How to Take Down an F-117
November 21, 2005: The Serbian battery commander, whose missiles downed an American F-16, and, most impressively, an F-117, in 1999, has retired, as a colonel, and revealed many of the techniques he used to achieve all this. Colonel Dani Zoltan, in 1999, commanded the 3rd battery of the 250th Missile Brigade. He had search and control radars, as well as a TV tracking unit. The battery had four quad launchers for the 21 foot long, 880 pound SA-3 missiles. The SA-3 entered service in 1961 and, while it had undergone some upgrades, was considered a minor threat to NATO aircraft. Zoltan was an example of how an imaginative and energetic leader can make a big difference. While Zoltan?s peers and superiors were pretty demoralized with the electronic countermeasures NATO (especially American) aircraft used to support their bombing missions, he believed he could still turn his ancient missiles into lethal weapons. The list of measures he took, and the results he got, should be warning to any who believe that superior technology alone will provide a decisive edge in combat. People still make a big difference. In addition to shooting down two aircraft, Zoltan?s battery caused dozens of others to abort their bombing missions to escape his unexpectedly accurate missiles. This is how he did it.

--- Zoltan had about 200 troops under his command. He got to know them well, trained hard and made sure everyone could do what was expected of them. This level of quality leadership was essential, for Zoltan's achievements were a group effort.

--- Zoltan used a lot of effective techniques that American air defense experts expected, but did not expect to encounter because of poor leadership by the enemy. For example, Zoltan knew that his major foe was HARM (anti-radar) missiles and electronic detection systems used by the Americans, as well as smart bombs from aircraft who had spotted him. To get around this, he used landlines for all his communications (no cell phones or radio). This was more of a hassle, often requiring him to use messengers on foot or in cars. But it meant the American intel people overhead were never sure where he was.

--- His radars and missile launchers were moved frequently, meaning that some of his people were always busy looking for new sites to set up in, or setting up or taking down the equipment. His battery traveled over 100,000 kilometers during the 78 day NATO bombing campaign, just to avoid getting hit. They did, and his troops knew all that effort was worth the effort.

--- The Serbs had spies outside the Italian airbase most of the bombers operated from. When the bombers took off, the information on what aircraft they, and how many, quickly made it to Zoltan and the other battery commanders.

--- Zoltan studied all the information he could get on American stealth technology, and the F-117. There was a lot of unclassified data, and speculation, out there. He developed some ideas on how to beat stealth, based on the fact that the technology didn?t make the F-117 invisible to radar, just very to get, and keep, a good idea of exactly where the aircraft was. Zoltan figured out how to tweak his radars to get a better lock on stealth type targets. This has not been discussed openly.

--- The Serbs also set up a system of human observers, who would report on sightings of bombers entering Serbia, and track their progress.

--- The spies and observers enabled Zoltan to keep his radars on for a minimal amount of time. This made it difficult for the American SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) to use their HARM missiles (that homed in on radar transmissions.) Zoltan never lost a radar to a HARM missile.

--- Zoltan used the human spotters and brief use of radar, with short range shots at American bombers. The SA-3 was guided from the ground, so you had to use surprise to get an accurate shot in before the target used jamming and evasive maneuvers to make the missile miss. The F-117 he shot down was only 13 kilometers away.

Zoltan got some help from his enemies. The NATO commanders often sent their bombers in along the same routes, and didn?t make a big effort to find out if hotshots like Zoltan were down there, and do something about it. Never underestimate your enemy.

regards

<http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htada/articles/20051121.aspx>

ok boyz...just came across dis article.dont know if this has been discussed before.if it has,no offences to the mods and members.

Serbs mass murdered muslims. I see no reason to make hero's out of these bastards and criminals. We should have nuked them.

Most of the tactics he used were more about common sense than technology

lols..den lets go and nuke dem

But most people lack common sense and gumption to go that extra mile and be creative. Look what to the Iraqis. I doubt Pakistani air defense commanders will be still creative. I have noticed that military people in Pakistan follow orders very very strictly and don't even scratch their as$ unless am officer tells them to.

In Pakistan Military. Officers are always selected among the best of the best and it really makes difference.

no doubt selection process of armed forces is very selective especially air force. however things might change in future when brightest youngsters will find better opportunities in civil sector.

Army is all about following orders. If soldiers dont follw orders then army cannot exist. That said, its the officer cadre that needs to be creative.

Think positive and be positive!

Thats happeneing in even now but then again Army tunes average ones into good officers during PMA training so no worries really.

we are talking about nation's future not yours! it's a good idea to consider all variables when planning, recruitment of bright men or women is part of planning process and hopefully plans are in place to attract fine youngsters.

Excuseme!

For the past thousands of years, Military field has always sought its pride and nontheless Pakistan Military is one of the most attractive and dreamy profession for the youngsters and even among the old agers. So you cannot blame the training or anyother programme of the Military.


Mods please teach this kid a lesson. He is very fond of personal attacks. Maybe it will help in preserving rules and regulations of PDF.

The military is for the warriors within us, not for your personal career or money. Thats how it is right now, and thats how it will be in the future, doesnt matter if the civil sector gets better or not.

who else is a mass murderer then US??? but many militaries send their troops to trained them and learned under their command pakistan is also one of them but what bad is it if we learn some thing from serbs????
even though they were murdrer but this man only performed his duty and he full fill the task which has been given to him by his govt.......... ok it is commen sence but how many time in this forum poeple discussed it??? every body comes up only with one answer that we dont have any solution against US air power... if they will attack pakistan they will bombed us and our airforce will do nothing ....few days back i open up a thread in this regard in which few of senior members comes up with very good notes i appriciate all of their knowladgefull disucssion....

you dont like serbs, that is your problem..this guy was fighting for his country and brought down a
bloody damn stealth with 1960's technology? What the heck does that tell you about his (their)
tenacity, grit, and determination?

How long do you think pak air defences would last against nato or sustained US assualt for a
month as they did? let me tell you..some dudes would fire off a few crotales and 2 days later
some fat ass general would hand them the country on a silver surrender platter okay...this
guy's innovation and independent thinking would never happen in pakistan....GET REAL...
most muslim countries still had embassies in serbia and do even today...

Imagine the damage Saddam could have inflicated on the allies if they were as professional in the 1991 Gulf War!

The person behind the gun makes all the difference although better technology helps.

true machine is as gud as the man is if F-22 is driven by commercial pilot then it's going 2 crash that's why training and innovation had it place.

Every country has better opportunities in civil sector. Excellent officers still join the forces for patriotism, not money. Thats how it has been in Pak since 47.

well, i guess in 1947 patriotic officers were not being killed and their families being blown up near bases
by radical mullahs. a lot has changed, tally the number of Pak army, air force, and navy personnal killed
by pakistani people themselves in the last few years, the toll would run into the hundreds at least...
a lot has changed....pakistan is effectively one less province...the outside environs of peshawar are about
the limits of NWFP these days..it is anyone else's land but not pakistan's these days...Zindabad (whatevers left of it)...

yaara he hasn't done much regarding he traveled 100,000km n shot down just 2 aircrafts

considering the fact he was using obsolete S 125's and he was against NATO ppl..i think it was worth it..
i also read somewhere that after this incident NATO moved their CAP's nearly 200 km's south where they were hardly a head ache for serbs
also he forced many NATO aircraft to abort their bombing runs..this is considered a mission kill..
BTW the whole iraqi air defences managed to down only 5 or maybe 6 coalition a/c in 1st gulf war..

What he possibly did with the radar was to concentrate the beams to a certain point. If you increase focus you get more reflection from the plane and the operating principle of strong S400 radar uses similar principles. This way however like the scope of the sniper you only see a small area and it needs to be a predetermined course of the plane or you need to filter and get the small reflections by algorithms then zoom-focus with the radar for a lock. Moving the sam batteries is also a good idea. Future sams should be smaller,more mobile and less detectable.

Another option is using bistatic radars instead of ground based strong-high energy radars. There are projects like for example a bistatic radar by means of a transmitter positioned in the geosyncronous orbit.

http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/ns...ives/bisbr2.htm

For recievers uavs are planned but I think using fixed wing uavs make the recievers very vulnurable. If high altitude airships(140000ft) much above a2a missile range as in the case

http://www.gizmag.com/tandem-high-flying-airships/8356/

are used as recievers old planes which is the backbone of the well known attackers can easily be neutralised if they decide to do so.

For detecting shadows I don't know if the uav recievers can be used to measure ground reflections of satellite transmitters to effectively extract shadows of the stealth aircraft. Different combinations can also be experimented by using these kind of uavs as transmitters and ground based recievers as well.
However asat capabilities against geosynronous orbit of US should be of concern if transmitters are planned to be positioned in the orbit.

On the history channel's documentary they maintained that the aircraft went down under mysterious circumstances lol...its a shame that the Americans still try to hide what clearly happened!! Althu iam not too sure as to how he tracked the Stealth jet i think he was the same guy who very intelligently shot down the F-16 whose pilot was miraculously rescued after a few days in hiding!! He locked on to the F-16 for a very short amount of time and noted down its altitude and speed...at the same time the plane's sensors alerted the pilot who later realized that it was a false alarm since the Serb commander had quickly shut off the radar....the Serb colonal then fired the SAM simply like an unguided rocket towards the direction of the F-16s and only switched the radar homing device on when it was a few yards away...the pilot stood no chance!!

..its very intelligent of him indeed...althu i still dont know how he tracked down the F-117...tracking down an f-16 isnt much of a problem!

very good tactic but how did the missile keep its trajectory towards the aircraft with no help from radar and that the aircraft was constantly in motion?

Its not actually a new concept. Lock-on-after-launch is a feature you can find in modern missiles too.

Also a guided missile is supposed to follow the last known point if the command link is lost.

Latest missile like SM2 are even designed to work with interrupted communication. Means they do not required constant update from tracking radar which reduces load on radar too.

dat incident was in 95 although im not sure if it was col zoltan's battery dat shot it down..neways,the radar operator first locked onto the f16 for about 3,4 seconds.this was enough to tell him abt the height,speed and heading of the a/c.using dis data he aimed the missiles in the general direction/elevation from the acquired data and fired the missiles WITHOUT lock..Lt Scott O Grady ,the F 16 pilot got no warning of course..when the SA 6 missile was 5,6 seconds from the F 16 the operator turned the radar on ,painted the F 16 and the missile homed in. the pilot stood no chance and the a/c was hit
<according to the nat geo documentary>

Yup!!

photoelectricity system can help the missile as same as fire contral radar,photoelectricity system send the set data to the firecontrol like radar