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Incorrect, the AF is dumping a lot of effort into service life extension programs (SLEP) for 4th gen, because even "they" realize we need a lot of 4th gen around to supplement 5th gen because we'll never get to an all 5th gen force, at least in the next 30 years. We're doing it right now, and have been for months...in a shit hole country. The high end threat is real and is all over; you don't need to start WWIII with China or Russia to fly in more than AAA and IR threats.

How about Richmond?

Nah, it looks like a chubby dolphin.

Clovis is a debatable combat zone depending on where you live.

Just some article observations.. "Operational in 1983, it was not publically revealed until April 1990" The 117 was shown at the Nellis airshow in 1990, but was technically publically revealed in 1988 in a pentagon press conference. "It was not a fighter, but a light bomber without a scintilla of air-to-air capability" Not operationally, no. But not exactly true either. Each bomb bay did have AIM-9 umbilical connections, marked as such, for a reason. Regarding Spoon Rest/Fan Song/Tall King, about the only thing I'll say on that is since we planned specifically against fixed threats/radars, we had methodology to make detection by these systems nearly impossible. We carried LGBs, but also had GPS weapons too, so we weren't completely dependant on the former. And in terms of defenses onboard, there were items, just nothing standard. "No F-117s were so much as scratched by Iraqi defenses" One was very nearly shot down by medium/heavy caliber AAA that was tracking it visually. Luckily no hits were made. "No accident this; Col. Dani’s battery also shot down an F-16C, making him the only successful air defense commander of the entire conflict" Not entirely specialization on the part of the Serb SAM operators either. We ourselves helped them out alot with not remembering a damn thing from the first days Linebacker II, 27 years earlier. Nothing like helping the IADS narrow down its search area. In terms of maintenance, the 117 was up there in man hours. As mentioned, the Martians had the most difficult job in just maintaining the RAM coating. One of the things you'll notice in looking at day-to-day 117s, is how the jet looks somewhat ratty looking, and with strips/pieces missing underneath the tail number of the vertical stab, as well as white chalk looking stuff around the cockpit. This was not the fault of any kind of maintenance, but merely a limitation of the jet itself. F-117s at home station were not kept in a full CMR status. Their weapons attack systems were fully ready, but the jets themselves had to be prepared for combat if the call came, in terms of the stealth items and specifically the RAM coating. With these first generation stealth jets, the outer coating on the jet....the RAM, or Radar Absorbent Material.....came in "sheets" and had to be placed onto the metal fuselage of the jet by trimming to fit, then gluing into place, with a fairly long curing time. Because of this, bits and pieces of of RAM would come off inflight often, and it was alot of work to maintain it. To do so would have far too many jets down for service, so RAM was only replaced in larger sheets if need be. Smaller areas of missing RAM were either left missng temporarily until maintenance could get to it, or were filled in with the RAM putty, resulting in the worn look that some of the jets had, even though that was only a look. When off to combat or to an exercise like Red Flag (or an airshow), the jets were fully prepped and looked pristine, with their RAM coating perfect and Radar Cross Section for that particular tail number well within specs. Other things that would cause severe loss of RAM were actions like dropping the tailhook, if needed.