4 ms·

Actually a better approach is to use longer wave radar, getting a reflection from the whole metal airframe as a conductive object rather than just bouncing wave

by theoh 12y ago

Actually a better approach is to use longer wave radar, getting a reflection from the whole metal airframe as a conductive object rather than just bouncing waves off the surface. Apparently this technique has difficulties with clouds but was successful in shooting down an F117 in the Balkans.

djyaz1200 12y ago
Yep, that would be better. IMO the broader point is that stealth isn't magic. Just like any other tactic it has countermeasures... and pretty cheap ones. IMO this should be discussed more as our country pours billions into stealth aircrafts.
teeks99 12y ago
Another way is bi-static radars. Stealth is generally designed to prevent returns from going back to the sender, with the downside that they get scattered in all other directions. Just setup a (silent and difficult to locate) receiving station(s) and give it a communication channel to the sender (to synchronized), then it will receive the emissions from the sender that bounce off stuff.
- vonmoltke 12y ago
  Another way of using bistatic radar is to look for holes. Pick a frequency band that has significant background noise and search for places where the background is consistently lower than average. Essentially, invert the detection algorithm. Nice thing about this approach is it can be done non-cooperatively; that is, the EM sources do not need to be controlled by whomever is running the receiver.
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D4AHNGM 12y ago
Correct, but long-wave radar suffers terribly from noise, I believe. The difficulty is finding a tiny needle in the proverbial very busy, noisy haystack. The F117 shootdown over Serbia had the advantage of having been able to tap the NATO radio network, and subsequently position their AA batteries according to that information. Even with that they only had a 20 second window or so to fire whilst the F117 had its bomb bay doors open. I wonder if the B2 or F-22's radar profile is similarly expanded noticeably enough to stand out amongst the noise in long-wave radar during bombing runs. I doubt we'll known that with any certainty for 20+ years, if at all.
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by theoh 12y ago

djyaz1200 12y ago

Yep, that would be better. IMO the broader point is that stealth isn't magic. Just like any other tactic it has countermeasures... and pretty cheap ones. IMO this should be discussed more as our country pours billions into stealth aircrafts.

teeks99 12y ago

Another way is bi-static radars. Stealth is generally designed to prevent returns from going back to the sender, with the downside that they get scattered in all other directions. Just setup a (silent and difficult to locate) receiving station(s) and give it a communication channel to the sender (to synchronized), then it will receive the emissions from the sender that bounce off stuff.

vonmoltke 12y ago
Another way of using bistatic radar is to look for holes. Pick a frequency band that has significant background noise and search for places where the background is consistently lower than average. Essentially, invert the detection algorithm. Nice thing about this approach is it can be done non-cooperatively; that is, the EM sources do not need to be controlled by whomever is running the receiver.

deleted 12y ago

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D4AHNGM 12y ago

Correct, but long-wave radar suffers terribly from noise, I believe. The difficulty is finding a tiny needle in the proverbial very busy, noisy haystack. The F117 shootdown over Serbia had the advantage of having been able to tap the NATO radio network, and subsequently position their AA batteries according to that information. Even with that they only had a 20 second window or so to fire whilst the F117 had its bomb bay doors open. I wonder if the B2 or F-22's radar profile is similarly expanded noticeably enough to stand out amongst the noise in long-wave radar during bombing runs. I doubt we'll known that with any certainty for 20+ years, if at all.

deleted 12y ago

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