Why were two F-117 Nighthawks flying over Nevada?

Sven Kaestner / AP

A F-117 A Nighthawk of the U.S. Army flies over the area of the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin-Schoenefeld Monday, June 5, 2000. The Nighthawk will be shown at what is billed as the world’s biggest Air Show which opens on Tuesday, June 6, 2000. More than 900 exhibitors from 38 countries take part at the ILA.

By Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics

Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016 | 2 a.m.

The F-117 Nighthawk was introduced to the Air Force in 1983 and kept top secret until 1988, but the stealthy attack aircraft made its name in 1991 during the first Gulf War. During that conflict, F-117's scored direct hits on about 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq over the course of 1,300 sorties and some 6,905 flight hours. Not a single F-117 was lost in Operation Desert Storm thanks to its advanced stealth capabilities for the time.

The only F-117 to ever be lost in combat was during a 1999 conflict in Yugoslavia, when it was discovered that older radar technologies could actually spot the bird. Flash forward to 2008, and the Air Force retired the Nighthawk because advances in radar could thwart the F-117s now-dated stealth capabilities. It seemed that the venerable F-117 was destined for the same fate as so many other retired military aircraft — a few planes kept in flying condition for airshows, a couple sent to museums, and the rest to the boneyard.

But two Nighthawks were seen two months ago taking off from the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, a restricted military facility and the home to Area 51.

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