highly controversial, it was claimed
that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of
mass destruction (WMD). In 2002, the
United Nations Security Council passed
Resolution 1441, and — after yet more
prevarication — allied patience with
the Iraqi dictator came to an end. The
stated political goal of Operation ‘Iraqi
Freedom’ was the removal of Saddam
Hussein’s regime and to destroy its
ability to use WMD or make them
available to terrorists.
On the evening of March 19, 2003,
an intelligence report was received
at short notice stating that Saddam
Hussein and other top regime leaders
would be staying overnight at the Dora
Farms bunker complex south-west
of Baghdad. The J-2 intelligence cell
within the Combined Air Operations
Center (CAOC) at Prince Sultan AB, Saudi
Arabia, provided target information,
including GPS co-ordinates. It directed
that two F-117s of the 8th Expeditionary
Fighter Squadron — under the 379th Air
Expeditionary Wing, based at Al Udeid,
Qatar — should be made ready for the
strike and that each aircraft should be
equipped with two EGBU-27 ‘bunker-busters’. These 2,000lb weapons featured
a GPS/INS guidance system, enabling
them to be dropped accurately through
cloud cover without the pilot having to
visually acquire and lase the target. But
the weapons were very new to the F-117
and had never been tested before in
combat — indeed, they’d only arrived at
Al Udeid a mere 24 hours earlier.
Just two hours after receiving the
intelligence report, an execution order
arrived. A pair of ‘One-Seventeens’,
own by 8th FS commander Lt Col Dave
Toomey and Maj Mark Hoehn, were
airborne at 03.38hrs local time. Near
Kuwait City, they rendezvoused with a
KC-135 and topped up their tanks. They
were joined by three US Navy EA-6B
Prowlers to provide support and two
HARM-equipped F-16CJs. Clearing the
tanker, the two Nighthawks split up,
taking di erent routes to their common
target. Just 13 minutes after dawn broke
over Baghdad, at 05.30hrs, each of the
F-117s released two EGBU-27s through
the early morning cloud, catching Iraqi
air defenses completely o -guard.
Post-strike reconnaissance revealed
that the four bombs slammed intoAbove right:
81-0799 of
the 9th FS
completed 11
missions during
Operation ‘Iraqi
Freedom’. It
is pictured
on its return
to Holloman.
Lockheed
Martin/
Denny Lombard
Below: An F-117
returns to Al
Udeid, Qatar,
following the
attempted
‘decapitation
strike’ on
Saddam
Hussein’s
bunker complex
at Dora Farms,
south-west of
Baghdad, on
March 20, 2003.
USAF/SSgt
Derrick C. GoodeNighthawk was no longer ‘invisible’, but
neither the ‘Skunk Works’ nor the USAF
ever claimed that it was. The F-117 was
a highly e ective, rst-generation VLO
platform.
On April 3, 1999, 13 F-117s from the
9th FS became involved in ‘Noble Anvil’
and deployed to Spangdahlem AB,
Germany. It has recently come to light
that an F-117 (possibly 82-0818) was
damaged in another attack either by
an SA-3 or anti-aircraft re, sometime
between April 4-9. The damage was
such that it’s believed to have required
the pilot to divert. However, the incident
remains classi ed.
‘Noble Anvil’ was brought to a
successful conclusion and hostilities
ended on June 10, 1999. During the
80 days of combat, F-117s completed
760 operational sorties. Yugoslav forces
agreed to withdraw from Kosovo
to make way for an international
peacekeeping presence.‘Iraqi Freedom’ and
‘Enduring Freedom’
As Saddam Hussein continued to play
cat-and-mouse games with UN weapons
inspectors throughout the late 1990s,
two F-117 deployments demonstrated
US resolve. Then, citing intelligence
information that would later provehttp://www.combataircraft.net // June 2018 61
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