In an article for the website Verge published on Wednesday, Warzone editor Tyler Rogoway described the US F-117 stealth attack aircraft as a warplane that “could have executed nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union”.
He recalled that the F-117, which has been out of service since 2008, was designed to be capable of delivering nuclear bombs “and the [US] Air Force didn't forget that during the last years of the Cold War”.
The author described the plane as “a terrifying nuclear delivery platform for the Soviets to contend with”, referring to the F-117’s advanced specifications aimed at helping the aircraft penetrate enemy missile shields.
In an apparent nod to the USSR, Rogoway claimed that “when taking on the Russian Bear's deeply entrenched air defences in Eastern Europe, the F-117's chances of making it to its target would likely have far eclipsed that other tactical jets in the Air Force's inventory at the time”.
In terms of using the F-117 “on the front lines of the Cold War as a nuclear deterrent”, the main issue was the deep secrecy surrounding the plane’s very existence, “and even its configuration and its general capabilities”, according to the author.
“All of the sudden pushing the F-117 overseas, even in small groups, would have negated all the work that had been done and continued to be done to keep it secret”, he pointed out.
In this vein, Rogoway cited veteran F-117 pilot Robert "Robson" Donaldson as saying that although they had never practiced for a nuclear mission, the F-117s were prepared to deploy to the UK, “where they would prosecute targets in Eastern Europe” if necessary.
Rogoway called the plane’s nuclear capability “very real”, something that he added “was kept largely in reserve during the Cold War”.
“The jet's extreme secrecy kept it from actively deterring the unthinkable, but if a major crisis in which there was time spin-up and push some of the Nighthawks to the frontline had occurred, they could have been ready to weave their way through enemy air defences beyond the Iron Curtain […]”, he concluded.
Interestingly enough, it was in Eastern Europe where the F-117’s one and only loss in combat took place on 27 March 1999, when then-Yugoslav Air Defence Forces downed the aircraft during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia at the time.