In March 1999, on the third day of the bombing of Yugoslavia by a coalition of NATO forces, the US Air Force received a sensitive slap in the air: Yugoslav air defense was shot down by a stealth plane - the invisible fighter Lockheed F-117 Nighththawk. For 26 years of operation from 1983 until withdrawal from service in 2008, no other F-117 was lost in battle with the enemy.
Armament of the parties: NATO Air Force and Air Defense of Yugoslavia
From the very beginning, the NATO Air Force was completely superior. The Yugoslav air defense forces were undaunted in their attempts to defend the country's airspace with air-to-air missiles. But the general situation was such that it was not the air defense crews who were hunting for the enemy’s aircraft, but the NATO aircraft using the means of radar reconnaissance destroyed the country's air defense.
At the forefront of the NATO strikes were F-117 Nighththawks fighters with their high-tech stealth technology stealth technology. Many of the pilots were Gulf War veterans.
The Yugoslav army was armed with Soviet third-generation anti-aircraft missile systems developed in the 60s and 70s. Until March 27, 1999 it was believed that they were not able to detect and attack F-117As.
Stealth technology
Ironically, the basis of the form of a stealth plane that was shot down in Yugoslavia, which is strange in terms of aerodynamics, was the research of the Soviet scientist Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev on the diffraction of radio waves. If it is simpler, then about how you can characterize the reflective properties of any arbitrary shape. At home, his works did not find practical application, but in the West they immediately saw the potential for improving weapons.
The F-117 Invisible Aircraft is made using the facet stealth technique. The aircraft fuselage and bearing planes are formed in a manner resembling a diamond cut. There are no vertical or curved planes on the plane. The larger the number of surfaces located at different angles, the less noticeable the plane on the radar screen.
Additional anti-radar protection
The stealth shot down in Yugoslavia was covered with a special paint based on ferrite, which absorbs radiation from radio waves of the radar. This coating requires careful care, even small scratches significantly worsen the stealth characteristics of the aircraft.
The design provides a scheme for cooling air from engines to reduce radiation in the infrared range. All weapons are inside the aircraft, there are no external pylons and suspensions.
Any distortion of the shape of the aircraft, even condensation of water or freezing of ice on the surface, opening the doors of the bomb bay violates the secrecy of the "Night Hawk".
But the most serious drawback of a propelled invisible plane is that a form that works for one set of radio frequencies will not necessarily work for another.
Colonel Zoltan Dani
The commander of the Yugoslav rocket battery was a determined, intelligent and technically competent missile officer. Even before the start of the NATO operation in Yugoslavia under the Jesuit name "Merciful Angel", Zoltan studied everything he could find about stealth technology and realized that the F-117 invisible plane was not really invisible to the radar. It was just very difficult to detect.
Stealth is not the same as stealth. And Zoltan Dani began to look for a solution to the problem. Professional interest, nothing personal.
Stealth detected
A savvy officer realized that a modern aircraft was developed taking into account the capabilities of short-meter radars adopted by the Warsaw Treaty countries in the eighties. And when the Night Hawks began flying in the skies over Yugoslavia and native Serbia, he reconfigured the radar system of his S-125 Neva anti-aircraft missile system to use radio waves of a meter band. A few days later, the officer received confirmation of his guesses. He was not mistaken.
According to Zoltan, when they managed to direct the radar at the target, the image was anemic-infantile, and not clear and sharp, but it was quite suitable for identifying the object and tracking the target. Zoltan knew that a poor-quality radio signal would lead to a decrease in the accuracy of the missile homing system, and applied warhead fuses adapted to account for this shortcoming.
Preparing for the Night Hawk Hunt
To realize that stealth is not an absolute technological miracle that cannot be destroyed in principle was only half the battle. As an experienced soldier, Zoltan Dani used all available means to increase the chances of success in a duel with an invisible plane.
By order of the calculation commander, the radar turned on for a short time, calculated in literally tens of seconds. After each inclusion, the anti-aircraft missile system immediately moved to a new position. This did not allow NATO intelligence to calculate their coordinates and destroy the battery. In the absence of data on the location of the NATO complex, it was also impossible to warn the pilot of the danger or adjust the flight route.
Zoltan skillfully used flaws in the organization of sorties from the NATO command. Confident of the flight and "invisible" characteristics of the F-117 stealth fighter shot down in Yugoslavia, the US military ignored all other safety measures when organizing flights. All the first days of the war, the flight route and the Night Hawks attack patterns remained unchanged.
For rocketers, this has become one of the components of a successful attack. The range and accuracy of target detection of tuned radars to the meter range was insufficient. Available information on the flight route of the Night Hawk allowed the commander to choose the optimal position for the anti-aircraft missile system before the attack.
The third component of success was the network of informants. Zoltan used his people in Italy, who informed him about the time of departure and the types of aircraft leaving for the mission from the NATO air base. Serbs from border areas informed him of the time the border crossed enemy planes. Possessing such information, the calculation of the air defense system of the complex could turn on the radar at the most suitable time and quickly detect the target.
The target is astounded!
The calculation of the anti-aircraft missile system S-125 Neva was able to successfully track and aim at the plane that made the flight on the night of March 27. At the helm of the Night Hawk was a veteran of Operation Desert Storm Dale Zelko. He did not attach importance to signals from radar activity coming from the Night Hawk ACS. As was sure that no signal could return to the observer, and felt completely invisible and invincible.
The plane was fired by two rockets. Released from a distance of only 13 kilometers, they did not leave the manoeuvrable ultramodern Night Hawk any chance of salvation.
A pilot shot down in Yugoslavia stealth managed to eject. After several hours, Dale Zelko was found by NATO Air Force search and rescue helicopters and evacuated from Serbia.
Pentagon reaction
NATO's military establishment was shocked. Down stealth over Yugoslavia? Than? Antediluvian Soviet missile? No one could believe it.
In computer games with the invention of the latest weapons, the old immediately fails and becomes useless. In the real world, weapons developed in the 1960s are capable of hitting the latest models.
On March 28, the Pentagon officially confirmed the loss of the F-117 aircraft in Yugoslavia without explanation.
The wreckage of the stealth stealth plane shot down in Yugoslavia and the S-125 Neva air defense system are stored in the Military Museum in Belgrade.