How the F-117 stealth fighter representing American air power was shot down

Summary and Key Points: On March 27, 1999, Lt. Col. Dale Zelko’s F-117 Nighthawk, “Something Wicked,” was shot down over Serbia by Col. Zoltán Dani’s S-125M Neva missile system during Operation Allied Force.

• The aircraft was attacked despite its stealthiness because of its inventive use of low-bandwidth radar and predictable flying patterns.

This incident brought to light the difficulties and weaknesses associated with stealth technology.

-Amazingly, Zelko and Dani eventually got together and grew close, showing the value of reconciliation even in the face of past wrongs.

How a Serbian Missile Commander Downed a Stealth F-117 Nighthawk

On March 27, 1999, at 8:00 p.m., a strange-looking black plane entered the night sky over Serbia. Under the call sign Vega-31, this particular F-117 Nighthawk—the first operational stealth aircraft in history—flew subsonic attack missions and was nicknamed “Something Wicked.” It was moments before two laser-guided bombs were dropped near Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia.

The plane’s pilot, Lt. Col. Dale Zelko, was a Gulf War veteran from 1991. On 21 February, twelve Nighthawks departed for Aviano, Italy to take part in Operation Allied Force, a NATO bombing campaign meant to pressure Belgrade to take control of Belgrade. forces in the province of Kosovo after President Slobodan Milosevic launched a campaign of violent ethnic cleansing Kosovar Albanian population.

The Yugoslav National Army (JNA) had a variety of surface-to-air missile systems in the 1950s and 1960s, including the S-75 and S-125; More modern weapons included 2K12 Kub mobile SAMs and the MiG-29 Fulcrum twin-engine fighter. Combined, these pose a moderate threat to NATO aircraft, requiring them to fly at high altitudes and be accompanied by EA-6B Prowlers, which are capable of jamming radar signals.

But bad weather that evening forced the Prowlers to take the field. Their side surfaces significantly reduced the range at which Something Wicked and her three flying companions could be detected and fired upon by radar, so they were shot down.

Zelko suddenly saw two bright spots from the clouds below and shot upwards, approaching them at three and a half times the speed of sound. These were V-601M radar-guided missiles fired from the quadruple launch rail of the S-125M surface-to-air missile system. One of the six-meter-long missiles, powered by a two-stage solid-fuel rocket motor, was shot so close that the passing of the craft shook the Vega 31 aircraft.

The second released its 154-pound proximity-fused warhead, scattering 4,500 metal fragments into the air and catching Zelko’s plane in the blast.Something evil got out of control and he flipped over and fell to earth. Zelko grabbed the ejection ring and ejected from the doomed Nighthawk due to the intense G-force that followed.

Despite NATO warplanes firing twenty-three HARM missiles at him, Zoltan’s unit avoided losing a single SAM battery thanks to decoys and constant mobility.

When adjusted to the lowest possible bandwidth, Danny’s Battery’s P-18 “Spoon Rest-D” long-range surveillance radar could provide an approximate track of Nighthawks within a 15-mile radius; In fact, it was so low that NATO radar-warning receivers were not calibrated to detect it. (Dani later admitted that his first claim that he had modified the P-18’s hardware to do this was false.)

Low-bandwidth radars, however, lack accuracy and are unable to deliver “weapon-grade” locks. Still, NATO mission planners planned stealth bombers on reliable, regular flight patterns, who did so with complacency. Even worse, Danny was able to piece together an accurate picture of the process because the Serbs had successfully accessed NATO communications and were able to listen in on conversations between American fighter jets and the airborne radar planes guiding them.

As the NATO aircraft returned to Italy, the missile commander decided to lay an ambush for the stealth aircraft, leaving the S-125M batteries at a favorable firing angle. The problem is that high-band targeting radars can detect stealth aircraft at close range. Still it is necessary to search the sky for targets, as doing so exposes them to unfavorable light radars. That not only gave adversaries a chance to direct stealth aircraft away from the threat, but invited a potential strike by a HARM anti-radiation missile.

Consequently, Dani turned off the targeting radars on the battery and directed them to the general location of the stealth aircraft as indicated by the P-18 radar. The battery’s P-18 radar identified Something Wicked along with three other F-117s; However, despite the twenty-two-second “burst” of activation, the high-band targeting radar was unable to identify the target.

Danny states that he was willing to take another chance and instead of moving immediately restarted the targeting radar a second time – still without success – because he had been informed by spies in Italy that the Prowlers were grounded for the day.

Finally, on the third attempt, the S-125M battery locked onto the Something Wicked when it was only eight miles away. Dani says there was a window of opportunity when the F-117 opened its bomb-bay.

About the Author

Sebastien Roblin served as a Peace Corps teacher in China and received a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University. He has worked in teaching, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the US. For War Is Boring. he currently writes about military history and security. It started in November 2017.

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