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Originally Posted by Chuck Mayer
We did hardly know ye. That was a LOT of money spent on an aircraft that never quite lived up to the cost.
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I don't know. It was a proof of concept and helped work the bugs out for succeeding generations of low-visibility aircraft, and it proved invaluable in the first Gulf War. Hard to put a price tag on all the aircraft and air crew we
didn't lose because the Nighthawks flew so many sorties without the loss of a single plane, softened up (or totally elimnated) the air defenses for more conventional planes coming behind them and pretty much wiped out the opposing airforce. (Scaring what it didn't destroy into internment and inaction in a neighboring country.) Not bad, all things considered, and the B-2, F-22 Raptor and other planes owe a lot to the Nighthawk.
Regards,
Joe