In fact, several F-117s were even spotted flying over the Nevada desert, possibly employed in some military testing program.
However, House Armed Services Committee has recently voted to get rid of the provision which requires maintaining these aircraft in operational status, having apparently deemed their upkeep as too expensive. Therefore, the F-117 stealth fighters appear to be destined to 'be torn apart or less likely, scavenged for hard-to-find parts,' according to Flightglobal news website.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology, made its maiden flight in 1981 and since then was employed in several armed conflicts across the world. Only one F-117 was lost in combat, shot down by a Soviet-made S-125 Neva (NATO reporting name: SA-3 Goa) surface-to-air missile system during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999.
