Imagine you are out at night with a flashlight. Trying to detect a car driving towards you. One car is painted like a fire truck with reflectors. The other is

Imagine you are out at night with a flashlight. Trying to detect a car driving towards you. One car is painted like a fire truck with reflectors. The other is matte black/gray. The first one you will be able to spot much earlier and determine things like speed/direction much more clearly. Not to mention that the driver of both cars will see you and your flashlight before you detect them. It is not that planes are invisible to radar. It is that they can make it much more difficult for that radar flashlight to detect them at long range and/or determine their exact speed and heading.