BLUF

Stealth is the capability to reduce detectability by radar. It’s a key and costly part of military aircraft design and can provide a significant advantage to a strike aircraft.

Summary

Kyle Mizokami writing in Popular Mechanics, makes the following points:
  • All parts of an aircraft, including rivets, gaps and air intakes, are analysed for their radar cross-section.
  • Stealth can lead to unusual aircraft, i.e. the F-117A Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit.
  • A 1960’s Soviet physicist developed a model for predicting how radar waves scattered after hitting 2D and 3D surfaces.
  • Lockheed utilised this research, which is the basis for current technology.
  • Like other military technology, stealth is in a perpetual arms race of measure and countermeasure.

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