By Nitin J Ticku
In combat aviation, the US is considered the undisputed leader of stealth technology. The US has developed not one but four stealth aircraft: the F-117 Nighthawk, the B-2 Spirit bomber, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II, before China developed the J-20 Mighty Dragon, its first stealth fighter jet.
Meanwhile, Russia has had to wait over four decades since the US first flew its stealth fighter demonstrator in 1978 before it could commission its first stealth fighter, the Su-57 Felon, in 2020.
Till now, only three countries, the US, China, and Russia, have been able to develop a stealth fighter jet. Even among them, the experts are circumspect about the Su-57’s stealth capabilities, and Chinese stealth fighter jets, the J-20 and J-35A, despite Beijing’s tall claims, remain untested.
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Meanwhile, all US stealth aircraft have proven their worth in multiple conflicts all around the world, from the Gulf Wars, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran in June 2025.
As the rest of the world tries to catch up with the US on stealth fighter jet technology, the US is already working on two next-generation stealth fighter jets, the B-21 Raider strategic bomber, and the F-47.
Given the unassailable lead of the US in stealth aircraft technology, it is hard to believe that the US’s first stealth fighter jet, Lockheed Aircraft’s ‘Have Blue’ design, which ultimately became the F-117 Nighthawk, relied heavily on research conducted in the Soviet Union by a Russian physicist, Pyotr Ufimtsev.
How Lockheed used the Soviet research to develop the world’s first stealth aircraft is a story worthy of a Hollywood thriller.
Furthermore, adding to its allure and mystery, the F-117 Nighthawk, which is often compared to an alien spacecraft, flew in complete secrecy for five years. Forget the Soviet Union; even US citizens were unaware of its existence.
The F-117 Nighthawk: Making Of The World’s First Stealth Aircraft
In the 1960s, when the Cold War paranoia was at its peak, the US was concerned with the impressive progress the Soviet Union had made in its surface-to-air (SAM) missile program.
In May 1960, a Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance spy plane was shot down near Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in the Ural Mountains region of the Soviet Union by a Soviet S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) SAM.
Two years later, in 1962, another U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba by a Soviet SA-2 SAM.
With U-2 spy planes becoming increasingly vulnerable, the US sought to develop a combat aircraft capable of penetrating deep into Soviet territory undetected and completing its missions.
The project to develop a combat aircraft with a low radar signature that led to the birth of the F-117 began in 1974 when the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched Project Harvey, so-named after the invisible white rabbit from the play and movie.
Lockheed Aircraft’s “Skunk Works” won the highly secretive project, named “Have Blue”.
The aim was to develop an aircraft that prioritized stealth and invisibility over speed and maneuverability for survival. Stealth was to be achieved by dramatically reducing the aircraft’s radar cross-section (RCS), making it almost invisible on radar.
It was a radical departure from the combat aircraft design theories of the time, which depended on speed and maneuverability for survival.
Lockheed Aircraft’s “Skunk Works” stumbled upon a research paper by a Soviet physicist, Pyotr Ufimtsev.
Ufimtsev was working on how electromagnetic waves scatter off surfaces. While studying the properties of radar waves, Ufimtsev developed mathematical equations to describe their reflection patterns on angular and flat surfaces.
He gained permission to publish his research paper – ‘Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction’ – internationally because they were deemed to have no significant military or economic value.
Meanwhile, a stealth engineer at Lockheed, Denys Overholser, had read the publication and realized that Ufimtsev had developed the mathematical theory and tools for finite analysis of radar reflections.
Lockheed engineers used Ufimtsev’s mathematical breakthrough to design an aircraft angled to deflect radar waves away from receivers.
Lockheed also used his work to train supercomputers to predict the radar reflection patterns and the ideal shape for their aircraft.
The ‘Have Blue’ program developed two prototypes. The first flight was in December 1978. Both prototypes were eventually lost in accidents, but not before proving that stealth technology could work in practice.
The ‘Have Blue’ program ultimately evolved into the F-117 Nighthawk.
It was a single-seat jet with no curved surfaces whatsoever. It emerged with hundreds of individual flat, triangular, and rectangular plates.
Lockheed further reduced the F-117’s infrared signature by installing a slit-shaped tailpipe to minimize the exhaust cross-sectional area and maximize rapid mixing of hot exhaust with cool ambient air.
The aircraft lacked afterburners as they would create hot exhaust, increasing its infrared signature.
Also, the F-117 was deliberately subsonic, as breaking the sound barrier would produce a sonic boom, heating the aircraft’s surface and increasing its IR signature.
Further, the aircraft was given an internal weapons bay to reduce its RCS.
It was a radical departure, as till then, all aircraft had prioritised speed and maneuverability for survival. However, the F-117 depended on invisibility. It was the beginning of the stealth era in combat aviation.
The aircraft first flew in 1981 and was commissioned into the US Air Force in 1983.
However, even then, the aircraft was kept classified. The USAF flew it only at night, so that it could not be photographed.
The aircraft was announced to the public only in 1988, when it had already flown in secret for over five years.
Following the success of the F-117, the US soon began work on a stealth bomber.
Northrop won the contract for the ‘Tacit Blue’ program, which evolved into the B-2 Spirit bombers. The B-2 Spirit had its first flight in 1989 and entered service in 1997.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the US also developed the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II.
Together, these stealth aircraft are the cornerstone of the USAF Air Power.
However, the F-117 was the world’s first stealth aircraft.
Only 64 F-117s were ever built, 59 operational aircraft, and five prototypes.
The F-117 has participated in numerous combat missions. Its first combat mission was in Panama in 1989. It also participated in the Gulf War (1991), the Kosovo War (1999), the War in Afghanistan (2001), and the Iraq War (2003).
Incidentally, the F-117 Nighthawk is also the world’s only stealth aircraft to be shot down. The aircraft was visible on radar for a brief moment when its internal weapons bay was open for releasing the missiles. During a mission in Kosovo in 1999, a SA-3 ‘Goa’ Soviet missile shot down the F-117 aircraft.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was officially retired by the United States Air Force in 2008.
However, despite the official retirement in 2008, a portion of the F-117 fleet (45 aircraft) has been maintained in a flyable or regeneratable condition for specialized uses, such as research, development, stealth aircraft testing, and adversary training.
In September last year, two F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers were seen refueling from a KC-46 Pegasus air tanker near the coast of California.
Technically, the US Air Force retired the F-117 fleet in 2008, but the Nighthawk isn’t expected to be truly retired until 2034 at the earliest.
Culled from EurAsian Times
