Chapter 566 Night Air Raid

Although the F in the US military's equipment sequence represents fighter jets, the F-117 does not have any air combat capabilities! The aircraft has two laser-guided bombs mounted in the bomb bay inside the belly, and other than that, it has no other weapons! Not even ordinary machine guns!

It shuttles through the night sky, relying entirely on its stealth ability!

In later generations, when the United States fought the Gulf War and launched air strikes on Iraq, almost all of them were carried out at night. Because night vision equipment in the United States was already quite mature, all pilots wore night vision goggles and fought at night, just like during the day.

But it was only the 1980s, and head-mounted infrared imaging night vision goggles had not yet been put into large-scale use. For example, in the Falklands War next year, the British army was also equipped with a large number of low-light night vision goggles and infrared passive imaging goggles, which required infrared headlights to illuminate. Therefore, there was a claim that the Argentine army used headlights to illuminate the enemy, rendering the enemy's night vision goggles useless.

Without head-mounted infrared imaging night vision goggles and a lack of navigation and aiming pods with night vision capabilities, there were no large-scale night raids. The US air strikes on Iraq were mainly carried out during the day. Although some aircraft were able to fly at night, they still mainly relied on instrument flight.

For the F-117, this device must be standard no matter how expensive it is, because it is a stealth aircraft! Its black color means that this aircraft will never fly during the day. It is a ghost in the dark! In order to maintain radar stealth, in addition to reducing various radar reflections, it does not emit electromagnetic waves itself. In other words, the F-117A does not have the radar used on traditional aircraft! Instead, it uses passive forward-looking infrared and television and other optoelectronic sensors to undertake the task of searching and aiming at targets.

These devices have two locations. There is an optical window for the dual-field forward-looking infrared sensor under the windshield of the F-117A cockpit, and a window is also opened on the right side of the front landing gear compartment under the front fuselage for the retractable downward-looking infrared and laser designator. The upper and lower systems work together to provide the pilot with a complete field of view in various flight attitudes. The infrared sensor above the nose is responsible for the initial target search and calibration, while the downward-looking infrared and laser designator under the fuselage provides the continuous calibration, monitoring and target damage assessment required for guidance after weapon delivery.

These passive infrared sensors provide perfect nighttime imaging, allowing them to fly at night as if it were daytime.

However, although the stealth performance of this aircraft was emphasized during the design, and after the finalization, various tests have shown that the radar will not detect this aircraft, but the pilots are still lacking confidence. God knows whether the Iraqis will come up with various means to deal with them! Behind the Iraqis is the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union has all kinds of black technology, even fighter jets that can travel three times the speed of sound. Maybe they have special radars that can lock on to them and shoot them down?

After hearing the words on the radio, Colonel Whitley did not know whether to laugh or cry. Initially, he was the first pilot to switch to flying the F-117A, and naturally became the commander of this tactical fighter wing. Now, he was the soul of the formation for this attack.

"Attention, formation take off, boys, let's drop the bomb on Saddam's bed!" Colonel Whitley said on the radio. His confidence infected everyone, and the noise in the radio disappeared.

Take off! This aircraft with a unique appearance is extremely difficult to control, and only the fly-by-wire system can complete the task of controlling the aircraft, and this fly-by-wire system was transplanted from the F-16.

The tail engine was not powered up, otherwise there would be too large an infrared signature. In this way, the fighter slowly left the runway and took off with two heavy bombs.

Apart from the two navigation lights on the wings, the entire aircraft had no other features. Colonel Whitley took a last look at the photo tied to his knee. That was the target he was going to attack this time, the Ministry of Defense building and the TV and broadcasting building in Baghdad. They happened to be on the same route. He only had to fly over, drop the bomb and return.

The night sky is pitch black. Ever since they started flying the F-117A aircraft, they have been living a life of day and night reversal, sleeping during the day and flying at night. After a long time, they almost forgot what the day looks like.

God bless you! Wheatley said to himself.

"Nighthawk calling nanny, Nighthawk calling nanny." After flying forward for nearly an hour, Wheatley started the first call on the radio.

"Nanny received, nanny received, please turn on all navigation lights in the reserved refueling airspace No. 3." A clear voice came from the headset.

"Nighthawk understands." Whitley flipped the switch and turned on all the navigation lights. In particular, a small protrusion on the top canopy was shining, where the aerial refueling lighting was placed, used to illuminate the refueling port on the back of the aircraft during nighttime aerial refueling operations.

The F-117 is not only radar-invisible, but also completely black. At night, it looks like a black man walking on the street, occasionally showing his big white teeth, and it looks like only the big white teeth are moving in the air.

A KC-135 tanker was on standby in the designated airspace. The refueler flexibly operated the refueling probe and aimed it at the refueling port at the tail of the F-117. With the successful docking, the gushing fuel quickly flowed into the F-117's internal fuel tank.

The U.S. Air Force's hard-rod refueling method minimizes the difficulty for pilots.

The F-117 is a one-sided student, focusing entirely on stealth and ignoring aerodynamic characteristics. When the aircraft was being developed, it encountered various objections, believing that the aircraft could not fly at all. Now, although the aircraft has been in service, its short legs are still a flaw. Using only the internal fuel, the maximum range of this aircraft is only one thousand kilometers. Therefore, before entering Iraqi airspace, it must refuel, and when returning, it must refuel again to complete the voyage.

"Attention, turn off all navigation lights and confirm the course again." After leaving the tanker, Whitley issued the most important order.

Nighthawk is the king of the dark. He believed that he would not be discovered by the Iraqi air defense forces. However, if the navigation lights outside the aircraft were not turned off, it would be tragic. The poor maneuverability would make it a target for Iraq's ground-based anti-aircraft artillery.

Shaking their wings to alert friendly aircraft and after confirming that all navigation lights were turned off, the five F-117s entered Iraqi airspace like ghosts in the night.