In the cold war time, U.S. planned to use the world’s first stealth F-117 Nighthawk jet for nuclear attacks against the Soviet Union.
Entering service in the U.S. Air Force in late 1983, the F-117 Nighthawk was the world’s first jet aircraft built around a stealth design. It was designed to provide a means of penetrating the world’s densest and most sophisticated air defence network.
At that time the new Soviet air defence systems had made the possibility of penetration by non-stealthy American aircraft such as B-52H and B-1B bombers and F-111 strike fighters low.
Advanced new systems which entered service shortly before the F-117 included, among others, MiG-31 Foxhound and MiG-25PD fourth-generation heavy interceptors, the former with the world’s first phased array radars, as well as R-33 active radar-guided air to air missiles, S-300 long-range air defence systems a new variants of the S-200 system.
Originally, the Senior Trend program that gave birth to the F-117 included the goal of having the aircraft be able to carry the majority of the weapons the Air Force had to offer for its tactical fighter and attack aircraft at the time—the 1970s.
The realization of the jet’s limitations and strengths paired down its operational weapons menu considerably. Still, all the cockpit interfaces and diverse stores management capabilities were baked into the design—including the provision to carry and employ nuclear gravity bombs—namely the B57 and B61.
Related Article: Former F-117 Pilot Confirms The Serbian Air Defenses Second Hit On American Stealth Fighter During Operation Allied Force
At first glance, the F-117 would have been a terrifying nuclear delivery platform for the Soviets to contend with. It was built to penetrate dense enemy air defenses via a cocktail of measures.
Shaping, which accounted for roughly 75 percent of the aircraft’s radar cross-section reduction, and radar-absorbent materials and coatings, which made up the rest, are the aircraft’s most known and innovative traits, but its mission planning software, which was state-of-the-art at the time, was also extremely important when it came to the plane’s enhanced survivability.
Although potentially vulnerable to detection by long-wave radars, against most Soviet aircraft and air defence systems the F-117 could only be detected at shorter ranges a fraction of those that non-stealth fighters could be tracked at.
Although it was far from invulnerable, this gave it a much better chance at being able to deliver strikes where needed.
The F-117 was designed from the outset to be able to deploy B57 and B61 nuclear gravity bombs, and its cockpit included an Aircraft Monitoring And Control (AMAC) panel for this purpose which interfaced with the bombs and allowed pilots to arm and program them prior to delivery.
Related Article: The story of a lucky F-117A pilot who survived Nighthawk disintegration at the Chesapeake Air Show
To increase the chances the the stealth jets would be able to penetrate Soviet defences, F-117 units were to receive intelligence on the positions of enemy air defences and carefully plan route to avoid potential threats – likely giving long wavelength radar systems a wide berth to this end.
The fact that the aircraft was largely expected to operate from Europe meant that they would need to pass through Warsaw Pact territory before reaching the USSR itself – a difficult task given that members of the alliance had themselves begun to field advanced aerial warfare systems such as S-300s and MiG-29 fighters and would be supported by new Soviet Su-27 fighters with very powerful sensor suites based in Eastern Europe.
F-117s employing B57 or B61 tactical nuclear warheads, which were built to engage targets such as troop concentrations and military bases, were expected to use the ‘laydown method’ of nuclear delivery. The involved the aircraft flying fast over the target and dropping a retarded nuclear bomb – one which had a slowed descent using a parachute and at times was primed to detonate shortly after landing.
Although the F-117 was one of the slowest fighters in the world and could not reach Mach 1 speeds, this method allowed it to fly relatively low to better evade enemy defences and sensors without risking being caught in the nuclear blast or its shockwave. This was a particularly likely tactic given that the stealth jets were particularly vulnerable when dropping bombs, as their open bomb bays compromised the stealth profile and thus made the aircraft easier to detect meaning moving fast and at low altitude was prepared.
Related Article: When U.S. Air Force Got Caught Trying To Sneak F-117s Stealth Fighter Through Austrian Airspace
The one conflict which saw F-117s used on a large scale in combat – albeit for non-nuclear missions – was the First Gulf War shortly after the Cold War’s end, which gave some indication as to how the aircraft would be used. These saw Iraqi long-wavelength radar systems designated as first priority targets and neutralized by low flying attack helicopters in the war’s initial stages – after which F-117s were much more difficult to detect.
The fact that Iraq lacked S-200s, S-300s, MiG-31s, Su-27s or any other high-end systems for aerial warfare meant that the Nighthawks, which had been designed to engage much more challenging defences, had little trouble softening the country’s surface to air missile and radar positions which paved the way for a higher tempo of operations by non-stealth aircraft such as F-111s.
The stealth fighters were effectively complemented by F-4G jets in particular, which were developed specifically for suppression of enemy air defenses and were well equipped with anti-radiation missiles for this purpose – a potent pairing which likely would have also been used in the event of a major war in Europe.
As the F-117 had an extremely high operational cost, which was initially by the highest in the world for a combat aircraft including much heavier bombers, only 59 of the jets were built. This mean that they would need to be assigned a niche role to strike specific targets until in close coordination with units of non-stealth aircraft.
The jets’ high operational costs and relatively limited capabilities other than stealth led to their retirements relatively soon after their commissioning in 2008, after which the U.S. Air Force lacked a stealth fighter capable for nuclear delivery missions.
