In the turn, the F-117’s angular speed
dramatically increased from Dani’s
perspective, adding further complexity
to the intercept solution. But with the
‘Low Blow’ tracking radar engaged,
Dani gave the order to re a salvo of
two V-601P missiles in a three-to- ve-
second interval.
Zelko recalls visually tracking two
missiles as they blasted through the thin
veil of cloud beneath. The rst missile
(the second to be red), failed to lock
on to the ‘Low Blow’ datalink and went
into a ballistic trajectory, passing over
the aircraft so close that its shockwavebu eted the Nighthawk. Re-acquiring
the second missile, which was guiding,
Zelko could see it was going to hit. Sure
enough, the impact blew most of the
port wing o , slamming the aircraft into
a roll to the left and a -7g tuck. Zelko
managed to eject, and just 1.8 seconds
later he was hanging beneath a fully
deployed parachute. Landing in a eld
near the village of Buđanovci, close
to a busy road, Zelko’s luck held. After
some four hours on the ground he was
plucked to safety by a USAF rescue team
consisting of two MH-53s and an MH-60.
The popular press carped that theimmediately the battery acquired four
targets between 25-30km away. It was
clear from the return characteristics
that they were stealth aircraft. Soon,
one of the targets entered the missile
system’s engagement zone and Dani
ordered its acquisition with ‘Low Blow’.
Tracking manually, the operators
initially caught sporadic glimpses of
the return, before nally gaining a
steady lock on the target. During this
time Dani decided to transgress his
self-imposed 20-second shut-down
rule, since there were no non-stealthy
returns in the area, thereby ruling
out the possibility of a HARM attack.
At 20.40hrs local time, ‘Vega 31’ had
its bomb bay doors open (creating
a large corner radar re ector) and
was on its target run. An all-stations
warning transmission from an E-3
AWACS advising ‘Fire y-three, Fire y-
three’ — activation of an SA-3 site
in Zelko’s vicinity — was made. The
Nighthawk eet was not equipped with
radar warning and homing (RWAH)
equipment. Now, seconds away from
release, Zelko concentrated on tracking
the target through the downward-
looking infra-red (DLIR). Once his
GBU-27 had hit its target, he snapped
806’s bomb bay doors shut and went
into a hard, pre-planned left turn.Right: Maj Bob
Noonan goes
through the
technical log prior
to a Nighthawk
fl ight at Holloman
in 2008.
Rich Cooper
Below: F-117A
81-0796, marked
for the 49th
Operations Group,
on fi nals to
Holloman in 2003.
Jamie HunterFEATURE ARTICLE // ‘SKUNK WORKS’ AT 75: F-117
60 June 2018 June 2018 ////^ http://www.combataircraft.netwww.combataircraft.net
52-63 Skunk Works F-117 C.indd 60 20/04/2018 16:11