The comment about having to use low level attack craft to destroy specific radar types so the f117 can evade the other types is telling: "invisible to radar" was a bit hype-y
High frequency radars are more accurate than low frequency, nobody used low frequency at the time. They're also smaller, I don't think you could use a low frequency radar with a missile's seeker. Low frequency is good enough to throw up flak, though--and that's how the one that was lost got hit.
It was also vulnerable to bistatic radar--but I don't believe a bistatic radar could even have been built back then.
It was basically a one-trick wonder that got counterdesigned.
I don't think this is true. Low frequency was and continues to be the best option for early warning and over-the-horizon use cases.
> good enough to throw up flak, though - and that's how the one that was lost got hit
It was hit with a 1960s era SAM after running the same route again and again. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_F-117A_shootdown
First, during the Cold War... the F-117 was one of America's silver bullets. Don't wanna risk anything getting leaked out.
In the 90s to early 2000's... who on earth would buy an F-117? Especially amongst nations friendly to the USA. With the exception of maybe Israel, no US aligned nation had a reason to have a low observable strike aircraft.
In the twilight of its career - well the JSF/F-35 existed. Why buy the old, single purpose, first generation stealth aircraft when F-35s should be just around the corner...
My understanding of this is that there's a threshold of "really good but not too good" that is a bit arbitrary. The F-117 and the follow-on F-22 Raptor both crossed over the line into "way too good" territory and couldn't be exported. While it's pretty cool having aircraft that are so advanced that no other country on earth can own them but your own, the net result ends up being... you don't have anyone to share the NRE costs with, which drives the unit cost and spare parts costs up like crazy.