The question of whether or not the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter was ever used in combat is an easy one to answer. Despite the entire program being highly secretive, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk saw action for the first time during the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, when it was used to bomb Rio Hato airfield.

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk later performed secretive missions during Operation Desert Storm (1990–1991) when a 42-country coalition led by the United States liberated Kuwait.

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was used again during Operation Allied Force when North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. During the fourth month of conflict, on March 27, 1999, a United States Air Force (USAF) F-111 was shot down over Serbia.

While flying at 26,000 feet during the mission, a Yugoslav Army surface-to-air-missile defense brigade locked onto the F-117. It fired a Yugoslav version of the Soviet Isayev S-125 "Neva" surface-to-air missile, which, after impact, forced the American pilot to eject.

The F-117 pilot was later rescued by helicopter

The aircraft, callsign "Vega-31," was being flown by Lt. Col. Darrell Patrick "Dale" Zelko, who observed two missiles punching through the clouds and heading towards his aircraft. The first missile flew past him, but the second detonated nearby, peppering his plane with shrapnel.

After ejecting, Zelko landed in a field near the town of Ruma in southern Serbia and immediately hid in a drainage ditch he had spotted while descending by parachute. Eight hours later, Zelco was rescued by highly trained Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) pararescue airmen flying in two Sikorsky MH-53 helicopters.

Somewhat surprisingly, and despite knowing where the wreckage of the F-117 was, the United States decided not to bomb and destroy the wreckage. The plane was built using technology from the 1970s, and the Americans figured that even if it were given to the Russians, anything they learned from it would be minimal.

A second Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was damaged during the Kosovo conflict, but it returned to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars

During the liberation of Kuwait and the later invasion of Iraq, Lockheed F-117 Nighthawks flew 1,300 missions, bombing what the United States military described as being high-value targets. The USAF also used F-117s to drop leaflets on civilians that read, "Escape now and save yourselves."

Of all the coalition aircraft involved in the Gulf War, only 229 aircraft could use laser-guided bombs, with the F-117 making up slightly less than 16% of the planes. The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was also one of the few planes that could carry 2,000 lb bunker-busting bombs and was involved in the attack on an Iraqi air raid shelter in Bagdad. The US military mistakenly thought Saddam Hussein's forces had taken it over to use as a command and control center.

On February 13, 1991, two F-117s each dropped a 2,000-pound GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bomb on the shelter, resulting in the death of 408 civilians and it being called a "war crime" by human rights organizations. Outside of hitting targets in Baghdad, the USAF used its F-117s to bomb airfields and heavily defended targets that required the use of stealth aircraft.

The War on Terror

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk saw combat again in the war in Afghanistan. During Operation Enduring Freedom (2001-2004), F-117s were used to bomb Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but because Afghanistan had no air defenses to speak of, the F-117 was hardly ever used again during the conflict.

The Second Gulf War

Under the pretext that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was guilty of aiding terrorists, in October 2022, the United States Congress passed a joint resolution that permitted President George W. Bush to order the invasion of Iraq.

On March 20, 2023, coalition forces started a "shock and awe" bombing campaign that was followed up with a ground invasion of Iraq. On the night the war began, the United States had intelligence telling them that Saddam Hussein was in a fortified command post in the Al Rashid administrative district in southern Baghdad.

In an attempt to assassinate the Ba'athist regime leader and end the war early, two F-117s were dispatched, each carrying a bunker-busting EGBU-27 Advanced Paveway III bomb. Following the ground invasion and the capture of Baghdad, the Americans learned that there had never been a fortified bunker on the Dora Farms target and that all the bombs did was destroy an above-ground building.

The end of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk program

Following the shooting down of a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk over Serbia, the USAF began studying ways to better train F-117 pilots. Unlike other aircraft, the F-117 required extensive maintenance. Thanks to computer-aided designs and new composites, the F-117's stealth technology was outdated and superseded by the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor.

In late 2006, the USAF announced that it was closing its F-117 formal training unit (FTU) and retiring its F-117 fleet. Unlike other USAF aircraft that are retired and given to museums or scrapped, the F-117s were to be put in "Type 1000" long-term storage. Today, the remaining planes are in climate-controlled hangars at their original base at the Tonopah Test Range Airport 140 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Currently, the USAF has 45 F-117s still in service and plans to retire two or three aircraft a year until 2034.