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It's one down and fifty-three to go, for Yugoslavian Serb anti-aircraft gunners/missileers, as they score off the here-to-for untouchable F-117 Stealth fighter. We had purchased fifty-four of these little " it only flies because it has a computer attached to the stick ", supposedly low radar signature, attack aircraft that make up one unit, the 49th Fighter Wing based at Holloman, New Mexico. They can't truely be called fighter aircraft, as they only have a high subsonic top speed and no air-to-air armament.
Slobodan Milosevic and his Serb soldiers have managed to do in a few nights, what the Iraq air defense was unable to do after years of exposure, including over a thousand individual sorties and numerous trips to downtown Baghdad, by this type of aircraft.
Yevgeny Primakov is rushing to Belgrade, as he is drooling to get a look at the wreckage of the F-117, in the hopes of bringing back some useful pieces for the Russian military to take a close look at! At the very least, he will be getting a sample of the composite used in most of it's exterior construction and/or a sample of the radar reflective paint.
When Bill Clinton said this on Wednesday, as the dog day afternoon air strikes began, " As I have repeatedly said to the American people, this action is not risk-free, it carries risks ", was he envisioning the loss of a super expensive forty-five million dollar stealth aircraft? We will never know for certain, but I would think an A-10 or F-16 would have been more foreseesble. I just bet the spotless loss record in combat of the F-117A Nighthawk, gave the President a false sense of it's invulnerability, in ordering it into high threat environments!
We should all feel lucky that the still un-named pilot was rescued by our forces, and not the hostile Serb military or angry civilian population. Don't be surprised if we have additional losses of aircraft and/or pilots, be they American or from a NATO partner. We must support our troops, but it is healthy to question the motivation of the untrustworthy politicians ordering the deployments!
Something that may have slipped by your attention. The Pentagon briefed reporters on approximately March 12th, on how much money was to be spent for the modernization of the nation's bomber force ( it doesn't include the F-117 ). The bad news was that no money is to be spent on another bomber design before 2013. This means our country has less than two hundred of this type of aircraft. Barring any recent losses, we have about 93 B-1s, 21 B-2s and 76 B-52s. Did you realize the youngest B-52 was built in 1961, I believe? Hey man, these old aircraft can only be upgraded so many times, and what about the ones totally destroyed in crashes?
- Bongo ( Gun me in my parachute! )
