“This is a tool to let us see how our job can impair or improve the aircraft’s stealth capability,” said Staff Sgt. Chad Brown, a program technician. “It’s done a lot more than what we thought it would do.”

The program uses a Mark V radar to shoot almost 100 images of a parked aircraft, from a variety of angles. Special panels of the radar-absorbent material are wrapped around the airplane’s landing gear, so the aircraft looks to the radar like it does when flying. The images are fed through a diagnostic analysis computer, which reveals not only if the aircraft is visible to the radar, but where specifically “Martian magic” is needed to make it stealthier.

The “Martians” are maintainers who lay on the radar-absorbent coating in Holloman’s Material Application and Repair Section. It’s meticulous work, gluing sheets and strips of radar-absorbent material to the aircraft with a paste that is equally radar-absorbent. “From a Martian’s standpoint, it shows you what little things can impact the aircraft,” said Brown, a former Martian.

Those “little things” are invisible to the naked eye, but not to a radar. Not enough glue here, an imperceptible gap in material there, and the aircraft may show up on enemy radar screens. Holloman’s system pinpoints those little things for the Martians, who then do some patchwork. It’s like touching up a paint chip on your prized sports car.

“There’s one specific goal — to be sure the pilot has a safe, low-observable airplane to go into any combat zone or contingency. So he can do his mission and come back alive,” said the radar’s manager, Master Sgt. Tony Garza.

The $36 million program started about three years ago, and Holloman has two fully deployable systems. Each stealth fighter squadron has a team of trained maintainers, and Garza and Brown — along with Staff Sgt. Dan Jeffries — have been with it since conception. “We’ve been with it from paper to reality,” Garza said. “And we’ve seen tremendous results. The program has already paid for itself.”

Currently, aircraft usually get “shot” before and after unscheduled maintenance. But the staff members hope to eventually use it to extend the stealthiness and service life of each F-117 by imaging them on a regularly scheduled basis.

Just like the performance differences and quirks between two automobiles — or even aircraft — of the same model, each F-117 has its own stealth traits. “We want to use the system to image the entire fleet so we know what every aircraft looks like,” Garza said.

“As each airplane gets older, we’ll be able to keep it stealthy,” added Jim Crawford, one of the program’s contractor engineers.

Not only keep it stealthy, but make it stealthier. “When you get a plane out here and don’t see anything on the radar, you feel good,” Brown said.