57 Stealth Jet Fighters Built, Pentagon Says
In a move calculated to boost the public’s confidence in Stealth aircraft technology, the Defense Department Tuesday revealed more details about the long-secret F-117A Stealth jet fighters, saying 57 have been built in a program whose cost will soon reach $6.6 billion.
Officials, calling the radar-eluding plane a “key component” of U.S. military power, also showed an eight-minute video that displayed for the first time the aircraft’s sleek angles and chunky fuselage during flight.
The Pentagon made its disclosures about the F-117A as Congress debates whether to continue funding the $75-billion B-2 Stealth bomber, which would use many of the same radar-absorbing materials and designs as the F-117A. At $73 million each, the F-117A’s cost is a fraction of the price of the B-2, which could cost from $570 million to as much as $2 billion each, depending on how may are produced.
The plane, which made its combat debut during the U.S. invasion of Panama, was developed at Lockheed Corp.’s experimental “Skunk Works” aircraft division in Burbank, Calif. Two more planes are to be built before production ends later this year.
Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams praised the Stealth fighter’s performance during its nearly seven years of secret service, saying: “It shows us that Stealth can be developed, can be used in an operational aircraft, is a successful technology, that it works.”
He confirmed that three F-117As have crashed over the years and that two pilots were killed. He refused to say what caused the problems.
Williams on Tuesday defended the secrecy of the F-117A program, saying that it was necessary to shield the “high-technology advancement in tactical aircraft” from the prying eyes of potential adversaries. He suggested that the secrecy had allowed the development and flight-testing to proceed more rapidly.
“It’s persuaded us that the (secret) full-scale development program can be used very successfully,” Williams said.
The Pentagon began advanced development of the F-117A in December of 1978, and it made its first test flight in 1981. By 1983, the first unit of F-117As had been established at Tonapah Test Range Airfield in Nevada, where the planes flew only under cover of darkness until 1988.
The plane is specially designed to conduct precision attacks on targets at night, and it carries a range of weapons in its belly.
Williams, citing secrecy, refused to describe the weapons and would not disclose whether the aircraft is capable of delivering nuclear weapons. But he said that the plane can “defend itself” against attack by other aircraft.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 21, as U.S. paratroopers assaulted a Panamanian military airfield, an F-117A dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on a field in an attempt to confuse and frighten potential resistence forces stationed nearby.
Since the Air Force first began daytime flights of the Stealth fighter, residents of the Mojave Desert near Edwards Air Force Base have heard the distinctive faraway whine of the aircraft and spotted its unique shape in the skies above.
In November, 1988, the Pentagon released a photograph of the plane for the first time, but it deliberately blurred the the aircraft’s lines to obscure its unusual design features.
Williams said daytime flights of the planes and their participation in military exercises are expected to be stepped up, exposing the aircraft to greater public scrutiny.
EXPENSIVE AIRCRAFT--The B-2 Stealth bomber could cost as much as $1.95 billion per plane, a study indicates. A14
