[MilCom] WAS KC-45 Bases; now F-117

[John Denney]

There are 3 F-117's at Wright-Patterson AFB for a retirement ceremomy 
tomorrow.  One will be on display while at least one will do a fly 
by.  One of them is the one with the American Flag painted on the 
bottom.  I hope our weather here is good for flying.  It's hard to 
beleive that this will be the last time I see one fly or hear the 
call sign STEALTH 91.  Check the link for the story. 
http://www.skywrighter.com/

At 09:59 PM 3/10/2008, Duane Mantick wrote:

>--- "Jack L. Metcalfe" <jlmetcalfe at hughes.net> wrote:
>
><snip>
>
> >
> > Change of subject, catch your F-117s while you can.
> > The remaining
> > F-117s will be placed into "recallable" storage at
> > Holloman AFB next
> > month.  Of the original 59 F-117s, 7 were destroyed
> > (one in combat)
> > 10 were retired in FY 2007 & the remainder will go
> > this FY.  Holloman
> > may be flying the F-22 as a replacement.
> > -------------------
> > Jack L. Metcalfe
> > Stanford, KY
> > jlmetcalfe at hughes.net
> > -------------------
> >
> >
>
>Jack - replacing the F-117 with F-22 is unlikely - so
>far as I can tell, the F-22's original F/A designation
>was baloney, and the weapons bays cannot (so far as I
>can tell) accomodate the BLU and GBU stuff that the
>F-117 could.  Placing those things *externally* on the
>F-22 airframe may not even be possible, and even if it
>was, stealth would be out the window.
>
>A number of people have been speculating for years
>that it is likely that there is an F-117 replacement
>and it could already be in operation and still
>"blackworld".  Consider the mission - pinpoint,
>surgical strikes with generally single munitions by
>individual aircraft (which reduces the likelihood of
>visual pickup even at night).  I do not see an
>aircraft *openly* in the inventory that can do this in
>such an extremely stealthy manner.
>
>If F-117's are in the process of being mothballed NOW,
>that's a good sign that said replacement is already
>out there in sufficient quantity to take over the
>mission.  With 59 F-117's the max. ever available, it
>wouldn't have taken much production to equal that
>strictly in numerical terms.  I suppose it is an
>option that the mission has been discontinued but I
>seriously doubt it - in the current threat
>environment, an effective stealthy surgical strike
>aircraft seems extremely logical.
>
>What would we be looking at?  The faceted form of the
>F-117 and its Have Blue predecessor was shown to be
>extremely effective in having a small Radar Cross
>Section. The B2 takes stealth in an entirely different
>direction.  I would think that some combination of
>*both* styles is possible - The flying wing is highly
>efficient in range and payload and would likely
>require less refueling per mission.  This is
>desireable, as the presence of tankers which are
>anything BUT stealthy could easily be a giveaway to a
>mission.  Carrying large BLU and GBU munitions was
>limited to TWO in the F-117; I would think that a
>flying wing design about midway between the F-117 size
>and the B2 could carry multiple munitions over a
>longer range than the F-117.  Yet, keeping it
>physically below a certain size again reduces the
>visual signature from being an issue.
>
>I'd bet that we're looking at a new bird out there....
>
>An increase in CONUS tanker traffic might be an
>indication, at least of training missions....but, I
>did speculate that good refuelled range may have been
>a design characteristic.  Listening for "the unusual"
>in odd places might be of value......
>
>Duane
>
>
>
> 
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