With its futuristic and unmistakable design, the Lockheed F-117A
Nighthawk, the so-called 'Stealth Fighter', was the wonder of the age.
Virtually undetectable by radar, this ground-attack aircraft could slip
unseen through enemy defenses to deliver its deadly payload on
unsuspecting targets. Its effectiveness had been well demonstrated
during the Gulf War of 1991, during which the F-117A achieved almost
legendary status. But, at 20.42 hours on 27 March 1999, the military and
aviation worlds were stunned when the impossible happened - a virtually
obsolete Soviet-built surface-to-air missile system which had first been
developed more than thirty years earlier, detected and shot down an
F-117A, callsign 'Vega 31'.
This incident took place during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during
the Kosovo War. It was, and remains, at least officially, the only time
that a stealth aircraft was detected and shot down by a ground-based
missile system.
In this book the authors, both of whom served in the Kosovo War, take
the reader through every moment of that astounding event, from both the
perspective of Lieutenant Colonel Dani's 3rd Battalion, 250th Air
Defence Missile Brigade, a Yugolsav Army unit, and that of the pilot of
the F-117A, Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Patrick Zelko, who ejected and
survived the loss of his aircraft. The reader is placed in the cabin of
the missile fire control centre and alongside 'Dale' Zelko in the
cockpit of his stealth fighter as each second dramatically unfolds.
Stealth characteristics are now regarded as a standard part of modern
military aircraft design but with each generation of aircraft becoming
increasingly, almost cripplingly, expensive to produce and operate
compared with the simpler surface-to-air defense systems, the outcome of
the battle between missile and stealth hangs in the balance. That this
is the case might be seen in the strange fact that it is claimed that
two other F-117As did not return to the U.S. at the end of the Kosovo
War, though, mysteriously, their fate has never been revealed. Were they
too victims of Yugoslav missiles?
Though intended for the general reader, Shooting Down the Stealth
Fighter covers the technical details of the weapons involved and their
deployment - and the authors should know, as one of them, Djordje
Anicic, was a member of the Yugoslav team which brought down Zelko's
aircraft.
