The ‘Retired’ US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk ‘Stealth Fighter’ Will Now Fly Until 2034 Thanks To China’s J-20 and Russia’s Su-57

The ‘Retired’ US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk ‘Stealth Fighter’ Will Now Fly Until 2034 Thanks To China’s J-20 and Russia’s Su-57

The numbers from Desert Storm are the reason the F-117 changed how air forces think. It flew about 2 percent of the combat sorties and struck roughly 40 percent of the targets, carrying two bombs at a time in internal bays, subsonic, with no radar and no air-to-air weapons at all. It found what it was hitting with infrared sensors and a laser designator. The Air Force built 59 of them, retired the type in 2008, and still has 45 sitting at Tonopa…