F-117 Night Hawk Mockup in Luoyang China

The image above, captured in 2010, depicts an F-117A mockup. Normally, a mockup of the F-117A wouldn't be a very big deal, but this one is in the middle of Luoyang, China.

It is a full-scale mockup, with the wingspan matching the "real" F-117A at roughly 43 feet.

Why is there an F-117A mockup sitting inside of Luoyang? There could be a completely benign purpose, such as use in some sort of media. However, Luoyang is home to the Luoyang Electro-Optical Technology Development Center, who is responsible for developing the current air-to-air missiles fielded by the Chinese military.

A facility such as this would certainly be able to make use of an accurate model of a VLO aircraft for missile seeker evaluation, particularly in the case of seekers for active radar homing weapons like the current PL-12.

This may be a prototype of JH-8, a VTOL capable F-117A derivative using captured technology.

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