Mihajlo (Mike) S Mijajlović - Shooting Down the Stealth Fighter: Eyewitness Accounts from Those Who Were There

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS FROM THOSE WHO WERE THERE

MIHAJLO (MIKE) S. MIHAJLOVIC & DJORDJE S. ANICIC

The last war in the twentieth century

The extraordinary story of the band of maverick missileers and the first combat downing of the STEALTH aircraft in history

SHOOTING DOWN THE STEALTH FIGHTER

Eyewitness Accounts from Those Who Were There

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Air World

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Mihajlo (Mike) S. MIHAJLOVIC & Djordje S. Anicic, 2021

ISBN 978 1 52678 042 3

ePUB ISBN 978 1 52678 043 0

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52678 043 0

The right of Mihajlo (Mike) S. MIHAJLOVIC & Djordje S. Anicic to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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There are many excellent books covering subjects such as radars, stealth technologies, airplanes and air defence suppression. Most radar and stealth technology books are highly specialized and intended for narrow circles of professionals. Air defence manuals are especially intended for end users who are usually from the military. The NATO air campaign in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 is covered in few books and there is a handful of publications in different languages about parts of this subject together, but none of which pulls all those parts together.

The intention of this book is to describe and enlighten in detail one event that shook, shaped and steered aviation twenty years ago. That event happened when something that was a marvel in aviation had been brought down with something that was, at the time of use, almost obsolete. This book looks firstly through the eyes of missile crews rather than through the eyes of the pilot in the last war of twentieth century, where one small independent country in the middle of Europe was brutally attacked by a mighty alliance for controversial political reasons. But this event was not just the end of an experiment, rather the beginning. Definitely in the future stealth and missile would meet many more times in the sky over other countries.

Both authors participated in that war in the air defence and intelligence roles. Lieutenant Colonel Anicic, as a missile battalion deputy commander and executive officer (XO), was personally involved in downing the F-117A. Because of the necessary requirements of security, both stealth and air defence materials are not widely known and there is much speculation about these events, both in printed material and on the web. Some are pure fantasy, some are close to the truth. The real truth is now known to a very narrow circle of experts but even there some of the finer details are not known.

One of the challenges with this approach is to objectively expose errors without casting the slightest shadow on those who took an oath and fought for their countries. In most books about air warfare, there is an accent on one side or the other, depending on who the author is and for which audience the book is intended. Of course, most books are related to the pilots fighter pilots, bombers or wild weasel crews. This book takes another approach. We have tried to put the reader into the cabin of the missile fire control centre as well as into the aircraft cockpit. All those personnel tried to do was their duty as best as they could and live to fight another day. As the operations of both missile crew and pilot are highly technical, an approach has been made to explain the technology behind their actions so that the ordinary reader, who is not military or educated in engineering, can understand better what went on. Many authentic photos and illustrations are used to support the text and help the reader to better understand the written material.

Why, for example, do American and other NATO pilots fight and sometimes die, or kill enemy soldiers or, worse, innocent civilians, in places far from home which most in their own countries have barely even heard of? The short answer is that they were ordered to, and the military was at the mercy of elected government officials. It was not the decision of men in uniforms where and whom to fight, so, having no real choice, they went, and in future they will do so again. Suits and ties in Washington DC, Wall Street, Tel Aviv or London, for example, make wars for their own interests, sometimes geopolitical sometimes economic, and the soldiers just execute their orders, like them or not. For politicians there are no eternal enemies, just eternal interests. Todays enemy is tomorrows friend and vice versa. Very often the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

On the other side, there are missile system crews. Ordinary people, professionals, like their opponents in the sky. Their job is to defend the sky over their country. Throughout their military careers they train, over and over again, so that in less than thirty seconds they can bring down an aircraft. That thirty seconds is all they have to do their duty, or to die trying. Only highly trained and motivated crew can do that and live to fight another day.