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Stealth planes aren't invisible. They are still visible to radar, infrared and mark-1 eyeball. The difference is that they attempt to make themselves look very
by jpollock 9y ago
Stealth planes aren't invisible. They are still visible to radar, infrared and mark-1 eyeball.
The difference is that they attempt to make themselves look very small in the types of radar used to aim missiles. If the error bars on the location is large enough, you can't fire a missile and get a reliable kill.
The term I keep hearing is the "kill chain", in that stealth is attempting to break one of the parts in the chain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_chain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_chain
- berberous 9y agoI thought that stealth planes had the radar cross-section of something like a marble. That was the first gen planes too, I think it might even be smaller now. I would have thought that's effectively close to invisible.
- DuskStar 9y agoThe problem is, radar returns decline with the 4th power of distance - so if you can detect a 1m square at 100km, you can detect a 1cm square at 10km and a 0.1mm square at 1km. Yeah, a marble is fantastic in comparison to a barn door - but that 4th power cuts both ways.