Hi all,
ORIGINAL: Rusty1961
Kind of funny how a state of the art plane such as the F-117 could be downed by some 1961 vintage, archaic SA-3. Yeah, I'm sure those F35s are as invisible as a Klingon Bird of Prey with it's cloaking device on.
ORIGINAL: Rusty1961
And from Wiki....
In 2005, Colonel Zoltán Dani confirmed this in an interview, suggesting that those modifications involved using long wavelengths, which allowed them to detect the aircraft [4]. In addition, the Serbs had also intercepted and deciphered some NATO communications, and thus were able to deploy their anti-air batteries at positions best suited to intercept NATO planes.[4]
Looks like Col. Zoltan contradicts your hypothesis that Long Wave Radar can't detect and lock-on to Stealth.
Oh dear... [&:]
As I posted earlier I was in SAM SA-3 base for 1 year in old state (i.e. 10+ years before downing of F-117) and things are much more simple than most think... [;)]
#1
What brought down the F-117 was complacency - plain and simple.
The packages went using same routes, same altitudes and same timetable day after day. The Serbs just placed their remaining SAM batteries on obvious / best places and waited for the opportunity.
#2
The SA-3 that shoot down F-117 didn't have lock-on the whole flight of the missiles that engaged it (they had a very very brief radar lock with targeting radar but that was just for dozens of seconds only) - they practically fired blindly several missiles and relied on close proximity fuse.
Please note that SA-3 SAM uses:
SNR-125 "Low Blow" (X-Band) Targeting Fire Control Radar
P-12 "Spoon Rest" Surveliance radar
BTW the SA-3 SAM had local modification made by Iskra (now Slovenia - also member of NATO for many years now) which enabled TV guidance when there was radar lock-on on target. We often trained with it late 1980's and were good to the point that we would be able to maintain lock on helmet of pilots that were passing near us for training purposes.
So... in essence... there was no "magic" in downing of that F-117... it was pure luck by the Serbs and big complacency problem with package tasking...
Leo "Apollo11"
Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!
A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE