The Stealth Jet Retired in 2008 Is Still Flying

When the last F-117 Nighthawks made their farewell flyover in 2008, the Air Force called it retirement. Yet the black stealth jets never fully went away, and some of them still take off from the Nevada desert to play the enemy in training.

The Jet That Went Into Baghdad

On the first night of Desert Storm in January 1991, F-117s flew in the first wave of strikes on Baghdad.

In the war's opening hours it was the only coalition jet sent over downtown Baghdad, a city ringed by heavy air defenses.

Wing leaders had privately prepared themselves for losses as high as 50 percent that first night.

Then-Major Greg Feest flew the lead F-117 that night. He later described it as "flying into the biggest fireworks demonstration you have ever seen."

Every jet came home. Across more than 1,250 sorties in the war, not one F-117 received battle damage.

A Farewell Flyover in the Desert

In April 2008, the final four F-117s flew in formation over Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico during the "Sunset Stealth" retirement ceremony.

From there the jets flew on to Tonopah Test Range Airport, a remote airfield inside the Nevada Test and Training Range. That was supposed to be the end of the story.

Retired, But Still Airworthy

In 2021 the Air Force said that although the type was officially retired, many F-117s remained airworthy and were used to support limited research and training missions.

That September, two F-117s landed at Fresno, California, to fly dissimilar air combat training against the F-15 pilots of the 144th Fighter Wing.

The California Air National Guard unit said it was the first Air Force unit to host the jets for a full week of training.

"The training against integrated forces that include the F-117 will challenge and sharpen pilots," said Col. Troy Havener, the wing commander.

In May 2023, F-117s landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska during Northern Edge 23-1, a large joint training exercise.

About 45 Jets and a Plan to 2034

In January 2023, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told The War Zone: "We have approximately 45 F-117s currently."

She said the service flies certain F-117s on occasion to support limited research and training. She did not say how many of the 45 fly.

She said the service planned to operate at least some of them through 2034. A September 2022 request for information had sought a 10-year maintenance contract, starting in 2024, to keep an unspecified number of the jets flying.

Plane spotters still catch them. In December 2025, a photographer filmed two F-117s flying a low-level route through the California desert.

More than three decades after it first went to war, the black jet still takes off to play the enemy.