-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Clinton Conquers Yugoslavia F-117 Loss Is Over-Hyped by Jim Boyd Hi Orlin, This story from the London Times [story below] is a bit over-blown. The U.S. military was not "stunned" by the loss of a single aircraft in an intense deployment. The U.S. military loses 50 or so combat aircraft per year to accidents (not counting helicopters), and has lost about 10 F-117s in accidents--about 16% of the total produced. The F-117 entered service in 1983. It was designed in 1977, using the MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF RADAR STOLEN FROM THE RUSSIANS, dating to the early 1970s. The F-117's stealth technology is 30 years OLD, and is based on shaping, not exotic materials. Thus, its loss to the Russians (via their Serb allies) is not nearly as devastating as it would have been had the stealth technology been based on advanced materials, like the newer manned and unmanned reconnaisance aircraft used by the Air Force. The Air Force has at least three highly secret recon planes that have never been shown in public. One is super-sonic stealth. The F-117 is an extremely simple aircraft. It was designed before powerful computers were available. All of its guts were taken from existing (in 1980) aircraft parts. The cost is typically quoted at about $60 million per F-117. That is CHEAP for an aircraft made in such small numbers. If you add up the amount of damage inflicted by its two exremely accurate 2000-lb bombs, figure that it needs no fighter escort and no electronic jamming escort, and that it has an extremely low loss rate -- then the $60 million is damned cheap. Also, the F-117 program is about 25 years old, and any program that old will have leaked like a rusty bucket by now. Many hundreds of engineers design such a plane, hundreds of technicians build it, and thousands of Air Force personnel have serviced it over the years. I seriously doubt that it has any secrets remaining. There is an element of bitter jealousy in Europe concerning the superiority of American weaponry and technology. I noticed this in the reporting of the Gulf War, and it shows in this article. The technologies we see on TV -- F-15E, JSTARS, AWACS, F-117, laser-guided bombs, cruise missiles, etc. -- are 20 years old. The United States is ABSOLUTELY invincible on a conventional battlefield. Our biggest risk is non-conventional warfare. I enjoy your website. March 30, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ US military stunned as Yugoslavs shatter myth of invincible Stealth AMERICA'S military confidence has suffered a knock with the downing of an F117 Stealth fighter, a plane which came through repeated bombing raids during the Gulf War unscathed to attain the status of myth. President Clinton said he was relieved the plane's pilot had been snatched to safety by a US rescue team, but the televised images of �28 million worth of military high technology smouldering in a field 30 miles west of Belgrade represented a massive propaganda coup for the Yugoslav Government. The pilot, believed to be Captain Ken Dwelle, was picked up by rescue troops backed by HH-60 Night Hawk helicopters and a number of fixed-wing aircraft within six hours of bailing out in his ejection capsule, which is itself a technological masterpiece costing $3 million. The black, bat-winged, radar-evading Stealth fighter is venerated as one of the most advanced weapons in the US arsenal. Yet, while none has been downed in combat before, there are long-standing concerns about its reliablilty, since no fewer than six out of a total force of 59 F117s have crashed. Whether the plane was a victim of mechanical failure, pilot error or hostile fire remained unclear last night, but Pentagon officials made no secret of their shock at the loss of the air force mascot. The subsonic F117, with a lone pilot armed with two, 2,000lb laser-guided bombs, has a composite skin and surfaces designed to reflect and absorb radar, diffusing its image on radar screens. The air intake vent is above the wing, to avoid infrared detection from the ground. In 1991, F117s flew 1,788 missions against key Iraqi command and weapons targets, striking central Baghdad and clearing the way for the B52 bombers. Not a single F117 was lost in Iraq, leading to a mood of complacency about the plane's abilities among some military planners that was rudely exploded on Saturday night. Critics of the aircraft point out that it is not easy to manoeuvre and, while hard to detect, the F117 is far from invisible. The plane's makers boast that its sophisticated anti-detection system reduces the 43ft wingspan to an object the size of a bumble bee, but it only takes a single loose bomb bay door to make the plane look like a flying barn, in the words of one weapons expert. Even before Saturday's downing there were doubts about the mechanics of the F117, after a crash at a Baltimore airshow in 1997 which was caused by a defect in a wing support. Developed 25 years ago by Lockheed Martin in a secret Californian weapons facility known as Skunk Works, the F117's existence was only formally admitted in 1988 when it was used for the less than heroic job of dropping a bomb to frighten Panamanian troops before the US invasion. In addition to the loss of the plane itself, the United States faces the possible loss of its secret radar-evading technology, which could now find its way into the hands of military scientists in Russia, the Serbs' supportive ally. News of the loss of the plane left White House officials stunned. Despite days of warnings that the operation in Yugoslavia is not risk-free, the Nato campaign has been sold to an uncertain American public as an exercise in high-tech, low-risk bombing that will involve few casualties and no ground troops. Mr Clinton's combination of elevated military goals without commitment to a ground campaign is, as one commentator put it, the doctrine of immaculate coercion. Just four days into the campaign, the US has had to put in troops on the ground to rescue a pilot, possibly shot down in a fighter widely reputed to be virtually invulnerable in the face of lower-grade Serbian military technology. Pentagon officials have repeatedly emphasised that the Yugoslav Army's air defence network, with some 2,000 surface-to-air missiles, represents a far more serious threat than the Iraqi defences, but military planners had been encouraged (if baffled) by the lack of hostile fire during the initial raids. US officials launched another television blitz yesterday, with senior military commanders and Administration officials appearing on all the main television networks to try to garner support for the action. Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State, said the situation in Kosovo was terrible with mounting evidence that Serb forces are really getting ready to eliminate the Kosovo Liberation Army forces and have an increased campaign of ethnic cleansing. She also said that America had received reports of rapes by the Serb forces on the ethnic Albanian population. In Washington, William Cohen, the US Defence Secretary, said the loss of the Stealth fighter would have no impact on the overall air campaign. "It's going to intensify," he said. London Times, March 30(?), 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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