In 1999, One Country Figured Out How to Kill U.S. Stealth Fighters

[soryang]

In 1999, One Country Figured Out How to Kill U.S. Stealth Fighters
Yes, this is really possible. Here's how.

Dec. 1, 2019

by Sebastien Roblin

At 8 p.m. on March 27, 1999, a bizarre-looking black painted airplane cut through the night sky over Serbia. This particular F-117 Nighthawk—a subsonic attack plane that was the world’s first operational stealth aircraft—flew by the call sign of Vega-31 and was named “Something Wicked.” Moments earlier, it had released its two Paveway laser-guided bombs on targets near the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade. Its pilot, Lt. Col. Dale Zelko, was a veteran with experience in the 1991 Gulf War.A dozen Nighthawks had deployed to Aviano, Italy on February 21 to participate in Operation Allied Force—a NATO bombing campaign intended to pressure Belgrade into withdrawing its troops from the province of Kosovo after President Slobodan Milosevic initiated a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign seeking to expel the Kosovar Albanian population.

Interesting account of the shootdown of the F-117 and the circumstances and tactics which allegedly made it possible.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/1999-one-country-figured-out-how-kill-us-stealth-fighters-100932

[yonder]

1. Interesting and thanks

[krispos42]

2. I would have guessed a weather radar picking up the displaced air

Caused by the plane pushing through the air.

Interesting read, thanks