Stealth jets bound for 'boneyard'

Published: Feb 16, 2006
Source: www.reviewjournal.com



The black jets that revolutionized air warfare with their radar-evading technology and ability to drop precision-guided bombs at night are to be discarded in 2008, 20 years after the Air Force acknowledged the stealth fighters' existence, officials said.

Capt. Michelle Lai, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said Wednesday that "right now the overall plan is being worked out," but most if not all of the nation's 52 F-117A Nighthawks are expected to go to "the boneyard": Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Ariz., where rows upon rows of scrapped planes cover acres of desert.

The Nighthawks are priced at $45 million apiece, not counting costs for research and development, according to an Air Force fact sheet.continue..