( Snake bgd at Serbian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)ĭale ejected from his plane and after a heroic rescue effort, he was recovered and returned to flying missions. The second one hit and sent his Nighthawk down in a flat spin and inverted. Zoltan immediately ordered two missiles fired at Zelko’s aircraft to increase his chances of getting a hit. airbases in Italy had sent word that while F-117s were launched on a mission the EA-6B Prowlers with their powerful jammers and F-16s armed with anti-radiation missiles were grounded and not flying escort that night. He knew the weather was bad over the Adriatic Sea and spies watching U.S. For Col Zoltan turning on his radar a third time was a calculated risk. At the moment, with the bomb bay doors open just a few seconds, the F-117 was very visible to radar. Then he broke his own rule and rather than move his missile battery as per his own orders, he lit up his radar one more time and detected Dale’s plane at the bare minimum distance of 13km just as he was releasing his bombs. Then he tried again without success and shut down after 20 seconds. Zoltan’s fire control radar could not obtain a lock and he shut it down after 20 seconds. The air search radar detected Dale’s aircraft but lost it and then acquired it again at 25km. It wouldn’t give him pinpoint accuracy and could be off by hundreds of meters depending on altitude and distance, but it was better than nothing.
Serb missile commander f 117 skin#
He also altered his air search radar equipment so it could operate at low frequency, the theory being that the skin on the F-117 could absorb high-frequency radar energy but acted as an antenna to reflect back low-frequency energy. If he fired a missile, his unit would pack up and move to avoid a retaliatory strike from F-16s lurking in the dark skies. He would move his unit between twelve prepared positions nightly to avoid being bombed by NATO aircraft. Zoltan obtained some old radar sets from MIG-21 fighters that he dispersed around his site, they would broadcast signals as decoys for incoming anti-radiation missiles. As a precaution, Dani gave strict orders that fire control radars could not be emitting for more than 30 seconds which was hardly enough time to get a good fix on the target.
Any fire control radar turned on more than 40 seconds would get a HARM missile fired at it. They were low on resources, and their SAM missiles were designed in the 1960s and had a limited range. I was well aware of my vulnerabilities, the risks and dangers of that mission that night.”ĭown on the ground, Col Zoltan Dani had his own problems. Colonel Dale Zelko was pilot of F-117A that was shot down over Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (USAF/Wikimedia Commons).Īs he said, “Even before stepping to the aircraft from my squadron life support shop, I had had a deep feeling and sense that if any night was particularly suitable for my aircraft being shot down, that this was it.
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