root@uunet.UU.NET (Superuser) (08/17/90)
From: edat!root@uunet.UU.NET (Superuser) The local news reported this evening that the Stealth (F-117A I think we've all agreed on this) Fighter is being deployed this evening (Wednesday) to Saudi Arabia. They will fly from Tonopah Nevada to Langley Virginia, and then depart Langley in a day or so. I suppose to wait for the lines to go down at the gas station--its no fun to idle at a KC-?? when the needle is pushin' red. The Air Force is promising footage of the deployments. This will probably make the nationals as well. Any footage I have seen is just one plane. We may get to see an actual flight this time. This is an interesting move, because the stealth is a very aggressive weapon. That is one of its main missions is to strike heavily defended C^3 or similar sites of tactical importance. SAM sites are another specialty. I understand a SAM site sees them for all of maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute before it is already overhead. A HARM missle will take care of such a site right about then as well. The plane is no dogfighter, but is a good replacement for the F-111, though not supersonic. We shall have to wait and see if it is used again and how it performs this time. Brian Douglass uunet!edat!brian