 Nighthawk, which had been strewn over a wide area of farmland some 30 miles west of Belgrade, in the NATO bombing campaign during the Kosovo war. “But at this point, it’s hard to imagine that a great deal of applicable and useful information could have been culled from the site,” said an Air Force official, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about military intelligence.

At the same time, Chinese defense officials and military analysts told the Chinese state-run newspaper, Global Times, that China had developed the new stealth fighter, called the J-20, which was unveiled and flight-tested this month, by adopting “technological innovations.” They said the jet was not copied from American fighter planes. The Chinese government made no official statement on the origins or capabilities of the J-20.

[screaminsunshine]

The “Slick Willie” Stealth technology came compliments of the Bill Clinton DNC Fund Raising operation.

[sionnsar]

said an Air Force official, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about military intelligence.

Hmmm...

[kittymyrib]

As I recall, it was reported that the Serbs downed that Stealth with an improvised weapon made from a microwave oven.
If I were the Chinese, I’d have wanted to get hold of that oven, rather than the not-so-stealthy plane.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The Serb missile commander fired a volley of SA-3 missiles and one got lucky

[steve86]

Seems more likely the magnetron ended up in a radar, not a weapon?

[hinckley buzzard]

but they expressed doubt that much could have been gleaned from the debris of a plane developed in the 1970s.

Sure. That's why they kept it highly classified. Lying sacks of dogsh*t.

[McGruff]

Yeah and sorry about the embassy thingy.

[FreeAtlanta]

#1. The war should not have been fought. Clinton wagging Monica’s tale.

#2. The Chinese didn’t have to pick up the ruins when there are plenty of traitors (primarily democrats) who have been willing to sell the information to them.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

I agree. The Chinese could of not kept that secret since the 70s. Every intelligence unit would have picked it up by the mid 1980s.

[indthkr]

"Doubts ’99 Jet Debris Gave China Stealth Edge"

It's always quicker and cheaper to steal stuff if you can.

On the other hand, every year China graduates more english speaking engineers and scientists than the U.S.

All those folks aren't just sitting around at their desks watching the clock.......

[tanknetter]

The Serb missile commander fired a volley of SA-3 missiles and one got lucky

Yes, but there was another element to it as well. The USAF was sending F-117s down the same exact ingress corridors multiple nights in a row. The Serbs put as many SAMs as they could along that corridor (which may have actually been leaked by a mole in NATO HQ) so they could be volley fired. IIRC the one that managed the kill was fired optically.

However, the information that the ChiComs could have gleaned from the remains would have been limited. The F-117 wasn't really all that exotic, consisting of an aluminum airframe covered with 1970s-era RAM (radar absorbent material) utilizing a LOT of off-the-shelf components (F-15 landing gear, F/A-18 engines, etc).

The most valuable things that the ChiComs would have obtained would be RAM samples (which are a couple/few generations old at this point) and the architecture of the F-117's platypus ducted exhaust (which does NOT appear to be an engineering basis for the J-20s exhaust system). Probably some avionics as well, but again those were off the shelf, non-stealth specific (except for the flight control systems - which would only apply to a faceted design like the F-117, and the ability to slave the F-117's two FLIRs together - again an aircraft-unique thing).

[Dick Bachert]

Beat me to it. The plans and specs probably went out the back door of der Slickster’s White House for campaign dough.

We can only guess what Obozo will give them.

[taildragger]

Smoke screen... Their super-computer that is twice the speed of ours that can calculate the right fuselage curves using the old Russian Formula that Lockheed used to do the facets, Yes. I believe we have Billy Jeff to thank for that computer power....

[Doe Eyes]

Their super-computer that is twice the speed of ours that can calculate the right fuselage curves using the old Russian Formula that Lockheed used to do the facets.

For the older technology used on the F-117.

[A.A. Cunningham]

As I recall, it was reported that the Serbs downed that Stealth with an improvised weapon made from a microwave oven.

Some people will believe anything.

[Chode]

lets see... they learned about the paint/skin coating, the composite laminate skin structure and the honeycomb sub straight...

aside from that... who knows????

[BobL]

It looks like Clinton’s PR machine is a bit rusty. This story - which makes him look like an IDIOT for using our Stealth jets to beat up a two-bit country (at least in the eyes of the world) - was allowed to fester for way too long, compared to other idiot moves.

[GingisK]

It had more to do with missing laptops and foriegn born folks working in the labs and factories.