A stealth fighter is a type of military aircraft designed to be harder to detect by radar, or other detection methods. The first stealth fighter was the F-117, first used secretly in Panama in 1989, and openly in the first Gulf War, where it was the only aircraft permitted to conduct sorties over Baghdad. The F-117 cost about $500 million per copy, of which about 30 were built. The first time it came up against a modern Russian missile defense system in the illegal NATO war Serbia in 1998, it was shot down, rendering its design and production obsolete.
Newer stealth fighters include the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II.