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Paul J. Adam

In message om,
writes
Jeb wrote:
It would seem to me to be likely that a simple software code
modification would allow an Aegis system to detect smaller, slower
returns (I would expect that right now, those get filtered out so that
seabirds don't cause spurious readings on the radar scopes).

I doubt that very much. If radar systems have great difficulty in
detecting and tracking stealthy aircraft like the F-117, B-2 and so on
- big objects with lots of metal in them - they are going to find it
vastly more difficult to pick up a very small, mostly plastic object
which has also been designed to be as stealthy as possible.

It depends on the values of "great difficulty" you're working to. Being
able to knock the range of a D-band search radar down to a fraction of
its expected value, can open great gaps in a land-based radar network
through which a stealth aircraft can fly: but overflying a ship with
such a radar will still get you detected and tracked at quite usable
distances, even in a "Stealth" aircraft.

To simplify grossly, a radar can detect a target at a distance
proportional to the inverse fourth power of its radar cross section -
so, for example, a radar that can pick up a one-square-metre target at
100 miles, can spot something half that size at 85 miles, or a target
with a radar echoing area of 0.01 square metres at about 32 miles.

Big differences there between "get through the radar fence along their
border" and "fly over the top of the radar undetected".

If that
could be remedied by tweaking the software, then all of the money spent
on stealth aircraft has been wasted.

Stealth aircraft aren't generally trying to play Kamikaze into warships
at sea.

--
Paul J. Adam