Message posted by Richard on March 07, 2002 at 5:27:02 PST:
There have been many ideas on how the F-117 got shot down over Serbia. 1. It was tracked by the Early Warning Station it was going to attack. Apparently this was the only EWRS left in that region and was about to be knocked out. It was then intercepted by Migs. The pilot of the F-117 has to hope for his sake he never turned the transponder on by accident, or the other means for going in to 'normal mode' like extending the pitot tubes etc... because he would then stick out like a sore thumb. I'm sure he never compromised his aircraft and himself in that way, and that the Serbs 'did' get that lucky shot. Apparently some years ago, i read an article where the USAF first flew their B-2A into British airspace, they were testing the British defences and their own aircraft's stealth capability, the British UKADR net 'found' a contact and that contact was then relayed via RAF Buchan to the Air Defences and was then compromised...it was the B-2A Spirit. So anything is possible, they are not '100%' stealth. Another thing i watched, was on live BBC News, daytime sorties being undertaken by B-2a Spirits over Serbia. The journalist had just come under heavy attack by USAF A-10 Thunderbolts on the Albanian border, the pilots for some reason thinking the British and Dutch TV crews were Serbian armoured units and so attacked with 500Ib bombs, (their jeeps had union jacks on the roofs as well), not long after the attack (which was caught on live BBC TV), the camera pointed skywards to see two B-2A Spirits in clear blue sky flying towards the direction of Belgrade. So, why defeat the object of Steath by flying two of the most expensive aircraft over heavily defended territory at daytime in full view of Surface to Air defences? It was also reported that USMC and USN EA-6B Prowlers were supporting B-2A daytime and night time raids, so that signifies that not even the USAF had faith in their stealth capability, even at night which is of course their prefered option.
It is a known idea now that as Magoo said, the Nighthawk was flying the same route in and out every night.
Several sources in Serbia and outside of the country suggest various ideas on how it was downed.
2. The F117 was being tracked by that very same Early Warning Radar of which relayed the picture to various SAM batteries of which obtained a lock by using the EWRS information/picture, not initially from their own radar. This was done by the advanced EWRS frequency/band swapping/hopping system to 'see' in various forms, thus enabling, eventually, a small radar return. It was speculated that way back in the 80's, the Long Track was able to see the F-117A in various hopping patterns (or so i read). This was also apparent in various other Soviet made systems.
3. The Early Warning Radar station locked onto the F117 intermittently each night, and thus the controllers became suspicious and band hopped again, enough to relay a picture to both SAM and Air units, whos radar could not intially see the contact. A Mig pilot described that he was in contact with that EWRS and was vectored in to shoot down the 'unknown' contact of which he found descending below 15,000ft and eventually went beneath cloud cover. He then said he shot at the aircraft with heat seeking missiles and guns. He also described how SAMs were also launched and that it was an SA6 that eventually hit the aircraft.
Various other pilot reports came out also.
4. The EWRS picked up the F117 and relayed to the SAM net. However these units were unable to lock their missiles onto the target. Eventually, the contact descended to such a height that various Electro-Optical devices were then activated and found the F117 flying beneath cloud cover in full view. It was then subsequently shot down by using visual means.
In Reply to: Re: stealth posted by Magoo on March 07, 2002 at 0:51:33 PST:
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