Stealth Tab: $6.2 Billion : Lockheed Built 59 of Them--U.S.

The Pentagon, releasing long-classified figures for its super-secret F-117A Stealth fighter jet program, said today that it cost $6.26 billion to develop and build the dark, delta-winged aircraft.

The plane, which was used in combat as a “giant stun grenade” during the Panama invasion, cost $106.2 million each, the Defense Department said.

By making Stealth information public, Pentagon officials hope to increase support for the military’s so-called “black budget” programs, those that are kept tightly held secrets by military and congressional leaders.

Many in Congress expressed “sticker shock” when the high-cost figures of $530-million-per-plane for the B-2 Stealth bomber were released last year. In light of that, pressure has built for the release of information about other highly classified programs.

Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams disclosed for the first time that three of the 59 planes that were ordered have crashed. Only two more are still under construction, leaving 54 jets currently operational.

Williams declined, however, to say why the three crashed or to disclose the jet’s speed, range, weapons payload, or just how much of the aircraft can be seen on radar. Nor would he say whether the plane is capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The spokesman did, however, describe the jet as being in the “high subsonic range.” He refused to say whether the jet could carry air-to-air weaponry but he did say it carries “the full range of tactical fighter ordnance” and is capable of “defending itself.”

The single-pilot, dual-engine plane weighs 52,500 pounds. Its wingspan is just a little over 43 feet. It is just over 65 feet long, and 12 feet, 5 inches high, the Pentagon said.

The packet distributed to reporters today included a series of photographs of the plane. It has stark, angular facets in contrast to the smoother, bat-winged form of the controversial and costly B-2 Stealth bomber.

The Air Force said the plane’s mission “is to attack high-priority targets anywhere in the world. The F-117A is designed to penetrate dense-threat environments and hit targets with pinpoint accuracy.”

The statement also disclosed that there are about 2,650 military men and women assigned to support the planes. “Most live within the greater Las Vegas community” and commute to and from the Tonopah Test Range, the statement said.

Although the plane reportedly has been operational since 1983, the Pentagon refused to even acknowledge that it existed until November, 1988.

At that time, only one photograph of the jet was released. Aviation experts contended that the picture was carefully selected to conceal the real dimensions of the plane’s radical, swept-back form.

The Air Force used the super-secret plane in combat for the first time during the invasion of Panama last Dec. 20, using the aircraft to drop 2,000-pound bombs on a field outside the barracks where Panamanian troops were housed.

Pentagon spokesman Williams said the fighter-bomber was used to “disorient, stun and confuse” the Panamanian troops so they could not react to the U.S. paratroopers dropping nearby.