Not long after the start of the Second Korean War, with the American Forces being stretched thin in Europe. Canada was asked to enter the war on the Korean Front to free up some most needed combat aircraft for the European Front.
 

With the F/A-22s coming into service and offering more performance than the F-117s, not to mention being able to protect themselves, the US Air Force started mothballing their earlier F-117 airframes. The Air Force only had enough money for X amount of aircraft, an since the F/A-22 was more effective...the early F-117s were on the chopping block.

So when the Canadian Armed Forces were asked to enter the war. The US Air Force decided that the mothballed F-117s could be put to good use and were sold to the CAF for pennies on the dollar......Canadian!!!! LOL

24 airframes in all were sold to Canada, along with all the necessary ground equipment and training.
 

All of the F-117s were renamed to CF-117A Nighthawks, and were all painting in a 2 tone grey camo scheme so that they could be used during the days. Some aircraft were painted in a rush...to get them into service to fight in the Korean theater, so being careful wasn't always tops on the list when it came to the paint job, that along with the amount of sorties they flew in strike mission over North Korea, some of the paint jobs got worn away to reveal the normal black paint under the grey camo.

This particular CF-117A has seen extensive combat of the Korean Peninsula currently on its 12th bombing run based on its mission markings. Also hails from one of the more famous Canadian Squadrons in the 416 Lynx Squadron, normally stationed at CFB Chatham in New Brunswick, Canada

Text and photos copyright © 2004 Scott Millican

Page created June 28th, 2004