In 1991, the US military launched the "Desert Storm" operation against Iraq, there is a fighter plane in the attack on the Iraqi army, it has been repeatedly successful, the Iraqi army's radar can not even catch the shadow of these US military "air killers", this fighter has made its debut in the PanamaNian War as early as 2 years ago, and the results are good, this is the famous F-117 "Nighthawk" attack aircraft.
In the Kosovo War, the United States F117 stealth fighter played an important role, 24 F-117As stationed at the Italian Aviano Air Base, mainly responsible for the key strike tasks of important air defense facilities or high-value targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The U.S. Air Force used the F-117A to repeatedly drop GBU-94 graphite bombs containing BLU-114/B submunitions over major cities and power supply systems in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This new type of ammunition caused a short circuit in the line network by throwing carbon fibers, resulting in a widespread power supply interruption in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the suspension of the command and control center.
However, after the kosovo war, the United States retired the F-117 stealth fighter in 2005, and the 2005 budget required 10 F117s to be retired in 2007 and the remaining 42 in 2008.
The retirement of the US Air Force F-117A "Nighthawk" stealth fighter is completely a true portrayal of "the back wave of the Yangtze River pushes the front wave, and a generation of new people replaces the old". As soon as the F-22 stealth fighter began to be delivered to the troops, the retirement plan for the F-117A stealth fighter was put on the agenda. Originally, the US Air Force had just completed an upgrade for the 52 F-117A stealth fighters in active service, and the performance had been greatly improved, and it was not a problem to serve for another 10 years.
However, it is helpless that the F-22 stealth fighter, which is obviously much more advanced in comprehensive combat performance, has already entered service, and the US Air Force is naturally "happy with the new and tired of the old" and has focused its main energy on the F-22 stealth fighter. In fact, the original F-22 stealth fighter and F-117A stealth fighter can "coexist peacefully".
However, at that time, the U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighter was not having a good time, and its planned equipment number had been cut from the initial 648 to 195 by Congress. One of the reasons for Congress is that the US Air Force already has a number of F-117A stealth fighters, and the stealth fighters are already very large, unbeatable, and naturally do not need to be equipped with more F-22 stealth fighters.
In order to try to win more F-22 stealth fighters, the US Air Force made up its mind, after all, it was reluctant to let the child not set the wolf, and decided to retire all the heroes at once. The U.S. Air Force is also justified, the F-117A fighter belongs to the stealth technology of the seventies, its use of technical secrets is outdated, polyhedral shape and early ferrite stealth coating materials are not mysterious technology. Coupled with the relatively low flight performance, the mission capability is relatively single, and the daily maintenance work is more complicated, the F-117A fighter has since been retired.
Incidentally, on July 21, 2009, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to stop purchasing more F-22 stealth fighters, and the number of F-22 stealth fighters in mass production was finally determined to be 187. The US Air Force "lost" the F-117A stealth fighter, but in the end it could not set more F-22s, which can also be regarded as a model of "stealing chickens and not corroding rice".
As early as 2016, the U.S. Congress asked the U.S. Air Force to dismantle retired F-117A stealth fighters at a rate of four per year. However, the US Air Force has always had a ghost fetus, and there are very few F-117A stealth fighters that have been dismantled, and the F-117A stealth fighter fleet is still relatively complete. In particular, in the past two years, the outside world has been photographed several times that the F-117A stealth fighter has begun to return to the blue sky and perform some special mission, and the US Air Force has generously acknowledged this, which means that the F-117A stealth fighter seems to be only nominally retired, and can actually be put back into service.
In any case, it is certain that as the first stealth fighter in service, the F-117A stealth fighter ushered in a whole new era of air-to-ground warfare, with a very far-reaching impact on global air forces and their future combat modes. The F-117A stealth fighter, which pioneered stealth fighter operations, will not willingly withdraw from people's field of vision.