nighthawk military

Nighthawk Military - Here's what you need to remember: In addition to its reflective surface, the Nighthawk had other design features that are now standard for stealth aircraft, including the use of radio-absorbing paint on magnetically charged iron balls to reduce the reflection of electromagnetic waves. Slotted exhaust ports for the F-117's F404 turbofan engine reduce the infrared signature of the exhaust.

The F-117 Nighthawk, America's first stealth aircraft with a very intimidating appearance, is an example of a weapon system designed around the constraints of the promise of new technologies. The Nighthawk was revolutionary when it was launched in 1983 - the aircraft was kept secret from the public for five years, so many people failed to appreciate it.

Nighthawk Military

Ironically, the Pentagon credits a Russian researcher named Pyotr Ufimtsev for his 1964 work on the concept that radar visibility is not based solely on radar.

F 117 Nighthawk Military Aircraft Fondo De Pantalla Avance

Object, but also the angle at which the radar wave bounces off its edge. Ufimtsev developed a method for calculating the radar cross section of objects, which determines how visible they are on radar.

Ufimtsev's research attracted attention in the United States, not in Russia, and in the late 1970s Lockheed Martin

A project to create an aircraft with a minimum radar surface. The key was to use a flat surface that reflects radar waves at a distance from the transmitter.

When Lockheed released the first two models in 1977, the box plane had never been seen before or since. Later stealth models such as the B-2 Spirit and the F-35 have curved surfaces. However, the F-117 was designed before the advent of advanced computers capable of processing such curved surfaces. Therefore, the F-117 is unique among stealth aircraft and is distinguished by its 2D design.

F 117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter Profile

This limitation meant that the design was aerodynamically unstable and required four times as many electronically controlled and complex combat computers to keep the aircraft in flight condition. The Have Blue prototypes were nicknamed "Wobbly Goblins" and both crashed during testing.

However, the Air Force was encouraged by their effectiveness and radar evasion and agreed to build a production aircraft called the F-117. The use of model numbers over 100 was an anachronism, and for years the public believed that the top-secret fighter was identified as the F-19. For this reason, you can find 1980s F-19 kits, toys, and even PC games.

The first F-117A rolled off the assembly line in 1981. By 1990, a total of 64 aircraft were built, including five YF-117 prototypes, at a cost of $111 million per aircraft. The handling of the production aircraft was reportedly more forgiving than its predecessor.

In addition to its reflective surface, the Nighthawk featured other design features that became standard for stealth aircraft, including the use of radar-absorbing paint in the form of magnetically charged iron balls to reduce the reflection of electromagnetic waves. Slotted exhaust ports for the F-117's F404 turbofan engine reduce the infrared signature of the exhaust. To reduce radar visibility, the communications antennae could be removed, and both of her weapons were placed in the inner bomb bay. There was no radar on the Nighthawk as the radars of the time were easily detectable. Of course, the F-117 was invisibly painted black and flew only at night.

Air Force F 117 Stealth Jet Seen In Rare Flight Over California

Despite the "F" designation for "fighter", the F-117 was only a ground attack aircraft, incapable of combating other aircraft. Its top speed was 623 mph, slightly slower than the B-52 bomber. Its 1,070-mile range means it's air-refueled, and nighttime stealth isn't easy to organize.

The Nighthawk's internal weapons racks only allowed two bombs to be carried, but to make up for it, these were usually massive 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs. It can also carry BLU-109 bunker bombs and GPS-guided JDAM bombs. Lacking its own radar, the F-117 relied on thermal cameras for guidance and used GPS and inertial navigation systems.

Given these parameters, the Nighthawk had a very specific mission - to fly quietly into the heart of the enemy's air defenses and destroy important targets.

Lockheed then sought to market F-117 models with more powerful F414 engines, twice the payload, and the ability to launch the AIM-120 long-range air-to-air missile. However, the type was rejected by both the US Navy and the Royal Air Force.

The Nighthawk Imperium: Military Police By Vidgamenate On Deviantart

The first major operator of the Blackhawk was the 4450th Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Tonopah Air Force Base since 1983. To keep the Nighthawk under wraps, the unit formally launched an A-7 Corsair attack aircraft from Nellis Air Force Base.

Shortly after entering service, the F-117 was activated in response to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon, killing 220 Marines. Defense Secretary Weinberg called off the attack just 45 minutes before takeoff.

The Pentagon finally released detailed pictures of the Nighthawk in 1988. A year later, the plane was finally seen fighting against Panama as part of Operation Just Cause, which overthrew dictator Manuel Noriega in the United States. The F-117 was responsible for dropping time bombs at a range of 50 meters.

A camp of Noriega's elite troops in Rio Hato surprised and confused them, reducing the actual death toll. The mission didn't go exactly as planned; Before the F-117s arrived, the lookout was mobilized, and the Nighthawk pilots were confused about which target to hit. In the end, the attack may have contributed to chaos and panic among the Panamanian defense forces, but not as planned.

F 117 Nighthawks Flying In Formation Military Wall Decor

Nighthawks showed their potential during the 1991 Gulf War. The 415th and 416th Tactical Fighter Squadrons were deployed to Saudi Arabia and on 17 January 1991 fired the first shot of the war (almost) when they hit a target in Baghdad. Ahead of them, Apache helicopters destroyed low-bandwidth Iraqi radars. Perhaps alerted to their approach, the F-117s slipped into the heavily guarded airspace of the Iraqi capital. Major Fist's Nighthawk destroyed the Baghdad Air Defense Center. After that, flak lit up the sky, but the remaining F-117s aimed 49 laser-guided bombs at radars, air defense headquarters, and telephone hubs.

During the war, F-117s flew 1,280 sorties, hitting 1,600 targets, including bridges, biological and chemical weapons emplacements, parked Iraqi bombers, communications centers, command bunkers, and weapons depots. Pilots reported that the relative safety of radar-guided missiles made them feel safer when accurately hitting targets to minimize collateral damage. For example, in one incident, a pilot reportedly delayed releasing his weapon to allow civilian vehicles to cross a bridge.

F-117s flew about 30 percent of the attacks on Baghdad and were instrumental in weakening air defenses so that conventional aircraft could operate more safely overhead. However, a post-conflict report by the Government Accountability Office stated that the weapon only hit 60% of its intended target. This was due to bad weather conditions in Baghdad, which made it difficult to accurately identify targets on the ground.

After the Gulf War, the F-117 was transferred to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico as part of the 49th Fighter Wing. During the 1999 Kosovo War, the stealth fighters returned to duty from bases in Aviano, Italy, and Spangdal, Germany, as part of NATO's efforts to force the Republic of Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to end its repression of ethnic Albanians. Minorities in Kosovo. F-117s dropped special BLU-114B graphite "soft bombs" that destroyed 70% of Yugoslavia's power grid on the day the war began. (The power grid was restored within 24 hours, then crashed again, raising doubts about the ultimate effectiveness of the graphite bombs.) The controversial Nighthawk attack then destroyed a Serbian media center and killed 10 civilians.

Why The F 117 Nighthawk Is Such A Badass Plane

The Yugoslav Air Force deployed combat-ready MiG-29 fighters against NATO aircraft during the Kosovo campaign. Although the MiG-29s could not detect the Nighthawks, they could have

They. In one example, an F-117 on a strike mission came under fire between escorting F-16s and neighboring MiG-29s, and an air-to-air missile was fired over its nose. However, the Nighthawk escaped unscathed thanks to the intervention of the F-16s.

Of course, the Nighthawk's greatest claim to fame in this conflict was when one of them was shot down by a local version of the Russian S-125 NEVA radar-guided missile (NATO codename SA-3). This success was achieved thanks to the machinations of the Yugoslav Colonel Zoltan Dani, the commander of the missile battery. Using a more advanced tactic than the Iraqi missile batteries, they deployed their radars for short periods of time and regularly positioned their launchers in the approach vector of NATO aircraft to avoid air defense attacks. NATO often used EA-6 Prowler jammers to reduce the effectiveness of their radars, but these could not escort all types of aircraft.

Colonel Dany noted that stealth fighters would be more visible to low-bandwidth radars, but such radars were too inaccurate to pick up missiles. Instead, it had a low-bandwidth radar that pointed the high-bandwidth radar to the F-117's precise location, which was briefly visible when the missile passed a short distance from the site and opened the bomb bays. . An F-117 Nighthawk has landed

Return Of The Nighthawk: Now It's Official

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