1999 F-117A shootdown in Yugoslavia

In an interview with the Voice of Russia broadcast on Friday, Dani, who retired in 2004 and now owns a small bakery outside Belgrade, elaborated on the March 27 events:

“At about 18:00 local time, we were ordered to turn on the system. We checked out the functionality of the missile defense system, reporting that the 3rd battery was on combat alert. After 20:00, a NATO airstrike began which prompted us to turn on the radar that tracked down an approaching target. We asked the mission control center to act against this aircraft, and at 20:41 we got the go-ahead. At 20:42, the target was destroyed. It took us 18 seconds to do so.”

How did you manage to spot the stealth fighter?

To that end, we used the Soviet-made P18 meter band radar which is capable of tracking any warplane irrespective of the configuration of its fuselage. The radar started to emit and we discovered a target at a distance of 15 kilometers – something that our operators were distinctly seeing on a display. I was quick to order the launch of a missile which destroyed the target.

You mean that you managed to shoot down the sophisticated aircraft with the help of the vintage S-125Neva anti-aircraft system?

I don’t quite agree with you. Of course, Russia has more advanced missile defense systems, but I proceed from the assumption that a cat’s color does not contribute to its ability to catch mice. At the time, the S-125Neva was believed to be a rather advanced system, and we had no other systems to tackle NATO airstrikes.

Is it true that you subsequently got acquainted with a pilot of the downed F-117?

I only want to say that a relevant documentary, the Second Meeting, is due to be released before the end of this year. It took us almost four years to meet – an occasion that was held in a positive atmosphere and that helped us to bolster our communication which is still under way. Our project aims to hammer home how important world peace and family values are…

Viktor wrote:This one is better.

KoTeMoRe wrote:

Ghostbusters meme is good too.

lyle6 wrote:https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37894/yes-serbian-air-defenses-did-hit-another-f-117-during-operation-allied-force-in-1999?s=08

lyle6 wrote:

LMFS wrote:The evidence that the Americans lie all the time is simply overwhelming. Especially when it serves the purpose of building up their reputation and deterring anyone from daring to oppose them. In fact their prestige is more relevant than their actual capabilities, but much cheaper...

Its the Sparta model: showboat against much weaker opponents to build up rep, but when faced against foes that could fight back, leverage that rep to build-up a coalition of allies while maintaining a venier of elitism through hefty doses of propaganda i.e. its always the 300 of Thermopylae, but never not the 7000 Greeks present in total. Of course the Americans can back up most of that rep with their military might, but it never hurts to be seen as a foe who is virtually unchallengable than someone who can be.

kvs wrote:I wonder why the yanquis are not demanding the F-117A wreckage back. They want the junk Russia "seized" in Georgia in
2008.

Former F-117 Pilot Confirms The Serbian Air Defenses Second Hit On American Stealth Fighter During Operation Allied Force



The successful shootdown of a U.S. Air Force F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter over Yugoslavia in 1999 quickly became well known as the only successful attack on a manned stealth aircraft using the surface-to-air missiles.

You might have heard about the U.S. Air Force’s F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack jets came to be shot down over Serbia during Operation Allied Force on March 27, 1999. The loss of “Vega 31” and the subsequent recovery of pilot Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko. What’s less well known is that another F-117 was hit by a Serbian air defense system during that same campaign, but details of what happened have only recently become available.

In the latest edition of The Afterburn podcast, which you can listen to in full here, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charlie “Tuna” Hainline, a former F-117 pilot, confirms what had, for many years, been a rumor: that a second stealth jet was hit by the Serbians, but managed to return to base. While noting that much about the incident in Allied Force remains classified, he still provides some fascinating details of what appears to be a previously unconfirmed event.

Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Hainline confirmed on an episode of The Afterburn podcast that a second F-117 had been neutralised from the ground.

“I kind of looked to my right over Belgrade, and [saw] this huge missile coming up – it looks like a Saturn V thing,” Hainline recalled. “I knew my number two guy was over there somewhere. Then I see another launch – this big glow, and even from that far away you can see a lot of detail. The plume, the smoke going, and then just this ball of fire coming up towards you … As I’m heading towards this target, one missile explodes and the other one kind of goes up into space.”

Hainline reportedly lost track of his wingman until the aircraft reappeared at a tanker rendezvous with all lights off and unable to match the speed of the tanker to refuel.

“His airplane wasn’t in really good shape,” the officer recalled, with the heavily damaged F-117 eventually limping back to base.

Hainline’s efforts to ensure his wingman made it home safely were rewarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross, a commendation for “heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.”

The shootdown is thought to have taken place on April 30th, 1999, and the damaged stealth fighter war irreparable and had to be immediately retired from service.

As the F-117 was a twin-engine design, using the same configuration of dual F404 engines as the U.S. Navy’s F-18 Hornet fighters, it could survive many kinds of hits and the loss of an engine and still return to base intact.

This benefit of twin-engine jets is one of the key reasons why the U.S. Navy for years refused to deploy single-engine designs and a reason why Russia today fields no single-engine fighters despite aircraft with single engines usually being much easier to maintain and cheaper to operate.

The destruction of a second F-117 fighter is one of several suspected Yugoslav hits against NATO aircraft using air defences from the 1960s or earlier with modernised electronic warfare systems, which when also considering the poor state of the country’s defences during a state of effective civil war reflects poorly on how NATO air units would have fared against a modern Soviet air defence force orders of magnitude larger and several decades ahead in terms of sophistication. With the F-117 being considered by far the most survivable Western fighter in the world, the implications of its loss to very meagre defences were serious.

https://fighterjetsworld.com/air/former-f-117-pilot-confirms-the-serbian-air-defenses-second-hit-on-american-stealth-fighter-during-operation-allied-force/24191/

kvs wrote:The yanquis cover up their losses for sure.   There was lots of dick stroking posturing about the deployment of Apaches in 1999.   When they
tried to send them in they lost several and totally cancelled the operation and subsequent use of these attack helicopters.   You would never
know that this actually happened in the western fake stream dominated information space.  

The Apaches may be useful in the flat desert for sniping from several kilometers away, but they are highly vulnerable to even machine gun
fire in mountainous (large hill) terrain.