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How did America’s first stealth fighter get shot down by a 50-year-old Russian SAM?
Overconfidence in technology leads to mistakes — especially in a high-stakes environment where there is little room for error.
In 1999, I was serving in the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. The “grunt-y” life of an infantryman couldn’t be further removed from the sleek world of stealth aircraft.
Yet, I still remember watching the news in our company HQ when CNN reported that an American F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter got shot down over Serbia.
Back then, in the post-Gulf War and pre-September 11th, 2001 Army, we had this feeling of invincibility. After all, it was the roaring 1990s.
But this news shook some of us up, especially after we learned that the Nighthawk was shot down by a 50-year-old Soviet-era system that was designed in the 1950s.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was a marvel of its time, often dubbed a “stealth fighter,” even though it mostly functioned as a precision strike aircraft.
Designed from day one to evade radar detection, the Nighthawk was a symbol of US air superiority, capable of slipping through the most sophisticated air defenses to deliver devastating…