In order to carry out a military
attack against an enemy, you must have an element of surprise in your strike to
be successful. If the enemy doesn't know they are going to be attacked, how
would they be prepared? Radar is a technology that uses radio waves to pick up
a moving object such as aircraft, weather, or ships at sea. Paul Crickmore of
Nighthawk F-117 Stealth Fighter tells us that it was apparent in the early 70's
North American Treaty Organization (NATO) aircraft were becoming more
susceptible to the expanding Soviet air defense systems at the height of the
Cold War. They needed an aircraft that could demonstrate "stealth"
characteristics, or an aircraft with a design that makes radar detection difficult.
Thus the top secret "HAVE Blue" project, Paul says, which became the
first stealth fighter known as the F-117 Nighthawk, was born out of Lockheed's
"Skunk Works" division at the Tonopah Test Range.
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