ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: F-117A flying over mountains in Nevada in 2002.
The US Air Force has deployed at least four F-117A stealth attack aircraft in the Middle East for operations in Syria and Iraq, a well-known aviation blog, Scramble Magazine, reported on March 2 citing “very reliable information”.
According to the report, at least one of the employed F-117As “was involved in an in-flight emergency and landed far away from its temporary home base”.
“Back in 2017, and not published by any other source so far, Scramble received very reliable information that at least four F-117s were deployed to the Middle East as an operational need emerged for the USAF to resurrect the stealth F-117 for special purposes. One of the deployed aircraft was involved in an in-flight emergency and landed far away from its temporary home base that was likely located in Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Qatar.
During this extremely covert deployment the four Nighthawks flew missions over Syria and Iraq with Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs),” the Scramble Magazine report says.
The U.S. Air Force retired the F-117 in 2008. Its role was occupied by the F-22 Raptor fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft. If the Scramble Magazine report is confirmed, this will be a signal that the F-22 appeared to be not so stealth as it’s claimed, especially if the aircraft operates in a complex enviroment.
