Just give the US a major war to fight to where the F117 is needed, and it'll make another showing REAL quick. The issue with the F117 is the fact the payload, speed, and manuverability is so weak, it's nearly useless unless you need just 2, 500lb JDAMs on a target. The F22/F35 suite of fighters might not be AS stealthy, but they are certainly needed, as the Ruskies and Chinese have very formidable fighters in the Su-30MMK and Su-37. IMO, they're better than US-made fighters in the agility and horsepower department, so stealth is the order of the day. Manuverability isn't needed when you can pop out of a cloud and fight them. I believe with the various Red Flag games we've done with the F22 and F35s, not a single US fighter has lost using those aircraft vs. last gen non-stealth fighters, regardless of maker (F16, 18, 14, Su-30, 37, Mig 31, 33, ect). Even if the abilities of the F117 are better in the dumb bomb catagory with the advanced abilities of targeting, JDAMs are much cheaper. The targeting mechanism is cheaper, allowing for any bomber to gain huge advantages in their bombing runs. We're always going to need massive carpet bombers, and if each bomb becomes better, we're put in a much better position. Now, as for the F117 getting shot down in Kosovo: the reason it was shot down wasn't because of a lack of stealth, or Nanking radar systems that the serbians had. It was simply due to humint. They had people on the ground radioing the serbs when the F117's launched, and they were able to track them via math, and when the F117 was estimated to be overhead, launched up a huge bevy of flack and missles, eventually downing the plane. Again, give us another war, and the F117, or a new iteneration will come out. BTW, any other stealth fighter (22 and 35) have internal bays for everything they use, but they do have the advantage of having external loading pods incase they need a larger load for less stealthy needs (when air superiority has been achieved).
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
