Friday, August 27, 1999 Published at 16:23 GMT 17:23 UK
Spy 'betrayed' stealth fighter
The Yugoslav media replayed images of the Stealth wreckage
A spy may have leaked the flight plan of an American F-117A stealth fighter shot down by Yugoslav forces during the Kosovo conflict, according to a British newspaper report.
Moscow then passed the information on to the Serbs, according to the article, which was written by military analyst Paul Beaver.
"The Serbs are claiming that they managed to shoot down the fighter because they had information about its track - and they were able to set what's known as a SAMbush, a surface-to-air ambush", Mr Beaver said on Friday.
The Russians have declined to comment.
The shooting down of the Nighthawk aircraft on 27 March was highly embarrassing for Nato and the US defence establishment.
The wreckage of the fighter was shown repeatedly on Serbian state-run television.
The Pentagon has been quoted as rejecting the Scotsman claim, saying that the "tasking orders" for American missions did not go through Nato channels.
The article says the alleged spy was an officer high up in Nato's Brussels command structure, with access to highly-sensitive documents.
"Russian military intelligence was passing on information to the Serbs during the war," said Russian defence analyst Pavel Felganhauer.
Mr Felganhauer told the BBC it was possible that a lucky strike by Serb air defences had been turned into an opportunity to "reduce the effectiveness of Nato staff work" by starting a hunt for an imaginary spy.
'Low observable' aircraft
The secret of the fighter's success is "stealth technology" - special composite materials designed to minimise the plane's profile to enemy radar systems.
But the special materials - coupled with absorbent paint - make them very hard to locate.
Normally, by the time they are detected - if that happens - the attack has already taken place.
A single-seater, the F-117A was originally conceived in the late 1970s.
The US Air Force intended it as a weapon that could "penetrate dense threat environments as well as attack high value targets with pinpoint accuracy".