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F117 Out of Retirement ?

tomahawk6

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Two F117's were seen being refueled by a tanker near LA. The USAF also has cleared them to be refueled by USAF tankers. Interesting development.Where do these strike aircraft fit in with the F35 ? Maybe they are OPFOR or preparation for use in the Middle east or North Korea ? 50 jets remain in mothball's or being flown.

 

daftandbarmy

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Two F117's were seen being refueled by a tanker near LA. The USAF also has cleared them to be refueled by USAF tankers. Interesting development.Where do these strike aircraft fit in with the F35 ? Maybe they are OPFOR or preparation for use in the Middle east or North Korea ? 50 jets remain in mothball's or being flown.


From the comments section in the link below:

"One of the F-117A's that still flies is flown by civilian LM pilots that operates out of Plant 42. I know this because the photo you posted of the 'Grey Dragon' flying at from head-on, was taken by a close friend of mine who was a boom operator. He's refueled that same plane multiple times over the Southwestern skies, and he's verified that it was a civilian Skunkworks pilot on each occasion. On almost every occasion they were either headed-to or from Palmdale, but a few times, they were operating out of Tonopah during their runs.

They fly them as test beds for the development of new subsystems and components for new stealth platforms (whether or not they are for unmanned or manned platforms, that's unknown), as well as maintenance or mending of current components/subsystems of current stealth platforms, instead of flying said airframes, they use the F-117's as their baseline for these kinda of tests."

 

tomahawk6

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In a pinch they might augment the F22's by being armed with BVR missiles carried in their bomb bays. Or they could be used against less sophisticated adversaries.
 

SupersonicMax

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In a pinch they might augment the F22's by being armed with BVR missiles carried in their bomb bays. Or they could be used against less sophisticated adversaries.
Highly unlikely. The integration effort to put a radar in that nose would prove too much. Without a radar, being effective BVR is extremely difficult. Furthermore, the F-117 is limited to 0.9M. Can't exactly shot far at those speeds.
 

reveng

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Highly unlikely. The integration effort to put a radar in that nose would prove too much. Without a radar, being effective BVR is extremely difficult. Furthermore, the F-117 is limited to 0.9M. Can't exactly shot far at those speeds.
Would I be right to assume that in addition to the shape of the nose, the radar technology available at the time of design would have negatively impacted the stealth role? (i.e. EMCON concerns) Especially considering the speed (or lack thereof) of the A/C?
 

tomahawk6

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The F-117 avionics include the Texas Instruments Infrared Acquisition and Designation System (IRADS), which includes FLIR, a laser designator, and Downward-Looking IR (DLIR) systems. Both the FLIR and the DLIR are mounted in turrets that are controlled by joystick-mounted buttons. The Kaiser Electronics Head-Up Display (HUD) is adapted from the F/A-18 Hornet. The mechanical SPN/GEANS Inertial Navigation System (INS) used in the B-52 Stratofortress is fitted. A “four-dimensional” (4D) navigational system was added that ensures extreme accuracy in time as well as position; autothrottles have been fitted to the engines to assist 4D navigation.

Read more https://aviatia.net/lockheed-f-117-nighthawk/
 
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