I remember vividly spring 1999, the day when the war started.

We were at school, practicing math for the national championship while our Mig-29 (Fulcrum) were ripping the clouds, patrolling and awaiting the inevitable.

As the kids, we didn't worry about the war, but rather about the exam. Luckily the bombs fell that evening.
No school tomorrow!

War was very asymmetric as the Serbia basically didn't have modern fighter aircrafts.

There were some Mig-29, none of them in fully operative condition.

Lot of hopelessly outdated Mig-21.

And few dozen homemade light trainers and light attack aircrafts, G-4 and J-22 Orao (Eagle)

Orao in a very, very low flight:

F-117 was shot down!

It was the Day 4 of the war when we have seen something nobody expected.

Stealth plane, F-117 Nighthawk was shot down for the first time in history.

Before...

...and After

It was stuck in the muddy field, people were dancing on its wings and Gypsies were trying to take some metal as it was a worthless wrack.

---

But how it was possible to shoot the stealth plane?

---

Actually, stealth is a very flexible term.

Stealth - to what kind of waves?

---

For example, your glass on the window is stealth for visible light, but it absorbs the UV light.

Take a look at this infographics to see the basics of the stealth:

Source

So, nothing is stealth if you apply some strange radar wavelength.

Neva vs F-117

Our system was old, obsolete Neva/Pechora/ S-125, but the task wasn't easy at all.

The aircrafts have the sensors to detect that they are irradiated and they send the anti-radar rocket to destroy the SAM system.

Due to this, our operators had only short time windows to react.

And they had the decoys as well.

If you want to try the simulator and read all the details about the SAM systems, click the link

SAM Simulator

---

And this is how it looked like, but keep in mind one thing.

This video is 5 minutes long. In reality, the operators had about 2 minutes. And while they were setting the parameters, they were awaiting the incoming rocket that could easily kill them all.

Imagine the cramped operational center, noises from the aggregates, smell of the sweat and shouting:

Got it on the radar! It sees us too! (5:30)

Angle of the approach XY! Distance Z! Move the antenna (5:35)

I have it! Aim, damn, aim! (5:55)

It's approaching! I'm locking it! (6:35)

Targeting positioned, ready to fire! (6:40)

Rockets are flying, keep it in the crosshair! (6:55)

We got it! It's doing down! (8:00)

It's losing the altitude! 2000m! 1000m!