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1980s
- The bomb was developed in the mid-1980s when the US Air Force studies indicated the Warsaw Pact and other potential adversaries were hardening likely military targets against conventional attack.
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What is a Lockheed F 117A?
The Lockheed F-117A was developed in response to an Air Force request for an aircraft capable of attacking high value targets without being detected by enemy radar. By the 1970s, new materials and techniques allowed engineers to design an aircraft with radar-evading or "stealth" qualities.
F-117A painted in "Gray Dragon" experimental camouflage scheme. The F-117 was born after the Vietnam War, where increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) had downed heavy bombers.
•The first F-117A unit, the 4450th Tactical Group (renamed the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing in October 1989), achieves initial operational capability. (October 1983) •The F-117 is used in combat for the first time in Operation Just Cause when F-117s from the 37th TFW attack military targets in Panama. (December 1989)
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Jan 17, 2020 · The intent was not to kill but to stun; the lead F-117A did just that with a single 2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb. Colloquially known as “the Hammer,” the bomb–with a lethal radius of 400 feet and capable of blowing out eardrums half a mile away–exploded in a field next to the barracks, throwing the Panamanians into confusion.
- Don Hollway
The F-117 had its origins in a request made in 1974 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense for a military aircraft that would emit or reflect so little radio, infrared, or light energy that it could slip undetected through an enemy’s electronic warning system.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 19, 2018 · The first F-117A rolled of the production lines in 1981. In all 64 were built through 1990, including five YF-117 prototypes, at a program cost of $111 million per plane. The production...
May 3, 2023 · The airplane did retain its full cockpit, however. (Douglas G. Adler) When the F-117 reached Hill Aerospace Museum, it had been stripped of its top-secret outer coating and radar-absorbing material (RAM). (Douglas G. Adler) Today the F-117 sits back-to-back with a Lockheed SR-71 at the museum as its restoration nears completion. (Courtesy Hill ...
