page_title: 415th Special Operations Squadron
section_title: Reactivation as a fighter unit
hierarchical_section_title: 415th Special Operations Squadron / History / F-117 operations / Reactivation as a fighter unit
caption_attribution_description: English: 37th Fighter Wing Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk 84-0827 on the ramp at Tonopah TTR Airport, just after its transfer from the 4450th TG
context_page_description: The 415th Special Operations Squadron is a United States Air Force unit. It is assigned to the 58th Operations Group at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
  The 415th Night Fighter Squadron was formed in February 1943, and it carried out missions in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, and then in Northwestern Europe during World War II. It was inactivated in 1947, with its personnel and aircraft being transferred to another squadron.
  Reactivated in 2011, the squadron replaced the 58th Special Operations Wing, Detachment 1. Its mission is to train special operations personnel operating both the HC-130J Combat King II and the MC-130J Commando II.
context_section_description: The 4450th Tactical Group was inactivated on 5 October 1989, and the 4450th Squadron transferred its mission, personnel and F-117s to the 415th Tactical Fighter Squadron as the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing replaced the 4450th Group, and the 415th became one of two operational F-117A Stealth Fighter squadrons.  
  On 19 December 1989, just over two months after being reactivated, the F-117 was deployed into combat for the first time. This was in Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama intended to dislodge and arrest General Manuel Noriega. At the beginning of the invasion, six F-117As flew to Panama from Tonopah. Their mission was to drop 2000-pound bombs near the Panama Defense Forces barracks at Rio Hato. The purpose of these bomb drops was to stun and disorient the PDF troops living there so that the barracks could be stormed and the troops captured with minimal resistance and casualties. The pilots were instructed to drop their bombs no closer than 50 meters from two separate PDF barracks buildings. On the night of 19 December, two lead F-117As each dropped a conventional 2000-pound bomb on the Rio Hato barracks.
  Less than a year later, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the 415th deployed to King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Arabia on 19 August 1990. On 17 January 1991, coalition forces began an air offensive to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait. In the early morning hours, the F-117As of the 37th Wing initiated the air war against Iraq. Mission planners had assigned critical strategic Iraqi command and control installations to the F-117A, counting on the aircraft's ability to hit precisely at well-defended targets without being seen. Other vital targets included key communications centers, research and development facilities for nuclear and chemical weapons, plus hardened aircraft shelters on Iraqi airfields. On the first night of the war, an F-117A dropped a 2000-pound laser-guided GBU-27 Paveway III bomb right through the roof of the general communications building in downtown Baghdad. In another attack on the communications building next to the Tigris River, another GBU-27 Paveway III was dropped through an air shaft in the center of the roof atop the building and blew out all four walls. During the first three weeks of the air offensive, F-117As obliterated many hardened targets with unprecedented precision. The 37th TFW flew 1271 combat sorties and maintained an 85.5 percent mission-capable rate. The 43 F-117As of the 37th Wing dropped more than 2,000 tons of precision ordnance and attacked some 40 percent of the high-value targets that were struck by the Coalition forces. Not one F-117A was hit, shot down, or lost to mechanical failure. There is no evidence that the F-117A was ever detected or tracked by Iraqi radar installations, either ground or airborne. The F-117's concealment, deception, and evasiveness proved that it could survive in the most hostile of environments, and its laser-guided bombs struck with extreme accuracy.
  Most of the F-117As deployed to Saudi Arabia returned home to Tonopah in early April 1991, although a few remained as part of the post-Desert Storm task force in Southwest Asia.  After Desert Storm, the 415th was assigned to the new 37th Operations Group, being redesignated the 415th Fighter Squadron as part of the wing's adoption of the Air Force Objective Wing organization.
  In 1992, the F-117As were moved to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.  the 37th Fighter Wing and its subordinate organizations were inactivated and the aircraft, equipment, personnel, and mission of the squadron were transferred to the 7th Fighter Squadron of the 49th Operations Group at Holloman.
caption: F-117A Nighthawk 84-0827 on the ramp at Tonopah TTR Airport, just before its transfer to Holloman AFB, New Mexico.
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