Another opportunity for the F-117A to distinguish itself was the war against Yugoslavia in March-June 1999. In it, Nighthawks were widely used from the first day, being used for night strikes against air defense targets, as well as other important, well-covered air defense systems stationary targets. At the same time, laser-guided KAB remained the main weapon. According to some reports, a feature of the use of stealth in this operation was their constant cover by electronic warfare aircraft. If this is so, then there is no need to look for better evidence of the exaggeration of their invisibility for modern developed air defense. In general, much less has been written about the participation of the F-117A in this war in the American press than about the Gulf War, from which we can conclude that their use in the European theater was less successful. And besides, the conflict in the Balkans finally put an end to the myth of the invulnerability of “stealth.”

A real shock for America was the destruction on the third day of hostilities (March 27 at 20.55) of the first F-117A (pilot K. Dvili), which was shot down 32 km from Belgrade near the village of Budanovci. There are different versions of the destruction of this aircraft: by the Kub air defense missile system, by the MiG-29 fighter and by cannon anti-aircraft artillery fire. It is possible that various Serbian assets took part in “finishing off” this F-117A, so it is difficult to decide who gets the main credit. According to the American pilot, the attack on his plane was completely unexpected, without triggering the warning system. At the same time, K. Dvili “does not remember how he pulled the catapult ring.” Seven hours later, a search party found the pilot in a hideout where he was hiding from Yugoslav police and brought him to Aviano airbase in northern Italy. During the operation to search for him, helicopters of the search and rescue service NN-60 "Pave Hawk" were involved, one of which with 12 crew members and troops on board in the area of ​​​​Ugljevik was shot down, while only two crew members managed to escape, taken captured On April 1, at the Pleso airfield (Zagreb, Macedonia), another F-117A, which received combat damage, made an emergency landing. Another aircraft of this type, according to the Serbs, was lost on April 5 during an attack on the Crveni Kot TV tower. The pilot ejected and landed near the village of Remete. On May 20, the Serbs reported that over Kosovo a MiG-29 shot down another, probably the last enemy aircraft of the campaign, which was also classified as an F-117A. In total, according to the Yugoslav Ministry of Defense, the United States lost three F-117A in this war.

The consequences of these losses for America were much greater than could have been hoped. Quite recently, rumors that had been circulating for two years were confirmed that the remains of one of the stealth aircraft shot down in Yugoslavia were taken to Russia and subjected to comprehensive research. In its October 5, 2001 issue, Aviation Week carried a report from Zhukovsky in which an unnamed senior Russian aviation industry official “admitted that the remains of the F-117A were being used to improve capabilities Russian air defense detect and destroy stealth aircraft and cruise missiles" Of course, it is unlikely that studying the technological achievements of twenty years ago will greatly advance Russian science, but holding other people’s secrets in your hands is always useful.

As the terrorist group "Islamic State" (IS, an organization banned in Russia) loses its position in Iraq and Syria, the US Air Force is increasingly concerned about the behavior of Russian fighters in the skies over the conflict zone. This was reported by the American publication Aviation Week.

According to one of the US Air Force squadron commanders (an F-22 Raptor fighter pilot), Russian planes regularly “hang out” near coalition forces for as long as 20–30 minutes. He explains to the publication that American pilots are increasingly observing sudden and potentially dangerous maneuvers of Russian Su-35 and Su-30 fighters. At the same time, the F-22 is deprived of the ability to exchange data through the tactical system.

Russian Aerospace Forces fighters constantly fly within the firing range of coalition ground forces and close to American aircraft, whose pilots can observe them with the naked eye from the cockpit. But due to congestion in the airspace, the process of identifying them is difficult. Another problem the American has is the lack of a helmet-mounted target designation system.

The F-22 Raptor is the world's first and only fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighter in service with the US Air Force and created using stealth technologies.

The essence of "invisibility"

Today, the presence of combat aviation complexes The USA, Russia, China and Japan can boast of being created using visibility reduction technologies. The presence of stealth technologies is one of the mandatory parameters of fifth-generation aircraft.

The essence of stealth technology is to reduce visibility in the radar and infrared ranges. The effect is achieved due to a special coating, the specific shape of the aircraft body, as well as the materials from which its structure is made.

Radar waves, emitted, for example, by the transmitter of an anti-aircraft missile system, are reflected from the outer surface of the aircraft and received by the radar station - this is radar signature.

"YouTube/TASS"

It is characterized effective dispersion area (EPR). This is a formal parameter, which is measured in units of area and is a quantitative measure of the property of an object to reflect an electromagnetic wave. The smaller this area, the more difficult it is to detect an aircraft and hit it with a missile (at a minimum, its detection range decreases).

For older bombers, the ESR can reach 100 square meters; for a typical modern fighter it ranges from 3 to 12 square meters. m, and for stealth aircraft - about 0.3-0.4 sq. m.

The ESR of complex objects cannot be accurately calculated using formulas; it is measured experimentally using special instruments at test sites or in anechoic chambers. Its value strongly depends on the direction from which the aircraft is irradiated, and for the same flying machine is represented by a range: as a rule, the best values ​​for the scattering area are recorded when the aircraft is irradiated in the forward hemisphere. Thus, accurate indicators There cannot be an EPR, and the experimental values ​​for existing fifth-generation aircraft are classified.

Western analytical resources, as a rule, underestimate EPR data for their stealth aircraft.

B-2: American "spirit"

Heavy stealth strategic bomber B-2A Spirit is the most expensive aircraft in the US Air Force fleet. As of 1998, the cost of one B-2 was $1.16 billion. The cost of the entire program was estimated at almost $45 billion.

The first public flight of the B-2 took place in 1989. A total of 21 aircraft were built: almost all of them were named after American states.

B-2 has an unusual appearance and is sometimes compared to an alien ship. At one time, this gave rise to many rumors that the plane was built using technologies obtained from studying UFO debris in the so-called Area 51.

The aircraft is capable of carrying 16 atomic bombs or eight guided bombs weighing 907 kg with laser guidance, or 80 bombs of 227 kg caliber and deliver them from Whiteman Air Force Base (Missouri) to almost anywhere in the world. The flight range of the “ghost” is 11 thousand km.

Spirit is fully automated and has a crew of two pilots. The bomber has a significant safety margin and is capable of making a safe landing in a crosswind of 40 m/s. According to foreign publications, the EPR of a bomber is estimated in the range from 0.0014 to 0.1 sq. m. According to other sources, the bomber has more modest performance - from 0.05 to 0.5 sq. m in frontal projection.

The main disadvantage of the B-2 Spirit is the cost of its maintenance. The aircraft can only be housed in a special hangar with an artificial microclimate - otherwise, ultraviolet radiation will damage the radio-absorbing coating of the aircraft.

The B-2 is invisible to outdated radars, but modern anti-aircraft missile systems Russian production capable of detecting it and effectively hitting it. According to unconfirmed reports, one B-2 was shot down or received serious combat damage from the use of an anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) during the NATO military operation in Yugoslavia.

F-117: American "lame goblin"

Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk- American single-seat subsonic tactical stealth attack aircraft from Lockheed Martin. It was intended for covert penetration through enemy air defense systems and attacks on strategically important ground targets.

The first flight took place on June 18, 1981. 64 units were produced, with the last production example delivered to the US Air Force in 1990. The creation and production of the F-117 cost more than $6 billion. In 2008, aircraft of this type were completely withdrawn from service both for financial reasons and due to the adoption of the F-22 Raptor.

The aircraft's EPR, according to foreign publications, ranged from 0.01 to 0.0025 sq. m depending on the angle.

The reduction in visibility for the F-117 was mainly achieved due to the specific angular shape of the hull, built according to the concept of “reflector planes”; composite and radio-absorbing materials and a special coating were also used. As a result, the bomber looked extremely futuristic, and because of this, the F-117's popularity in games and cinema can compete with Hollywood stars of the first magnitude.

However, having achieved a significant reduction in visibility, the designers had to violate all possible laws of aerodynamics, and the aircraft received disgusting flight characteristics. American pilots nicknamed him the “lame goblin” (Wobblin’ Goblin) for this.

As a result, out of 64 F-117A stealth aircraft built, six aircraft were lost from flight accidents - almost 10% of the total. total number. Only the most experienced pilots were allowed to fly the F-117, but they still crashed regularly.

The aircraft served in five wars: the US invasion of Panama (1989), the Gulf War (1991), Operation Desert Fox (1998), the NATO war against Yugoslavia (1999), and the Iraq War (2003).

At least one aircraft was lost in combat missions in Yugoslavia - the Yugoslav air defense forces shot down an invisible aircraft using an obsolete Soviet S-125 Neva air defense system.

F-22: American "Raptor"

The first and so far only fifth-generation aircraft adopted for service is the American F-22A Raptor.

Production of the aircraft began in 2001. At the moment, several F-22s are taking part in the operation of coalition forces in Iraq to strike militants banned in Russia terrorist organization"Islamic State".

Today it is considered the most expensive fighter aircraft in the world. According to open sources, taking into account the costs of its development and other factors, the cost of each of the aircraft ordered by the American Air Force exceeds $300 million.

Nevertheless, the F-22A has something to boast about: the ability to fly at supersonic speed without turning on afterburner, powerful avionics (avionics) and, again, low visibility. However, in terms of maneuverability, the aircraft is inferior to many Russian fighters, even of the fourth generation.

The F-22's thrust vector changes only in one plane (up and down), while on the most modern Russian combat aircraft the thrust vector can change in all planes, independently of each other on the right and left engines.

There is no exact data on the EPR of the fighter: the spread of figures given by different sources ranges from 0.3 to 0.0001 sq. m. According to domestic experts, the EPR of the F-22A ranges from 0.5 to 0.1 sq. m. At the same time, the Irbis radar station of the Su-35S fighter is capable of detecting Raptor at a distance of at least 95 km.

Despite its prohibitive cost, the Raptor has a number of operational problems. In particular, the anti-radar coating of the fighter was easily washed off by rain, and although over time this drawback was eliminated, the price of the aircraft increased even more.

Another serious drawback of the F-22 is the pilot's oxygen supply system. In 2010, pilot Jeffrey Haney lost control of his fighter due to suffocation and crashed.

Since 2011, all F-22As were prohibited from rising above 7.6 thousand meters. It was believed that at such an altitude the pilot, when the first signs of suffocation occurred, would be able to descend to 5.4 thousand meters in order to remove the mask and breathe the air in the cockpit. The reason turned out to be a design flaw - the pilots got into the breathing system carbon dioxide from engines. They tried to solve the problem using additional carbon filters. But the shortcoming has not yet been completely eliminated.

F-35: American "lightning"

F-35 Lightning II("Lightning") was conceived as a universal aircraft for the US armed forces, as well as NATO allies, capable of replacing the F-16 fighter, the A-10 attack aircraft, the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II vertical take-off and landing attack aircraft and the McDonnell carrier-based fighter-bomber Douglas F/A-18 Hornet.

A huge amount of money was spent on the development of this fifth-generation fighter-bomber (expenses exceeded $56 billion, and the cost of one aircraft was $108 million), but it was never possible to bring the design to fruition.

Su-57(advanced aviation complex for front-line aviation, PAK FA) is the Russian answer to the American fifth-generation fighter F-22. The aircraft is the quintessence of everything that is modern in domestic aviation. Little is known about its characteristics, and most of it is still kept secret. Thanks to its modernization potential, it can become a sixth generation fighter.

It is known that PAK FA is the first to use a whole range of new polymer carbon fiber reinforced plastics. They are two times lighter than aluminum of comparable strength and titanium, and four to five times lighter than steel. New materials make up 70% of the material fighter's coating; as a result, it was possible to sharply reduce the structural weight of the aircraft - it weighs four times less than an aircraft assembled from conventional materials.

The Sukhoi design bureau claims an “unprecedentedly low level of radar, optical and infrared signature” of the vehicle, although the EPR of the fighter is assessed by domestic experts rather restrainedly - in the area 0.3–0.4 sq. m. At the same time, some Western analysts express more optimistic assessments regarding our aircraft: for the T-50 they call the EPR three times less - 0.1 sq. m. The true data on the effective dispersion area is classified.

The Su-57 features high on-board intelligence. Fighter radar with a new active phased antenna array (AFAR) Research Institute named after. Tikhomirov can detect targets at a distance of more than 400 kilometers, simultaneously track up to 60 targets and fire at up to 16. The minimum RCS of tracked targets is 0.01 square meters. m.

The PAK FA engines are spaced apart from the longitudinal axis of the aircraft; this solution made it possible to increase the thrust “shoulder” during maneuvering and create a spacious weapons bay capable of accommodating heavy weapons, which are inaccessible due to the size of the F-35 Lightning II.

The PAK FA is distinguished by excellent maneuverability and controllability in vertical and horizontal planes both at supersonic and at low speeds. Currently, the aircraft is equipped with first-stage engines, with which it is capable of maintaining supersonic speed in non-afterburning mode. After receiving the standard engine of the second stage, the tactical and technical characteristics of the fighter will increase significantly.

According to some media reports, the J-20 is equipped with Russian AL-31FN engines, and the Chinese military has massively purchased decommissioned engines of these brands.

"TASS/Ruptly"

Most of tactical and technical characteristics development remains secret. The J-20 has a large number of similar and completely copied elements from the Russian technology demonstrator MiG 1.44 and the American fifth-generation fighters F-22 and F-35.

The aircraft is made according to the canard design: a pair of ventral fins and closely spaced engines (similar to the MiG 1.44), a canopy and a nose section - identical to the same elements on the F-22. The location of the air intakes has a design similar to the F-35. The vertical tail is all-moving and has a geometry similar to that of the F-35 fighter.

The cockpit canopy is made according to a common unbound design, which improves visibility for the pilot and reduces the ESR of the vehicle.

X-2: Japanese "soul"

Mitsubishi ATD-X Shinshin- a prototype of a fifth-generation Japanese fighter with stealth technology. The aircraft was designed at the Technical Design Institute of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, and built by the corporation that produced the famous Zero fighter planes during World War II. The fighter received the poetic name Shinshin - “Soul”.

The ATD-X is close in size to the Swedish multi-role fighter Saab Gripen, and in shape - to the American F-22 Raptor. The dimensions and angle of inclination of the vertical tail, the shape of the influx and air intakes are identical to those of the American fifth-generation fighter. The cost of the aircraft could reach about $324 million.

The first public demonstration of the new Japanese fighter took place at the end of January 2016. Flight testing of the aircraft was supposed to take place in 2015, but the developer company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was unable to meet the delivery deadlines set by the Ministry of Defense.

In addition, Japanese specialists need to refine the fighter engine with controlled thrust vectoring, in particular, test the possibility of restarting it in the event of a possible stop during the flight.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense notes that the aircraft was built exclusively for testing technologies, including ATD-X - “stealth”. However, it could become the basis from which a replacement for the Japanese F-2 fighter-bomber developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Lockheed Martin for the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces will be created.

In this case, the ATD-X will have to install three times more powerful engines, and enough space will be allocated in the aircraft body to accommodate ammunition. According to preliminary plans, the first prototype of the F-3 fighter will take off in 2024-2025.

Roman Azanov

The Su-27 is a highly maneuverable aircraft for gaining air superiority. About 600 vehicles of all modifications were built.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight multi-role fighter. 4,500 vehicles were built.

The F-117A “Nighthawk” is a subsonic tactical strike aircraft made using stealth technology. 59 combat vehicles and 5 YF-117 prototypes were built.
Question: how did an aircraft built in such insignificant quantities become one of the most striking symbols of aviation at the end of the 20th century? "Stealth" sounds like a death sentence. 59 tactical bombers became a terrible scarecrow, the most terrible threat, eclipsing all other military assets of NATO countries.
What is this? Result unusual appearance aircraft coupled with aggressive PR? Or, indeed, did the revolutionary technical solutions used in the Lockheed F-117 make it possible to create an aircraft with unique combat qualities?

Stealth technology

This is the name of a set of methods for reducing the visibility of combat vehicles in radar, infrared and other areas of the detection spectrum through specially designed geometric shapes, radar-absorbing materials and coatings, which significantly reduces the detection range and thereby increases the survivability of the combat vehicle.

Everything new is well forgotten old. Even 70 years ago, the Germans were very upset by the British high-speed bomber DeHavilland Mosquito. High speed was only half the problem. During interception attempts, it suddenly turned out that the all-wood “Mosquito” was practically invisible on radar - the wood was transparent to radio waves.

The German “wunderwaffe” Go.229, a jet fighter-bomber created under the 1000/1000/1000 program, had a similar property to an even greater extent. An all-wood miracle without vertical keels, similar to a stingray fish, logically it was generally invisible to British radars of those years. The appearance of the Go.229 is very reminiscent of the modern American stealth bomber B-2 Spirit, which gives some reason to believe that American designers kindly took advantage of the ideas of their colleagues from the Third Reich.

On the other hand, the Horten brothers, when creating their Go.229, are unlikely to have given the design any sacred meaning, they only thought the “flying wing” scheme was promising. According to the terms of the military order, Go.229 was supposed to deliver one ton of bombs to a range of 1000 km at a speed of 1000 km/h. And stealth was the tenth thing.

In addition, attention was paid to reducing radar signature when creating the Avro Vulkan strategic bomber (Great Britain, 1952) and the supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft SR-71 “Black Bird” (USA, 1964).

Early research in this area showed that flat shapes with tapering sides have a lower RCS ("effective dispersion area" - key parameter aircraft visibility). In order to reduce radar signature, the vertical tail was tilted relative to the plane of the aircraft so as not to create a right angle with the fuselage, which is an ideal reflector. Multilayer ferromagnetic coatings that absorb radar radiation were specially developed for the Blackbird.

In a word, by the time work began on the secret project “Senior Trend” - the creation of a stealth attack aircraft - the engineers already had good experience in the field of reducing the ESR of aircraft.

"Night Hawk"

When developing the “invisible” aircraft, for the first time, the goal was to reduce all the aircraft’s unmasking factors without exception: the ability to reflect radar radiation, emit electromagnetic waves itself, emit sound, leave smoke and contrails, and also be visible in the infrared range.

Of course, the F-11A7 did not have a radar station - it was impossible to use such a device under conditions of secrecy. During a flight in stealth mode, all on-board radio communication systems, the friend-or-foe transponder and the radio altimeter must be turned off, and the sighting and navigation system must operate in passive mode. The only exception is the laser target illumination; it turns on after dropping a controlled bomb. The lack of modern avionics, combined with problematic aerodynamics, as well as longitudinal static and directional instability, meant a great risk when piloting an “invisible” aircraft.

To reduce design time and eliminate many technical problems, designers used a number of proven elements from existing aircraft on the F-117A. Thus, the stealth engines were taken from the F/A-18 carrier-based fighter-bomber, and some elements of the control system were taken from the F-16. The aircraft also uses a number of components from the epic SR-71 and the T-33 trainer aircraft. As a result, such an innovative machine was designed faster and cheaper than a conventional attack aircraft. Lockheed is proud of this fact, hinting at the use of then-advanced CAD (computer-aided design) systems. Although there is another opinion here - it was only thanks to secrecy that the “invisibility” program avoided the stage of lengthy and often meaningless discussion in Congress and other bastions of American democracy.

Now it’s worth making a few comments about the Stealth technology itself, implemented specifically on the Nighthawk aircraft (after all, it’s no secret that reducing the radar signature of an aircraft can be achieved in different ways; the same PAK FA implements completely different principles - parallelism of the edges and a “flattened” shape fuselage). In the case of the F-117A, it was the apotheosis of stealth technology - everything was subordinated exclusively to stealth, despite the aerobatic qualities of the machine. 30 years after the creation of the aircraft, many interesting details became known.

In theory, stealth technology works as follows: numerous edges implemented in the aircraft's architecture scatter radar radiation in the direction opposite to the radar antenna. No matter which side you try to establish radar contact with the aircraft, this “distorted mirror” will reflect the radio rays in the other direction. In addition, the external surfaces of the F-117 are inclined at an angle of more than 30° from the vertical, because Usually, the irradiation of an aircraft by ground-based radars occurs at gentle angles.

If the F-117 is irradiated from different angles and then look at the reflection pattern, it turns out that the sharpest edges of the F-117 hull and places where the continuity of the skin is disrupted gives the strongest “exposure.” The designers ensured that their reflections were concentrated in several narrow sectors, and not distributed relatively evenly, as in the case of conventional aircraft. As a result, when irradiated by the F-117 radar, the reflected radiation is difficult to distinguish from background noise, and the “dangerous sectors” are so narrow that the radar cannot extract sufficient information from them.
All contours of the articulation of the cockpit canopy and fuselage, the doors of the landing gear niches and the weapons compartment have sawtooth edges, with the sides of the teeth oriented in the direction of the desired sector.

An electrically conductive coating is applied to the glazing of the pilot's cockpit canopy, designed to prevent radiation exposure to in-cabin equipment and the pilot's equipment - microphone, helmet, night vision goggles. For example, the reflection from a pilot's helmet can be much greater than that from the entire aircraft.

The air intakes of the F-117 are covered with special grilles with cell sizes close to half the wavelength of radars operating in the centimeter range. The electrical resistivity of the gratings is optimized for radio wave absorption and increases with the depth of the grating to prevent a resistivity jump (which increases reflection) at the air interface.

All external surfaces and internal metal elements of the aircraft are painted with ferromagnetic paint. Its black color not only camouflages the F-117 in the night sky, but also helps dissipate heat. As a result, the EPR of the stealth aircraft when irradiated from frontal and tail angles is reduced to 0.1-0.01 m2, which is approximately 100-200 times less than that of a conventional aircraft of similar sizes.

Considering that the most widespread air defense systems of countries Warsaw Pact(S-75, S-125, S-200, “Krug”, “Cube”), which were in service at that time, could fire at targets with an ESR of at least 1 m2, then the Nighthawk’s chances of penetrating enemy airspace with impunity looked quite impressive. Hence the first production plans: to produce, in addition to the 5 pre-production ones, another 100 production aircraft.

Lockheed designers took a number of measures to reduce the thermal radiation of their brainchild. The air intake area was made larger than required for normal engine operation, and excess cold air was directed to mix with hot exhaust gases to reduce their temperature. Very narrow nozzles form an almost flat exhaust stream, which contributes to its rapid cooling.

Wobblin' Goblin

“The Lame Dwarf” and nothing else. This is what the pilots themselves call the F-117A as a joke. Optimizing the shape of the airframe according to the criterion of reducing visibility worsened the aerodynamics of the machine so much that there was no talk of any “aerobatics” or supersonic flight.
When the company's leading aerodynamicist Dick Cantrell was first shown the desired configuration of the future F-117A, he had a breakdown. Having come to his senses and realizing that he was dealing with an unusual aircraft, in the creation of which the first violin was played not by specialists of his profile, but by some electricians, he set before his subordinates the only possible task - to make sure that this “piano” was in able to fly somehow.

An angular fuselage, sharp leading edges of surfaces, a wing profile formed by straight segments - all this is poorly suited for subsonic flight. Despite its fairly high thrust-to-weight ratio, the Nighthawk is a limitedly maneuverable vehicle with low speed, relatively short range and poor takeoff and landing characteristics. Its aerodynamic quality during landing was only about 4, which corresponds to the level spaceship"Space Shuttle". On the other hand, on high speed The F-117A is capable of confidently maneuvering with six times G-force. Aerodynamicist Dick Cantrell finally achieved his goal.

On October 26, 1983, the first stealth unit, the 4450th TG, reached operational readiness at Tonopah Air Force Base. According to the pilots’ recollections, this meant the following: an attack aircraft somehow reached a given area at night, detected a pinpoint target and had to “place” a laser-guided high-precision bomb on it. No other combat use was envisaged for the F-117A.
Due to the increase in the number of F-117A, on October 5, 1989, the group was reorganized into the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing (37th TFW), consisting of two combat and one training squadron + reserve vehicles. According to the schedule, each squadron included 18 Nighthawks, but only 5-6 of them could begin combat missions at any time, the rest were in severe forms of maintenance.

Almost all this time, the strict regime of secrecy around the “stealth” did not weaken. Although AFB Tonopah was one of the Air Force's most secure bases, it took additional, truly draconian measures to hide the truth about the F-117A. At the same time, American regime officials often practiced very ingenious solutions. So, in order to scare away idle “aviation enthusiasts” from among the base personnel, special stencils such as “radiation”, “caution!” were applied to the F-117A and service equipment. high voltage" and other "horror stories". On a plane with such an appearance, they did not look mindless at all.

Only in 1988 did the Pentagon decide to publish an official press release about the “stealth aircraft”, providing the public with a retouched photograph of the F-117A. In April 1990, the first public demonstration of the aircraft took place. Of course, the sight of the F-117A amazed the global aviation community. It became perhaps the most daring challenge to traditional concepts of aerodynamics in the entire history of human flight. The Americans assigned the responsible role of a convincing example of the technological superiority of the United States over the rest of the world to the “one hundred and seventeenth”, and they spared no money to prove this statement. "Nighthawk" received a permanent residence on the covers of magazines, became a cool Hollywood hero and a star of world air shows.

Combat use

As for the first real combat use of the F-117A, it occurred during the overthrow of the regime of General Noriega in Panama. There is still a debate as to whether or not the F-117A was hit by a guided bomb on Panamanian territory. military base. The Panamanian guardsmen, awakened by a nearby explosion, ran through the jungle in their underpants. Naturally, there was no resistance to the “stealth” and the plane returned without losses.

Much more serious was the massive use of Stealth systems in the war in the Persian Gulf in the winter of 1991. The Gulf War was the largest military conflict since World War II, with 35 states (Iraq and the 34 countries of the anti-Iraq coalition - the multinational force, MNF) involved in the conflict to varying degrees. More than 1.5 million people took part in the conflict on both sides, there were more than 10.5 thousand tanks, 12.5 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3 thousand combat aircraft and about 200 warships.

The Iraqi air defense system had the following types of air defense systems:
S-75 “Dvina” (SA-2 Guideline) 20-30 batteries (100-130 PU);
S-125 "Neva" (SA-3 Goa) - 140 launchers;
“Square” (SA-6 Gainful) – 25 batteries (100 launchers);
"Wasp" (SA-8 Gecko) - about 50 complexes;
"Strela-1" (SA-9 Gaskin) - about 400 complexes;
"Strela-10" (SA-13 Gopher) - about 200 complexes;
"Roland-2" - 13 self-propelled and 100 stationary systems;
HAWK - several complexes were captured in Kuwait, but were not used.

Early warning radars were able to detect targets at an altitude of 150 meters in most cases outside Iraqi (and Kuwaiti) airspace, and targets at altitudes above 6 km were detected far inland Saudi Arabia(on average – 150-300 km).
A developed network of observation posts connected by permanent communication lines to information collection centers made it possible to quite effectively detect low-altitude targets, such as cruise missiles.

Midnight from 16 to 17 January 1991 was the F-117A's finest hour, when the first group of 10 Nighthawks of the 415th squadron, each carrying two 907-kg GBU-27 guided bombs, took off to carry out the first strikes in a new war. At 3.00 local time, “invisible” aircraft, undetected by the air defense system, attacked two command posts air defense sectors, Air Force Headquarters in Baghdad, the Joint Command and Control Center in Al Taji, the seat of government and the 112-meter Baghdad radio tower.
The F-117A always operated autonomously, without the involvement of electronic warfare aircraft, since jamming could attract the attention of the enemy. In general, stealth operations were planned so that the nearest Allied aircraft was at least 100 miles away from them.

Anti-aircraft artillery and air defense systems posed a serious threat to stealth systems short range with optical detection and targeting systems, of which Iraq had quite a few (MANPADS Strela-2 (SA-7 Grail), Strela-3 (SA-14 Gremlin), Igla-1 (SA-16 Gimlet), and also anti-aircraft guns (ZU-23-2, ZSU-23-4 “Shilka”, S-60, ZSU-57-2). Pilots were prohibited from descending below 6300 m in order to avoid entering the affected areas of these weapons.

In total, during the war, F-117As completed 1,271 missions lasting 7,000 hours and dropped 2,087 GBU-10 and GBU-27 laser-guided bombs with a total weight of about 2,000 tons. Stealth attack aircraft hit 40% of priority ground targets, while, according to the Pentagon, not one of the 42 stealth units was lost. This is especially strange considering that we are dealing with a subsonic, low-maneuverability vehicle without any structural protection.

In particular, the commander of the Air Force of the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant General Charles Horner, cites as an example two raids against heavily defended Iraqi nuclear installations in Al-Tuwait, south of Baghdad. The first raid took place on the afternoon of January 18, involving 32 F-16C aircraft armed with conventional unguided bombs, accompanied by 16 F-15C fighters, four EF-111 jammers, eight anti-radar F-4Gs and 15 KC-135 tankers. This large aviation group failed to complete the assigned task. The second raid was carried out at night by eight F-117As, accompanied by two tankers. This time the Americans destroyed three of the four Iraqi nuclear reactors.
The F-117A subsequently appeared sporadically in Iraqi airspace during Operation Desert Fox (1998) and the invasion of Iraq (2003).

Hunting for stealth

"Sorry, we didn't know the plane was invisible"

I remember that day well, March 27, 1999. ORT channel, evening program “Time”. Live report from Yugoslavia, people dancing on the rubble American plane. The old woman remembers that it was in this place that the Messerschmitt once crashed. The next shot, a NATO representative mumbles something, then again there are shots of the wreckage of a black plane...

Yugoslav air defense accomplished the impossible - a stealth missile was shot down near the village of Budanovci (a suburb of Belgrade). The stealth aircraft was destroyed by the S-125 air defense system of the 3rd battery of the 250th air defense brigade, commanded by the Hungarian Zoltan Dani. There is also a version that the F-117A was shot down from a cannon by a MiG-29 fighter, which established direct visual contact with it. According to the American version, the “one hundred and seventeenth” changed its flight mode, at that moment a pressure surge formed in front of the air intake grilles, unmasking the aircraft. The invulnerable plane was shot down in front of the whole world. Battery commander Zoltan Dani, on the contrary, claims that he aimed the missile using a French thermal imager.

As for the stealth pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko managed to eject and hid all night on the outskirts of Belgrade until his radio beacon detected the EC-130. A few hours later, HH-53 Pave Low search and rescue helicopters arrived and evacuated the pilot.
In total, during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, stealth aircraft carried out 850 combat missions.

The wreckage of the downed F-117A Nighthawk (serial number 82-0806) is carefully preserved at the Aviation Museum in Belgrade, along with the wreckage of the F-16 aircraft. These losses were officially recognized by the United States.
Also on display is an engine from an A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, which was torn off by a shot from a MANPADS; the plane itself made an emergency landing at Skopje airport (the incident was officially recognized by the NATO command). Local residents found a strange item and gave it to the military.
Other interesting items include fragments of a Tomahawk missile and a light RQ-1 Predator drone (the Serbs claim that they shot it down, the Americans claim that it landed on its own due to engine failure).

Wreckage of a downed F-16C

Wreckage of an RQ-1 Predator at the Aviation Museum in Belgrade

Actually, all the wreckage that is in the museum was officially recognized by the United States, including the loss of two combat aircraft - the “stealth” F-117A and the F-16 fighter. The NATO command denies other numerous air victories claimed by Serbia.
As for the “invisibles,” the Serbs claim that they shot down at least three F-117As, but two were able to reach NATO air bases, where they were written off upon arrival. That's why they don't have debris. The statement is somewhat doubtful - the damaged F-117A could not fly far. Even a serviceable “one hundred and seventeenth” flew very poorly - the pilot is not able to control this “flying iron” without help electronic systems increasing sustainability. The plane doesn't even have a backup mechanical system control - anyway, if the electronics fail, a person is not able to cope with the F-117A. Therefore, any malfunction for the “stealth” is fatal; the plane cannot fly on one engine or with damaged planes.

By the way, in addition to the downed F-117A, according to official data, over 30 years of operation, six “stealth” aircraft were lost over US territory during training flights. Most often, stealth aircraft fought due to the loss of orientation of the pilots. For example, on the night of June 11, 1986, an F-117A (tail number 792) crashed into a mountain, killing the pilot. Another tragicomic incident occurred on September 14, 1997, when an F-117A disintegrated in the air during an air show in Maryland.

April 22, 2008 F-117A "Nighthawk" last time rose into the air. As time has shown, the very idea of ​​a highly specialized aircraft in the design of which one quality is “emphasized” (in this case, low ESR) to the detriment of others, turned out to be unpromising. After the disappearance of the USSR, in new conditions, the requirements for efficiency, ease of operation and versatility of aviation complexes began to take first place. And in all these parameters, the F-117A “Nighthawk” was significantly inferior to the F-15E “Strike Eagle” attack aircraft. Now it is on the basis of the F-15E that the stealth aircraft F-15SE “Silent Eagle” is being created.

Stealth technology remains at the forefront of military engineering today. She turned the foundation of world aviation upside down, making airplanes the main tactical weapon on the battlefield. Stealth fighters were first introduced to the world after the sensational Operation Desert Storm. American engineers performed a miracle by releasing the F-117 aircraft into wide production. The development of new technology was carried out by Lockheed. Stealth aircraft could easily fly into any well-guarded airspace and eliminate a target while remaining undetected by local radars.

Stealth technology

Engineers from the American company Lockheed made significant progress in development in the late 1970s. Previously, similar technologies were used for camouflage submarines and ground armored vehicles. However, an improved approach was later used to hide a large object in the airspace.

"Stealth" is an aircraft that is invisible to most radars and equipment scanning in the infrared spectrum. Conventional aviation units, falling into the range of radiating waves, are picked up by equipment. This effect is achieved due to the reflection of the radio signal from the aircraft body. The larger the scattering area, the higher the probability of detecting an object. A large bomber has an indicator of about 100, a fighter - up to 12, and an American stealth aircraft - 0.3 sq.m.

The foundation of stealth technology is considered to be two components: maximum absorption of radiation from locators by the surface of the body and reflection of waves in a direction not included in the radar search range. The solution to these problems was a special coating and angular shape of the aircraft.

Development of such an aerial object has been carried out since the early 1960s, but limited technical and financial resources did not allow the desired results to be achieved for a long time. The situation changed dramatically after a decade and a half. In 1981, the first stealth aircraft took to the skies. From that moment on, the production of the F-117 became widespread.

Pros and cons of technology

We can only say good things about the Stealth aircraft. However, many military experts for a long time expressed their dissatisfaction with the innovation of American aviation. And indeed, if you look in detail, the technology had its significant drawbacks. Firstly, this concerns the cost of the aircraft. Construction of one unit cost more than half a billion dollars. Large stealth bombings were even estimated at $1.1 billion.

The next nuance was the dramatic development of radar equipment. By the early 1990s, almost all radars could, with varying degrees of probability, detect stealth aircraft. Because of this, American engineers had to constantly improve their developments.

Another disadvantage of the technology was a noticeable decrease in the flight characteristics of the stealth, since during the design the emphasis was on radar stealth. As a result, the Stealth (aircraft) was much inferior to many other air units in speed, maneuverability, and even safety.

As for the advantages, in addition to stealth, it is worth highlighting the effective counteraction to the strike threat. The fact is that not a single automated missile is capable of fixing an aircraft with sufficient accuracy.

To date, the American government continues to allocate billions of dollars for the construction of new representatives of the Stealth class.

The principle of operation of a stealth aircraft

To absorb radio radiation, a ferromagnetic coating is used, which is applied to the entire body of the object. When on given surface waves enter, under the influence of microscopic magnetic particles they are redirected with an increased frequency in the direction other than the radar. Thus, the radiation energy is spent. To improve stealth properties, all equipment and accessories in the aircraft are made of carbon fiber. Also, to redirect the radio beams, it was decided to construct the body and wings from planes, without curved surfaces.

The stealth aircraft has special turbojet engines. The difference from traditional ones is the use of a diffuser in front of the compressor. This allows radiation to be reflected into the engine, thereby neutralizing it. The aircraft is also equipped with a cooling system. It forcibly reduces infrared engine noise.

Even the pilot's seat was changed to diffuse radar studies. It has a corrugated shape, like all other vertical parts of the aircraft. Moreover, the tail of the aircraft also underwent changes. As a result of modifications, it acquired a V-shaped horizontal shape.

The first stealth plane

In 1981, the advanced development of the American company Lockheed was the subsonic strike Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk codification. The aircraft was designed to quickly penetrate the enemy's tactical zone, successfully hiding from air defense systems. As a result of subsequent upgrades, technologies to counter homing missiles were introduced.

By 1990, the US Air Force had 64 F-117 units. In international codification, the aircraft was named “Night Hawk”. According to the American designation system, the invisible aircraft is assigned the letter F. Interestingly, for a long time the F-117 was considered a fighter. Nevertheless, today it is a conventional subsonic tactical-strike aircraft.

The Nighthawk was successfully used in combat operations in Panama, the Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia, and Iraq. The first losses dated back to March 1999. It was a stealth plane shot down by a S-125 missile near the Serbian settlement of Budzhanovci.

At the moment, the Nighthawk has been withdrawn from service due to a lack of funds in connection with the development of the F-22 fighter (the new Stealth aircraft).

Lockheed F-117 Specifications

The length of the aircraft is 20 m, while the wingspan exceeds 13 m. The crew includes one pilot. The F-117's weight varies from 13.4 to 23.8 tons, depending on load and fuel capacity. Initially, it was planned to reduce the nominal weight of the aircraft to 10 tons, but in the end the cooling installation required additional space. As a result, the lower part of the body had to be modified.

The package includes 2 F404 engines with a total thrust of 9700 kgf. As for flight characteristics, the maximum flight range is about 1720 km. In this case, the combat radius is 860 km. "Nighthawk" is capable of rising to a height of up to 13.7 kilometers. The driving speed is 993 km/h, in autonomous mode - 905 km/h.

Description of the invisible B-2 Spirit

This stealth aircraft was developed by the American company Northrop Gr. Today it is in active use. It is a heavy strategic bomber. Designed to destroy large tactical ground targets. Capable of breaking through dense air defense thanks to the use of Stealth technology. The cargo compartment has the ability to transport nuclear weapons. The Spirit project cost the American government $45 billion.

The bomber's crew consists of 2 people. The nominal weight of the stealth is 72 tons. At the same time, the aircraft is capable of lifting up to 100 tons of supplies and fuel into the air. All four engines are double-circuit turbojet engines. Maximum thrust - 30500 kgf. The bomber reaches speeds of up to 1010 km/h. The flight range exceeds 11 thousand km.

Standard armament includes Mk or CBU class bombs, AGM missiles and nuclear weapon letters B. At the moment this is the world's largest stealth aircraft.

Characteristics of the F-22 Raptor

The Raptor fighter is multi-role airborne object fifth generation. Its development was carried out by Boeing, Lockheed and GD. It is the newest and most advanced stealth fighter in the world.

The F-22 is based on the principle of striking a target with lightning speed. It is worth noting that all of the Raptor’s weapons are located in special internal compartments to reduce visibility. The fighters underwent their baptism of fire in Syria in the fall of 2014.

The F-22 can only be crewed by one person. Net weight is about 20 tons. Loading capacity varies within 10 tons. The configuration includes two engines with a power of 7400 kgf. When flying, the fighter reaches speeds of up to 2410 km/h.

Russian stealth project "Berkut"

In 1997, the first experimental carrier-based fighter Su-47 was released. Its designer was Mikhail Pogosyan. Work on the project was carried out in Russia.

The Su-47 is considered a completely strategic object, so it does not carry any weapons. Its purpose is to obtain and analyze intelligence data from well-protected enemy points. In the future, it is planned to upgrade the aircraft to a light bomber.

Crew - 1 pilot. The nominal mass of the object is 26.5 tons. Both engines are dual-circuit turbojet engines with an afterburner. The total thrust is provided at 17,500 kgf. This allows the Su-47 to reach speeds of 2,500 km/h.

Asian stealth Shenyang J-31

This Chinese stealth aircraft only entered widespread production at the end of 2012. It is a multi-role fighter of the latest generation. The world became known as "Krechet" after the international exhibition in Zhuhai.

The fighter is controlled by 1 pilot. It is worth noting that the J-31 is considered one of the smallest stealth aircraft. Its length is only 16.9 m, and its wingspan is 11.5 m. At the same time, the mass of the object is 17.5 tons. The maximum speed threshold is 2200 km/h.

Hunting for the invisible man (Serbian experience)

Until now, a clear and precise story about the circumstances of the destruction of one of the most advanced aircraft in the world has not been published. There are many versions of what happened, but they all relate to technical details. This is indeed quite an intriguing topic - how could the Serbs, armed with old Soviet anti-aircraft missiles, shoot down the latest stealth aircraft? According to retired Colonel Dani Zoltan, it is not only a matter of technology, but also of preparation for the operation.

Zoltan commanded the 3rd battery of the 250th air defense brigade, which defended Belgrade. He had radars, four anti-aircraft missile launchers C-125 (according to Western classification - Sa-3, each with four missiles), and all this did not pose any threat to enemy bombers. At least, that’s what NATO members believed, sending their planes to bomb Serbian targets, hoping for modern means of suppressing air defense. At first, the Serbs were not very active in countering the air raids, but just three days into the campaign, on March 27, they unexpectedly shot down an F-117, a plane that seemed invulnerable.

According to Zoltan, he had no illusions about technical superiority enemy, and therefore chose not to openly oppose the bombers, revealing the location of his radars and missiles, but to “lay in ambush”, waiting for the opportunity to shoot down an enemy plane for sure.

As Strategy Page notes, this operation clearly shows that in modern warfare, a competent commander can organize successful resistance even with the help of outdated weapons. At the same time, it’s worth mentioning

that the destruction of the F-117 is just the most famous incident from Zoltan's career. In fact, his unit distinguished itself more than once during that war, foiling many air raids and shooting down another aircraft - an F-16. NATO was unable to destroy a single radar or launcher that was part of the Zoltan battery.

Zoltan method

There were about 200 military personnel under the command of the Serbian colonel. He knew each of them, and he was one hundred percent sure of each one. Long before the bombing began, he regularly conducted training, ensuring that every soldier and officer of the battery was fluent in the equipment entrusted to him.

Realizing that with the existing level of NATO electronic intelligence, radio communications would unmask him faster than enemy radars would notice, Zoltan organized a cable communication system. Orders sometimes had to be conveyed using messengers. However, these methods played an important role - NATO did not know where the battery was located, since they “did not hear” it.

Serbian radars and launchers constantly changed locations. Some of the personnel were constantly busy searching for places where military equipment would be transported next, as well as preparing for its transfer. In just 78 days, during which the bombing continued, the battery covered tens of thousands of kilometers.

Spies worked for the Serbs. They were on duty near an air base in Italy, and when bombers took off from it, they reported this to Belgrade by telephone. A network of observers also existed in Serbia itself. They also reported on the flight routes of NATO aircraft.

Long before the start of the NATO bombing, Zoltan tried to get as much as possible more information about the F-117. He studied everything he could find - publications in newspapers and magazines, rumors about the characteristics of this aircraft. This information helped him to arrange

radars so they can track the "stealth". The colonel did not say how exactly. It is known that he did not keep the radars on constantly, but launched them at the right moment for a short time so that NATO AWACS aircraft could not detect and target fighters.

The target was identified and fired at the very last moment, when the plane flew near the battery. This allowed Zoltan to attack suddenly, leaving the enemy no chance for an anti-missile maneuver. However, the F-117, for all its “invisible” advantages, is a rather clumsy and slow aircraft. He was physically unable to make a sharp maneuver and escape from an anti-aircraft missile fired from close range. When the Serbs shot down the stealth, it was only 13 kilometers from the launcher.

Finally, Zoltan, he said, made some changes to the missile's design that allowed it to better target the stealth aircraft. The Serb did not say which ones exactly, noting that they still continue to remain a state secret.

In fact, another factor that predetermined the success of the operation was the tactics of NATO military leaders. They sent F-117s without cover and did not change flight routes. The downed plane was flying along this route for the fourth time in a row, and this allowed the Serbian anti-aircraft gunners to be well prepared for the “hunt.”

Concerning technical side, then the undoubted advantage of the Serbian battery was the radars and missiles of the old system. As you know, a radar tracks an aircraft by registering the radio signal reflected from it. Modern radars use high frequency signal. However, in the case of stealth, short waves are scattered by the chopped body of the aircraft so that it cannot be noticed - it is the bizarre shape that is the basis of this technology.

However, for long-wave (low-frequency) radars similar form the aircraft is not an obstacle. Such locators are not very accurate, but they “see” any large object in the air. In addition, as already mentioned, the F-117 is characterized by low maneuverability and low speed, which makes it an ideal target for older surface-to-air missile systems with low-frequency radars.

Zoltan was no longer able to shoot down a single stealth. Immediately after the alliance lost this aircraft, the command took measures to prevent such situations. F-117s no longer flew alone - they were accompanied by fighters armed with HARM (radar-guided) missiles. The planes began to change flight routes, and the Serbs were no longer able to “ambush” them... However, this did not diminish the glory of the retired colonel. He has already gone down in history as the man who was able to shoot down a stealth plane.