AeroFranz said:
Maybe they kept a couple in flyable condition to serve as testbeds for stealthy technologies (antennas, sensors, etc.)?
I'm surprised how much attention this is getting.
Prior to retirement the F-117 fleet went through a series of upgrades intended to "future proof" them. JDAM capability, updates to the mission planning software (which had dependancies that were no longer on the DoD supported list), etc. This helped ensure that the fleet could be dusted off at any time in the next few years, though the number of qualified F-117 pilots has surely dwindled.
One aircraft was scrapped as an experiment. F-117s contain toxic substances and sensitive technology, scrapping one carries with it both environmental and security concerns. As most saw from the released images, the aircraft, once stripped, needed to be shredded like a piece of paper to meet the intended security requirements.
Several of the pre-production airframes were donated to museams, with one (784) being scrapped.
783 is at Blackbird Air Park
782 is at Holloman
780 is at Nellis
781 is at USAF Museum
These were all Baja Scorpions test airframes.
To the best of the public's knowledge, the remaining airframes are in storage at TTR. 10 were retired to TTR in 07, an additional 12 were retired to TTR in the first half of 08. The remaining airframes were to be retired later in 08, but the process ran ahead of schedule. The last F-117s left Palmdale for TTR in August of 08.
Funding for the F-117 has continued primarily through PE 0207141F. Lockheed has a contract to maintain and store the F-117 fleet in a secure environment at TTR, I believe I had posted information on the contract in another thread but cannot find it.
Several airframes "may" have been migrated to another location several months ago to support a series of classified test activities. There are volumes of data on the F-117's performance and signature in many different settings, making it an ideal test platform for certain things. The activity that people are currently seeing is likely using the F-117 as a target for the sensors on N105TB (and other special test aircraft) in support of another program (such as, oh, I don't know, the F-35 progam).
If you wanted to test a new missile seeker against a LO target, this might be how you would do it.
If you wanted to test a new RAM material against a known seeker (such as AIM-9, Amraamski, etc) this might be how you do it.
If your newfangled salt resistant RAM coating needed in flight testing and imaging, but your production aircraft isn't flying yet.... well...
As far as making the F-117s UCAVs, that would be pretty difficult. It does not have the right apertures, and adding them (to the F-117) would be about as difficult as creating a new VLO UAV.
