F-117 stealth fighter-bomber
An U.S. F-117a stealth fighter-bomber dropped a 908 kg laser-guided bomb on Belgrade. As the plane turned its nose and prepared to return, suddenly, a SAM-3 anti-aircraft missile took off, and the missile exploded a few meters away from the bat-shaped plane, and the plane lost control and fell like a falling leaf.
On the afternoon of March 27, 1999, the NATO Air Force launched a fourth round of air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A formation of 40 aircraft, mainly F-117 stealth fighter-bombers, took off from Aviano Air Base in Italy to carry out bombing missions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Among them, a US Air Force f-117a stealth fighter bomber dropped a 908 kg laser-guided bomb on a target in belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia. At about 8.45 p.m., the plane flew over the village of Budanovci, about 60 km northwest of Belgrade, and was turning its nose back to base. As the plane passed through the dangerous terrain of the undulating mountains, suddenly, a SAM-3 anti-aircraft missile took off, dragging orange flames into the dark sky, the missile exploded into pieces a few meters away from the bat-shaped plane, and the aircraft fell out of control like a falling leaf. The pilot ejected the cockpit by means of an automatic device, and after the parachute landed, he landed about 16 kilometers west of the site of the plane crash, quickly buried the parachute after landing and hid nearby. After that, he sent an ultra-high frequency distress signal every hour on the hour, contacted the rescue team through a special radio device, and the US electronic reconnaissance aircraft received the signal and immediately transmitted the pilot's position back to the base. Subsequently, a US special operations team composed of paratroopers stationed in Italy immediately infiltrated the F-117 accident site in an armed helicopter under the cover of fighter jets. The three gunships are composed of mh-53j "paving shimmer" helicopters and mh-60g "paving eagle" helicopters, all of which have night vision equipment and can carry out ultra-low altitude flights at night.
The heavily armed members of the special team, dressed in camouflage uniforms and equipped with various communications equipment, began searching immediately after landing. The pilot began receiving rescue signals after 3 and a half hours, and a few hours later, the U.S. military rescue team found the missing pilot. The process took about 7 hours, after which the pilots were rescued to Aviano Air Base in Italy.
F-117 Nighthawk
Although the American pilots were rescued, the wreckage of the F-117A became the spoils of war for the Yugoslav People's Army. The F-117A is the "trump card" of the U.S. Air Force, it is the world's first stealth fighter-bomber, and it is the proud work of the American Lockheed Aircraft Company. He was operational in the mid-1980s and participated in the invasion of Panama. The F-117a is 19.81 meters long, has a wingspan of 2.99 meters, a height of 3.78 meters, a maximum takeoff mass of 22,835 kg, a cruising Mach number of 0.8 to 0.9, a combat radius of 864 to 1152 km, can carry 2 (908 kg) laser-guided bombs, and can also carry "Maverick" air-to-ground missiles and anti-radiation missiles. Its weapons pylons are mounted on retractable beams within the fuselage and are concealed in the belly magazine before being dropped. Its biggest feature is that it can be "invisible". According to the U.S., enemy radar is difficult to spot because it employs many "stealth" techniques. Among them, its shape design is peculiar, and the whole machine looks like an ancient Chinese triangular swallowtail flying mark. The front fuselage and the wing are integrated, consisting of many planes at a certain angle; the double vertical tail is tilted to the sides, and the rear sweep angle is very large, like a warped swallowtail; the cockpit canopy is embedded in the angular slope of the fuselage head and coated with a layer of transparent absorbing material: the engine compartment is placed on both sides of the back of the aircraft, using a conformal intake tract, the appearance is also composed of blunt angle slopes, and uses a sound-absorbing component and a sound-insulating sandwich; some internal components on the surface of the whole aircraft are coated with new-shaped "iron ball" absorbing material; the camouflage color is dark black (for night flights) or dark gray (for daytime flight) that blends in with the background. Thanks to stealth technology, the F-117A radar section was reduced to 0.01 square meters, which is one-tenth of the dry section (10 square meters) of the radar section of the F-15 fighter jet of the same size. The radar section of the F-117A is equivalent to the size of a mosquito on the radar display, so it is difficult for ordinary radar to detect it. The acoustic characteristics of the F-117a are said to be that only moderate hum can be heard at a distance of more than 30 meters, and only slight sounds can be heard during take-off.
In order not to be discovered by the enemy infrared detection device, the F-117a also uses a new fuel, which can burn at high speed and can be cooled rapidly. The tail vent of the aircraft is also designed to reduce the thermal rut of the aircraft, so that the hot gas spewing out of the tail vent is rapidly cooled. In this way, the role of infrared detectors is minimal. F-117a also achieves the purpose of "stealth".
The plane was magical because of the 1,296 sorties of the 56 F-117a fighter-bombers involved in the entire Gulf War, and not a single F-117A fighter-bomber was shot down or injured by Iraqi air defense forces. But it encountered an adversary in the Kosovo battlefield.
The wreckage of F-117 shot down in Kosovo
The F-117a stealth aircraft folded wings kosovo also exposed the aircraft's weaknesses. First, the F-117a stealth aircraft is generally only used to deal with microwave guidance radar or guidance radar, while the long-wave radar is often inefficient, ordinary radar can not find F-117a at a distance of 400 kilometers, but its traces can still be found at a distance of about 60 kilometers. Although the Russian-made low-frequency radar of the Confederate Army failed to detect the stealth aircraft flying from the front, the sides and rear of the stealth aircraft, especially when the aircraft dropped bombs to open the bomb hatch doors, the radar reflective surface of the fuselage was much larger, which would make the radar speed straight. Although the hatch opens for only a few seconds, it is for experienced anti-aircraft shooters
Enough is enough. In addition, the aircraft flight speed is slow (cruising speed of 840 km / h), generally at an altitude of 4575 ~ 7625 meters to drop bombs, the tactics are relatively dull when dropping bombs, once caught by anti-aircraft weapons, it is easier to be hit.
Russian-made SAM-3 anti-aircraft missiles
The SAM-3 surface-to-air missile is the first generation of all-weather medium-range, low- and medium-altitude air defense missiles developed by Russia, which Russia calls "Neva" and NATO calls "Little Antelope" (or "Goa"). The missile is 6.1 meters long, the second stage has a diameter of 0.55 meters and 0.37 meters, a wingspan of 1.22 meters, and the power unit is a solid rocket engine plus a solid booster. The warhead is a mass 64 kg high-energy fragmentation kill type. Radio Doppler radar fuzes are used. The killing radius is 50 meters. The range is 2.4 to 30 kilometers, the height is 0 to 2000 meters, the maximum number of mach flying is 3.5, and the guidance method is full radio command guidance. It adopts 2-part vehicle-mounted mobile launch or 4-part position launch. The probability of simultaneous firing of 2 missiles is greater than 95%.
Sam-3 missiles are usually 4 launchers along the circumference of the same distance evacuation configuration, no matter where the target comes from, there are 2 to 8 launchers to shoot at the target, each launcher 4 missiles, so the F-117 fighter that bursts into the SAM-3 missile defense zone, facing the aiming and attack of 8 to 12 missiles, as long as 2 of them are launched, it may hit it. In addition, the subsequent modification of the SAM-3 missile has enhanced the ability to attack targets under conditions of stealth and electronic jamming because of the use of three guidance methods: frequency conversion, moving target display and radar/optical hybrid. The F-117A, on the other hand, usually used its stealthy performance to carry out offensive activities, was not equipped with electronic jamming equipment, and at that time did not get direct cover from the EA-6B electronic reconnaissance jamming aircraft, so it was difficult to escape after being captured by anti-aircraft weapons. Sam-3 missile began to be developed in 1956, began to equip the army in 1961, has been in service for nearly 40 years, although after many improvements, there are currently a, b.c and other three models, but the missile equipment is bulky, the missile range is short, is also gradually being replaced by the C-300 surface-to-air missile.