Message posted by weavty1 on May 19, 2014 at 8:22:21 PST:
That's correct... However, I believe he was referring to the F-117 sortie that NVBOB had mentioned he had listened in to, back in the early 90's. There was a "THUNDER 71" call sign that was being used for an different air frame that had been flying with the F117's that day, which their call-signs were "WAGON" 61, 62, etc.. I believe BoomerFrom47 was saying that the "THUNDER 71" was a T-38 companion to the two "WAGON" F-117's that day. Which makes perfect sense, now that he mentioned that... Yes, there is still an unknown companion (or even a 'sister') to the F-117, that accompanied and flew ahead of them during the Gulf War and more recently, Afghanistan. - They were developed alongside the Have Blue program, behind partitions, separating the two projects, and their respective build teams. - The platform must be stealth, since they're acting as a forward companion to the stealth F-117's (kind of a no-brainer). - Possibly developed using an existing air frame platform, but modified payload and flight systems to accommodate a possible reconnaissance and electronic warfare suites and an advanced stand-off jamming system, and might have even used the NGJ (next generation jammer) system during it's developmental stages. - The shape of the air frame is not that of a flying [delta] wing... - Still operational as of this January (2014), as it was air-refueled by a tanker based out of Edwards (which makes it more than likely, based out of Groom).
A few items to note about the Nighthawk's sister aircraft, which I will refer to as "Evening Owl", as sort of a pseudonym name to the 'Nighthawk':
Interesting bits to nibble on, that's for sure.
In Reply to: F-117 Secret Companion Aircraft posted by RickB on May 14, 2014 at 18:47:49 PST:
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