F-117 Nighthawk

The F-117 Nighthawk was the world's first operational stealth combat aircraft, developed in secrecy by Lockheed's Skunk Works out of the Have Blue demonstrator and fielded by the U.S. Air Force beginning in 1983. Its faceted airframe, radar-absorbent coatings, and internal weapons bays gave it an effective radar cross section closer to a small bird than a combat aircraft, enabling it to strike defended high-value targets at night with GBU-10 and GBU-27 laser-guided bombs.

The Nighthawk made its combat debut over Panama in 1989 and achieved its defining success in Operation Desert Storm, striking hardened command-and-control targets in downtown Baghdad on the opening night of the air campaign. A single F-117 was lost to Serbian air defenses over Yugoslavia in 1999. The fleet was officially retired in 2008 as F-22 and F-35 low-observable capability matured, though a handful of airframes continue to fly out of Tonopah Test Range for aggressor and research work.

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