When the United States Air Force announced the retirement of the F-117A Stealth fighter by April 2008, Israel approached the US government wanting to purchase some of the retiring fleet. The United States agreed that Israel should be allowed to purchase these highly specialized aircraft as long as their existence was kept secret. 

Before the first operational F-117A was delivered to Israel, a few select pilots and maintenance crews were sent to Nevada for training and eventually flew a few missions with the USAF in Operation Red Flag and later in Afghanistan against the Taliban.  Once the F-117A was officially retired in 2008, a few aircraft had already been delivered to Israel for operational use.  The F-117A was renamed the Roo’akh (ghost).  The aircraft were flown in under the cloak of darkness and concealed in hangars while they were repainted IAF colors & markings with the roundels being subdued to aide in night operations. 

Threats from surrounding countries started to increase especially Iran after they tested super long range missiles capable of reaching anywhere in Israel.  Nuclear inspectors were also kicked out of Iran and it was evident that a nuclear weapons program was in the advanced stages.  Time was running out for Israel and as they had done in the past, a pre-emptive strike to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities is the only choice for the safety if Israel and the surrounding countries.  Previous strikes against nuclear facilities pitted highly talented F-16 pilots against the Soviet style radar defense systems and enemy air traffic controllers.  There were times that the F-16 pilots were picked up by radars and fooled the controllers which could have easily cost the lives of the entire strike force on those missions.  With the F-117A in the IAF inventory, a deep strike in Iran would be much more efficient.  While not 100% safe, considerably safer than previous missions. 

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The kit is the Monogram “Pro Modeler” Stealth fighter kit. The kit is fairly simple and a quick build but there are a few gaps to fill. There is an item on the underside (behind the main gear) where a long protruding guide pin coming from inside the upper fuselage half needs to be trimmed. This is not noted anywhere in the instructions. The wheels are molded “bulged” but are too flat. I built the kit basically OOB except for the Laser guided bombs which come from Hasegawa weapons, markings and a scratch built red cover protecting the airframe from accidental damage by the crew ladder.

Painting the kit, I used Model master enamels, (lightened Army/Marines sand instead of using 33531 sand) following the pattern provided by Doncolor of a prototype desert scheme.  The basic deviation was to darken the underside color to Gunship Gray 36118. For the markings, I painted the Israeli “star of David” roundels is a subdued, similar to what their helicopters use.  Standard warning markings are from the kit and tail codes from spare decals in the stash.  The only real weathering I did was inside the wheel wells and bomb bays.

The kit was a fun build, finished in about three weeks.  Once I heard about the F-117A retirement, my first thought was, we should sell them to Israel and how cool it would look in the F-15I colors.

David 

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