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Once-secret F-117s retiring

A fighter once so secret that the Air Force kept the jets hidden from sight is now flying off to the boneyard — albeit a high-security boneyard.

On Monday, six stealth F-117 Nighthawks left Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., for storage at the Tonopah Test Range, north of Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Once the jets arrive at Tonopah, the wings will be removed and the jets stored in their original hangars.

Most retired Air Force planes go to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center near Tucson, Ariz. But with some aspects of the F-117 still classified, a more secure retirement home was chosen.

By the end of the decade, all 55 of the F-117s will be retired, replaced at Holloman by the F-22A Raptor.

Before the flight, Brig. Gen. David Goldfein, commander of Holloman’s 49th Fighter Wing, commented about significance F-117.

“The Nighthawk story is truly one of vision, guts, passion, heroism, defiance and incredible risk taking,” he said. “A story both uniquely American and, I believe, uniquely Air Force.”

The first F-117 was delivered to the Air Force in 1982 and the last plane arrived in 1990.

In combat, the jets were chosen for first strikes in Operations Desert Storm, Allied Force and Iraqi Freedom.

The Nighthawks were originally based at Tonopah, an airfield that has been home to many secret Air Force programs such as an aggressor squadron that flew Soviet fighters. The jets moved to Holloman in 1992.