via Fox News...
First this---
"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," says Adm. Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war.Then this---
"We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them," Domazet-Loso said in a telephone interview.
A senior Serbian military official confirmed that pieces of the wreckage were removed by souvenir collectors, and that some ended up "in the hands of foreign military attaches."
Zoran Kusovac, a Rome-based military consultant, said the regime of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic routinely shared captured Western equipment with its Chinese and Russian allies.Hmm.
"The destroyed F-117 topped that wish-list for both the Russians and Chinese," Kusovac said.
Russia's Sukhoi T-50 prototype stealth fighter made its maiden flight last year and is due to enter service in about four years. It is likely that the Russians also gleaned knowledge of stealth technology from the downed Nighthawk.
Either a viable counter measure to stealth already exists with earlier generations of stealth----or those airplanes (the escorts for the B-2's) were flying missile pickets or expendable targets if the jamming didn't work.
I would pay good money to hear what the escorting pilots briefing was before those missions.
Surprised? I feel like we have this same discussion every few topics, and with increasing frequency now...I am however surprised its all coming out together in a lump. But then again this sort of thing has been going on for centuries, not much you can do to stop it honestly, however there are things you can do to make it harder...which you don't need schooling on Sol ;)
ReplyDeleteHello everybody, I'm writing from Croatia and I remember very well of the taking down of F117 from the sky in 1999 above the village Budjanovci near Belgrade because we have been monitoring our neighbours well while engaging against NATO. As I recall some intel said they used a giant "roentgen" X ray device from the Medical university to track it down. The X ray was in the network with the S-125 Neva missile that eventually took it down. The system had to much radiation signature so the next NATO wave destroyed it despite the Serbs were moving it fast from location to location. Anyway it can be done. Also this model came from the experiences of the Iraqi National Guard in the Gulf war.
ReplyDeleteImagine that being a
ReplyDeleteF-35 shot down over PRC-held/influenced territory, circa 2025.