Mimicking the J-20? America’s F-117 Stealth Fighters Joined Red Flag Exercises For Adversary Training

As China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has continued to rapidly expanded its fleet of stealth aircraft, today fielding a wide range of platforms for roles from reconnaissance to bombing and air superiority, the U.S. Military has increasingly been preparing for the possibility of an engagement with PLA stealth jets in the Western Pacific region. The Chengdu J-20 fifth generation heavyweight fighter in particular, having entered service in March 2017, is seen as a particularly serious threat in the U.S., with the fighter providing a direct analogue to the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor in its design and dedicated air superiority role. The J-20 is the only fifth generation fighter developed outside the United States in service anywhere in the world, and has several major advantages over the F-22 including access to longer ranged missiles with AESA radar guidance, helmet mounted displays, newer computer architecture, distributed aperture systems and many other key features. 

With the J-20’s stealth capabilities posing new challenges for the U.S., the Air Force and Navy have increasingly sought to mimic these in order to train for a potential engagement with the jets in future. To this end, not only has the Air Force moved to create an adversary training squadron comprised of F-35A stealth fighters, but it has also begun to use the F-117 Nighthawk stealth jets from the 1980s for this purpose. Although the F-117 was officially retired almost 15 years ago, the fighter continues to fly and is reportedly operated by private contractors for a range of purposes. While the aircraft has a very limited flight performance, and is not considered as stealthy as the F-22 or J-20, its radar cross section is thought to be comparable to that of the F-35. Most importantly, with modern Western stealth fighters in short supply, the F-117 is readily available for training and testing purposes. 

The F-117’s role as an aggressor trainer has continued to grow, and in August 2020 more details on the fighter’s participation in Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force’s largest international aerial warfare exercises, were revealed. This officialised the F-117’s new role to a far greater extent that prior adversary training deployments, with at least six of the stealth jets participating. The Nighthawks were previously reported in December 2019 to be flying with F-16 fighters from the Air Force's 64th Aggressor Squadron, and in May 2020 the jets flew Red Air Missions in the Pacific against a carrier strike group from the U.S. Navy which was carrying out its most complex and deeply integrated phase of training prior to deployment. F-117 fighters and have otherwise been used to test new radar absorbent coatings and off board sensors to allow the U.S. Military to improve its capabilities both for operating stealth jets and for countering enemy stealth aircraft. Access to a retired stealth fighter which is dedicated exclusively to testing and training purposes is a unique asset which no other country has, and the U.S. Military appears to be doing what it can to exploit this to the full. 

The F-117 is very far from an F-22 or a J-20 in terms of flight performance - being much slower and less manoeuvrable and restricted to operating at much lower altitudes. Despite this, when paired with modern electronic warfare systems and possibly with newer stealth coatings the F-117 does have the potential to be a very challenging target during aggressor training. Although the U.S. Military declined to invest in a upgrade package to provide the F-117 with an air to air capability, meaning that it served exclusively as a dedicated strike fighter, the fact that adversary trainers use simulated mock weapons means that Nighthawks can, and most likely are, being fielded as aircraft equipped wit anti aircraft missiles. It is far from uncommon for aircraft used in adversary training to be less capable than those jets they are trying to mimic - for example the U.S. Navy still uses F-5 lightweight jets to simulate all manner of adversaries while the Soviet Air Force used MiG-29As to mimic the heavier and faster American F-15s. It is expected that the F-117 will be used in growing numbers for adversary training over the coming decade - particularly as stealth aircraft are expected to proliferate more widely and as China continues to field a more diverse fleet of such aircraft.