Chapter 565 F-117
Khamis Mushay Air Base in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is 2,073 meters above sea level, 1,202 kilometers from the Saudi border and 1,665 kilometers from Baghdad. It can be said to be Saudi Arabia's rear base.
The sky was already pitch dark. In the constant temperature hangar, the fighter jets that had completed maintenance slowly slid out of the hangar.
The shape of this aircraft is extremely unique. It is completely different from the sleek appearance of previous aircraft. It has edges and corners. The entire fuselage can be said to be composed of countless polyhedrons. You can see the serrated structure at the seams and the black color all over.
No one could tell what kind of plane this was. If the engineers from the Sukhoi Design Bureau were here, they would definitely be shocked. Isn't this the model of a stealth aircraft that General Andrei once made?
Yes, it is a stealth aircraft! Now, appearing in this air force base is the stealth aircraft F-117A unit put into service by the United States, the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing! Although up to now, this wing has only served five fighters, they are about to be put into battle!
F-117, when the code was later deciphered, countless military fans were amazed at its appearance design, which was so sci-fi that it was hard to imagine that this thing could be an airplane!
As the air defense system becomes increasingly sophisticated, how to penetrate the enemy's air defense system to launch an attack has become a difficult problem. The emergence of radar has made high-altitude bombing increasingly difficult, so more aircraft have begun to try ultra-low-altitude penetration, and early warning aircraft have made ultra-low-altitude penetration impossible to escape. The key to all this is radar!
As long as it is not detected by radar, it can hide its whereabouts! The pursuit of aircraft that are invisible in front of radar is the choice that the US Air Force has always been committed to. The black outer skin of the SR71 was once thought to be a stealth coating. Unfortunately, the movement of this huge aircraft during flight destined it to not be a true stealth aircraft.
The first stealth aircraft that could actually be put into use was the F-117! This aircraft came from Lockheed's Skunk Works, and the original source was actually their mortal enemy, the Soviet Union!
Advanced technology is inseparable from mathematical calculations. The explosion of an atomic bomb also has a mathematical model. How to solve the mathematical model of radar reflection is the key to the development of stealth aircraft! In 1964, Peter Ufimshev, chief scientist of the Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering, published an academic paper entitled "The Diffraction Method of Edge Electromagnetic Waves in Physical Theory". Based on the Maxwell equations modified by the German electromagnetic master Somofi, he derived a set of equations that can be used to estimate the scattering of electromagnetic waves at the edge of a given geometric shape. In the paper, he demonstrated how to calculate the radar scattering cross section of a given arbitrary two-dimensional object shape, including the surface and edge lines of the object; at the same time, he also explained how to use a computer program to analyze this set of equations.
Because of this paper, he was called the father of stealth technology. Ironically, his paper did not attract any attention in the Soviet Union. The reason was very simple. He could only figure out the radar cross section of a two-dimensional object, but an airplane is three-dimensional! Therefore, his paper was considered to have no practical value and was published as a theoretical article.
After the Americans discovered this, they were so excited that they changed the method and regarded the aircraft as two-dimensional planes! Although the aircraft produced by this method had a strange appearance, its radar cross-section was extremely small! When the Heiflan prototype was produced, the unique appearance of this aircraft attracted protests. A good-looking aircraft is a good aircraft. This aircraft was too ugly!
Due to the limitations of computer computing capabilities, they were unable to further reduce the size of these planes. Although the shapes were strange, the performance goals were still achieved!
During the prototype test, the aircraft could not be detected by any ground radar, and only the E-3 early warning aircraft could detect it at close range! They finally made a fighter that was invisible to radar! It was already 1976, and the results of the experiment made the US Air Force very happy. This aircraft with such a unique appearance could actually fly! And it was invisible!
In 1977, before the prototype had even completed its test flight, the U.S. Air Force paid a deposit and awarded Lockheed a contract to build 20 F-117A stealth fighters. The contract details for the first five YF-117As were then worked out in mid-1978.
Historically, the F-117A was not delivered until 1982, but now, under the pressure of the Soviet Union, the progress of this aircraft has been greatly advanced. Historically, the change of political parties between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party has led to a delay of 11 months.
Now, the Soviet Union's offensive posture is aggressive, and the United States may face a direct war with the Soviet Union at any time. World War III may also break out due to the Soviet Union's expansion. The production of F-117A is proceeding at a rapid pace. Even though Reagan cut military spending after taking office, the funding for the F-117A project has been maintained!
Last year, the production version of the F-117A began to be delivered, and this year, the first batch of five F-117As delivered have completed all training and have initial combat capabilities!
However, the deployment of this most advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia still caused some controversy in the United States. It was not until the day before yesterday that Defense Secretary Weinberger finally convinced the president.
Iraq is now equipped with all Soviet equipment. Not to mention the S-200 missiles, the SAM-11 missiles alone are enough to keep them busy! Moreover, in order to save their lives, Baghdad's tight air defense system can even be compared with Moscow! Therefore, there was no bombing of Baghdad during the daytime battle. Flying a conventional combat aircraft over Baghdad is tantamount to suicide.
But now, if we want to win the war against Iraq, we must blow up Baghdad’s command and control center and its communication network. Only by paralyzing Baghdad’s air defense system and making Baghdad unable to communicate with the outside army can we make them leaderless!
Iraq's command system still has a typical tree-like structure. If the top node is blown up, everything below will be a mess.
And the only one that can accomplish this mission is the F-117A!
The United States has no choice but to win this war! The consequences of failure are unacceptable to the United States!
Sitting in the cockpit, with the radio on, Whitley, commander of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, heard his subordinates muttering, "I swear to God, I hope this stealth thing works."