Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech stealth fighter that experts say could pose a significant threat to American air superiority -- and some of its technology may have come from the U.S. itself. During NATO's aerial bombing of Serbia in the 1999 Kosovo war, a Serbian anti-aircraft missile shot down an American F-117 Nighthawk jet. It was the first time one of the much-touted "invisible" fighters had ever been hit. Balkan military officials and other experts have told The Associated Press that in all probability the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from plundering the wreckage.
As the AP report explains, the Pentagon believed a combination of clever tactics and sheer luck had allowed a Soviet-built SA-3 missile to bring down the jet. The debris field was strewn over a wide area of flat farmlands, and civilians collected the parts as souvenirs -- some of which were the size of small cars.
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"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," said Adm. Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war. "We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them," Domazet-Loso said in a telephone interview with the AP.
Zoran Kusovac, a Rome-based military consultant, added that the regime of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic routinely shared captured Western equipment with its Chinese and Russian allies. "The destroyed F-117 topped that wish-list for both the Russians and Chinese," Kusovac said.
China's multi-role stealth fighter — known as the Chengdu J-20 — made its inaugural flight Jan. 11, revealing dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies. Russia's Sukhoi T-50 prototype stealth fighter also made its maiden flight last year and is due to enter service in about four years. It is likely that the Russians also gleaned knowledge of stealth technology from the downed Nighthawk, speculates the AP report.
FULL ARTICLE: China's new stealth fighter may use US technology (AP)
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