March 26, 1999; The Kosovo war is in full swing. Europe's military alliance, NATO, has bombed important military targets in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia). But the US stealth bombers are far from being destroyed by missiles, they are not visible on the radar! Lieutenant Colonel Jotan Danny, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade, saw a strange signal on the radar for a few days in the evening.The next evening, he was alerted by intelligence reports that a NATO plane had taken to the skies to carry out a bomb attack. As soon as the strange planes came into range, they fired two missiles. That became history. For the first time, a fifth generation stealth warplane was shot down. But these planes have the latest technology to evade radar. So how is this impossible accomplishment possible?
Kosovo war
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Not to mention some extra context. If you have no idea about the turbulent war situation in Eastern Europe in the nineties, it may be difficult for the reader to understand what the events of this article were during the war. So let's know the lesson of history in a nutshell.
On June 25, 1991, the former Yugoslavia broke up and six states - Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia - were born. Of these, Montenegro formed a federal union government with Serbia, and the rest declared independence. So Serbia with Slovenia (1991), Croatia (1991-1995) with Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995). This led to the worst genocide and refugee influx in the history of Europe.Although Serbia was an independent state, Kosovo and Vajvodonov were its two autonomous provinces. In 1998, a revolt erupted in Muslim-majority Kosovo in protest of continued Serbian exploitation. The Serbian army launched an operation to suppress it. NATO, Europe and the world's largest military alliance, began intervening in the war to avoid another genocide like Bosnia. Today's incident is in the context of the Kosovo war.
F-117 Nighthawk
The F-117 Nighthawk, built by Lockheed Corporation in the United States, was the world's first operational stealth fighter. The United States felt the need for stealth aircraft when it saw US bombers being shot down by modern missiles made by the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War.Due to the special design and stealth coating of such aircraft, they either reflect the direction of the enemy's radar and absorb it. As a result the aircraft remains invisible up to a certain range on the radar. Basically, the radar cross section (RCS) value of stealth aircraft is much lower than that of ordinary aircraft, so they are not easily caught on the radar. This is why many people think that stealth means invisible. In fact, it is Less Detectable. Read this article to know more about this technology.
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Since 1973, a total of 64 F-118 aircraft have been built. The 85-foot-long aircraft is powered by a dual-engine aircraft that travels at 1,100 km per hour. (Mac 0.92) was able to fly at speeds over 45,000 feet. The aircraft could carry a bomb weighing 2,300 kg. The F-118 that was shot down had serial numbers and radio callsign 82-0806 and Vega 31, respectively. The plane was flown by Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Patrick 'Del' Zelko.Born in 1960, the veteran US Air Force pilot was a veteran of the Persian Gulf War. During Operation Desert Storm, Saddam Hussein shot down several Iraqi air defense systems with the F-116 Nighthawk. But that day he became a victim himself.