More attitude. Sigh. So you think we should never have deployed it? Get real. Neither should we be prematurely retiring any superior capabilities when numbers may be vital.
Anyrate here are the stats:
F-117A Combat range: 1112 km with max load
P.S. ...the F-35 is, currently, for all practical purposes, a non-existent aircraft. The maiden voyage of F-35 hasn't begun, so it should be impossible to know the "real" performance or combat radius.
So, considering the touted "on paper" projected ranges for it we see:
The performance or strike radius of JSF family should be just the "minimal requirement" from USAF (600 NM+ for F-35A), USN (700 NM+ for F-35C), and Marine (450 NM, for F-35B) not the actual one ~
I thought the F-117 was great for its time.
We have new ways of doing things. Better ways. The slab sides of the F-117 were due to limitations in computer power back then. We don't have those limitations anymore, do we?
While we have made progress, so have our enemies. What worked once, may not work so well the next time.
Back in the 1920s the .50 cal machinegun was developed as a weapon against tanks. It was not effective in that role during WWII. The 37mm Hotchkiss cannon was the next thing. It was by 1942. the 75mm cannon worked in 1942. It was hardly satisfactory in 1943. The 3 inch cannon (aka 76mm) worked great in 1943. It didn't work very well in 1944, unless you worked really hard to get to the sides or rear of your armored enemy. The 90mm cannon worked very well in 1944 to 1973. Technology advances.
Imagine how the Chinese feel. Trying to catch up with minimal capability against a particular platform, then have the US throw it away because better is available. All their tactics (used by Serbs, by the way) and techniques now useless, and they get to start over.
And they get to do that again, and again. They may get discouraged. They may get replaced, after promising year after year that all the sacrifices will lead to some advance, and they year after year they are further behind, and with prospects of being even further behind further in the future.
If I was them, I would vote out the Commies. Wouldn't you?
Don't you think the Commies know that? They must always spend most of their defense budget on "internal defense", to protect the masters from their serfs. That is why they keep the old junkers. The old junkers are useful in putting down insurrections.