Stealth Baptized

Stealth Baptized

I watched a bollywood movie named "Airlift" yesterday, depicting how a couple of men, left on their own, found a way out of wartrodden country, Kuwait. It also reminded me how I was called Sadam Hussain by my neighbor in jocund tone. But it just reminded me the operation Desert Storm and how the curtain was lifted from the word Stealth in form of F117 "Night Hawk".

Stealthography

 People who are aware of and are in love of the term stealth may find easy to track the history of how stealth came to existence accidentally in the form of flying wing, Northrop N1. Starting the point of how USA indulged into Opration Desert Storm, by a firm stance of then President H.W. Bush. It was not only a historical geopolitical moment that changed the course of human events but it is widely seen as the wide-scale introduction of modern “smart” warfare driven by miniaturized computer technology and reliance on precision air power.

The Flying Wing

Desert Storm’s goal was to expel Iraqi forces from neighboring Kuwait, which Saddam Hussein’s military had invaded months before. The U.N. had put forth the deadline of Jan. 15 for Iraq to withdrawal from Kuwait, which was never adhered to. As a result, the U.S. and its broad coalition began an air campaign against Iraq—the likes of which the world had never seen.

Over five weeks coalition aircraft rained weaponry down from skies over Iraq and Kuwait. Then ground forces stormed across the deserts of Saudi Arabia and into Kuwait and Iraq. Just just over four days after beginning the ground assault, Iraq capitulated and a ceasefire was agreed to.

The war was a supernova-like event for the U.S. military, a big capstone showcase of advanced American combat capabilities that were acquired in the last stretch of the Cold War. Yet Desert Storm’s fairy tale-like execution clearly misled future power players as to the limits of air power and the danger of large-scale ground engagements.

Baptism of Stealth: F117's combat proven stealth

On the first night of Desert Storm, the small force of “Black Jets” were given the job of sneaking through Iraq’s border radar defenses, and were to be over Baghdad right as the air war kicked off at 3 a.m. They would use their hardened 2,000lb GBU-27 laser guided bombs to hit telecommunications, power and command and control centers, along with other strategic targets. In effect, they would cut out the Iraqi military’s eyes, striking at the heart of their ability to see what is going on around their country and their ability to react to it militarily.

Stealth Baptized: F117 enters Operation Desert Storm

 

At 2:51 a.m. on the morning of January 17, 1991, Major Greg Feest dropped the first bomb of Operation Desert Storm as part of the first ten aircraft to raid key strategic sites around Baghdad. Two more waves of F-117s would follow on the 17th. Even though estimates for combat losses were as high as five percent, all the jets returned after their sorties that first night. Stealth had passed with flying colors.

Another aspect of this war was F117's "insurance policy" like support, EF-111 Raven, a highly versatile electronic warfare variant of Aardvark. This duo made several sorties together, ensuring F117's safe home return. However, it wasn't that always Raven was present when F117 performed sorties in the night. Though, if together, they performed perfectly.

EF-111 Raven - F117's Insurance Policy

In all, F-117 crews would wrack up 1,280 combat sorties totaling more than 6,900 hours of flying during Desert Storm, and even though they flew directly through some of the most well defended air space on the planet, not one was shot down. Even when faced with a near visual encounter with an Iraqi Mirage F-1, the insidious Nighthawk was able to slink away unscathed. Although the F-117 force was retired from front-line service in 2008, the legacy of their performance in Desert Storm served to largely validate stealth technology. Eventually it would migrate from a niche capability to a holistic procurement strategy for U.S. and allied air arms around the globe.