A bit of a nitpick, but no stealth bomber has ever been shot down. That was a stealth fighter.
No need to shoot down a stealth bomber; they fall out of the sky on their own.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZCp5h1gK2Q
According to Wikipedia, that is how you turn $737M into smoke.
OK, so they shot a smaller, faster moving target. The original point still stands.
It was an F-117. Yes, most "F" aircraft are air-to-air fighter aircraft. However F-117 is mostly used to attack ground targets, so it's "F" should be more like an "A" (If you want to nitpick that is ;-) )
Re:Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
by stcredzero on Thursday December 17, 2009 @11:24AM
(#1001256)
The F designation was used to get more highly qualified pilots. (Lots of pilots would rather fly an "F" than an "A")
Though no-one knows for sure, it's also been rumored that the fighter designation was done as a security measure to hide the true purpose of the aircraft, or that the F-117 designation existed in early planning documents and was simply never changed once the aircraft became a reality.
It's also not the first attack aircraft to carry a fighter designation; the F-111 long-range attack aircraft also carried that designation (though in that case it was because the aircraft was originally meant, in part, to fill an Naval air-defense fighter role).
Actually, they are both subsonic aircraft and have a very similar top speed. The F117, however, has a larger radar cross signature, which makes it appear as a larger aircraft than the B2 in a radar return.
Closest thing I can find to a cite is [1] which indicates they have similar sized returns, about the size of a hummingbird (!).
It's been a decade since I read much about it, but this site states that the F-117 has a radar cross section of 30 square centimeters while the B-2 has an RCS of 14 square centimeters.
http://www.deagel.com/Long-Range-Attack-Aircraft/B-2A-Spirit... http://www.deagel.com/Strike-and-Fighter-Aircraft/F-117A-Nig...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x...
"At times, they acted like amateurs," Dani said, listing some ways the Serbs managed to breach NATO communications security, including eavesdropping on pilots' conversations with AWACS surveillance planes.