China's new stealth fighter may use US technology

[Gerald]

BRUSSELS – Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech stealth fighter that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority — and some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the U.S. itself.

Balkan military officials and other experts have told The Associated Press that in all probability the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/23/chinas-new-stealth-fighter-use-technology/


Note: Published January 23, 2011

[Schroeder]

Now that's a surprise.;)

[Kaye T. Bai]

http://gallery.koroded.net/d/13108-1/owl-orry.jpg

[Gerald]

Now that's a surprise.;) Good one, :haha:

[Oberon]

Never saw that coming... :03:

[nikimcbee]

Now that's a surprise.;)

:sign_yeah:

Now, if we can infect their military with political correctness, it will even out.:hmmm:

[Ducimus]

Apparently, whoever was suppose to deny the wreckage of that F117 by means of destruction, didn't do a good enough job. Assuming anyone was assigned the task to make sure NOTHING remained. (Not unheard of, during the cold war the AF sent in ground teams and removed anything of any intelligence value when a bomber crashed)

[Gerald]

But there is always a possibility, that any defaults along the way, these kinds of missions are notoriously not quite 100%

[CCIP]

In fairness, it's not exactly like the F-117 is bleeding-edge new technology... and besides - in that case, shouldn't we say that the Americans used German technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_Ho_229) in developing their stealth planes? :hmmm:

[nikimcbee]

Apparently, whoever was suppose to deny the wreckage of that F117 by means of destruction, didn't do a good enough job. Assuming anyone was assigned the task to make sure NOTHING remained. (Not unheard of, during the cold war the AF sent in ground teams and removed anything of any intelligence value when a bomber crashed)

Did the pilot of that crash survive (the one in Serbia?).

[Krauter]

Yeap, said he ejected and was picked up

[nikimcbee]

Did they ever say how they mamaged to shoot him down? Were they actually tracking him, or did they just get lucky? I remember they said the US kept using the same flight routes and that was one of the reasons they were able to tage it.

[Krauter]

According to the article it was a combination of luck and tenacity and a Soviet built SA-3. I might be mistaken, but doesn't the SA-3 have IR backup to its radar homing?

*Summons TLAM..*

[TLAM Strike]

According to the article it was a combination of luck and tenacity and a Soviet built SA-3. I might be mistaken, but doesn't the SA-3 have IR backup to its radar homing?

*Summons TLAM..*

Not as far as I can tell. The SA-3's backup system is a TV camera plus Thermal Imager and laser range finder (those last two were a 1999 upgrade I think) linked to a command guidance system to control the missiles.

The Iraqis before OIF may have made one that did by putting a AA-8 APHID seeker on it. But that might have been a SA-2 I forget which.

As far as I know what happened was that the USAF flew the same routes over and over. The Serbs had spies letting the AD guys know when a strike was launched. The AD unit timed the trip and was looking at the spot where the attack was likely to come from (they also listened for the reflection of AM radio waves bouncing off the 117) and pulled the trigger when they saw the 117 at point blank range (like under 20 Km.)

[Krauter]

Hey it worked :D

Aah, so basically stealth features on any aircraft or ship/whatever it is applied to, can be beat at short range (combined with the stupidity of the user..)?