Agence France-Presse,
Washington: The US Air Force said goodbye Tuesday to the first stealth fighter, the F-117A Nighthawk, which was developed in deep secrecy and unleashed for the first time during the 1989 invasion of Panama.
The faceted, wedge shaped jet is being retired to free up money for the air force's newest stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor.
The air force marked the retirement with a flyover and static displays at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
“We are extremely proud of the long legacy of the F-117 and are committed to retiring this first generation stealth fighter with honor and dignity,” said Diana Filliman, whose office manages the program.
“The F-117 program created a revolution in military warfare by incorporating low-observable technology into an operational aircraft,” she said.
Designed to penetrate heavily defended air space of Cold War adversaries, it was first used to spearhead an invasion of Panama in December 1989.
Two years later, F-117s were striking targets in downtown Baghdad in the opening of the 1991 Gulf War — one of the only aircraft to do so.
The air force said it flew 1,300 sorties, scoring direct hits on 1,600 targets, and emerged from the war without a single loss to Iraqi air defenses.
In 1999, it was used again in the NATO air war against the former Yugoslavia.
But this time Serbian forces brought one down with an anti-aircraft missile, compromising the stealth technology and showing that the plane was vulnerable to ground fire.
The F-117, however, has since seen action in Afghanistan in 2001, and during the US invasion of Iraq.
Only 59 of the aircraft were built, and seven have been lost.
The air force retired the first 10 aircraft in 2006, and has since retired another 27.
The remainder will be put in storage next month at the Nevada test range where the first F-117 flight test was flown, the air force said.
