by ramsa329 » Sun Mar 13, 2005 3:36 pm
Here's an interesting read:
"The SA-3 surface-to-air missile that brought down the F-117 was probably not used in a normal fashion, with its operators relying on their own local radars to detect the target leaving them vulnerable to anti-radiation missiles. Spotters in Serbia, and perhaps in Bosnia and along the Montenegrin coast, may have patched together enough quick glimpses of the warplane from scattered radars to track the elusive aircraft, however briefly, and to fire a missile at it from a battery near Belgrade.
Despite the extremely small radar signature of the plane a great amount of time goes into routing the flight path of each stealth fighter to minimize its exposure to known threats such as surface-to-air missile batteries and radar. At certain points in a mission however the stealth fighter can become quite visible to enemy radar. Turning suddenly at low altitudes can reflect radar waves right back to the radars that sent them. The most visible and risky moments are when the bomb bay door is open - briefly making the plane un-stealthy.
Military officials suspect that Serbian spotters, perhaps starting with agents in Italy watching the F-117's take off, were able to determine a time table of how long it took the planes took to cross the Adriatic and from there on to Belgrade. With this information Serbian radar operators had a better sense of when and where to watch for the plane. Once the aircraft's radar reflection crossed their screens all the radar operators would be alerted down the line. When the F-117 dropped one of its two laser guided bombs on a target near Belgrade this probably provided the final clues to fix its position and fire several missiles.
Enough was known to "cue" up the SA-3's own radar so the operator had only to briefly flip it on to track and fire. After the F-117 was shot down other planes on bombing runs recorded instances when the Serbian forces lobbed surface-to-air missiles at them without radar guidance suggesting that this indeed was the tactic used to bring down the stealth jet - minimal or partial radar data guiding a volley of missiles.
Seven hours after the pilot ejected, a commando team snatched the downed pilot from his hiding place and whisked him back to allied hands, first in Bosnia, then to Italy.
Without careful examination of the wreckage some questions may never be answered.
The dense clouds that night may have played a role by allowing the jet black plane to be silhouetted against the dull gray sky by the glow from ground fire reflecting off the cloud ceiling."
