In article ,
"Paul J. Adam" wrote:

In message , phil hunt
writes
On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 22:00:06 +0100, Paul J. Adam news@jrwlyn
ch.demon.co.uk wrote:
Too vague to be useful, then.

It's some use. 1/4 would mean detection range is decreased by 30%

At what frequency and over what extent? Is this a narrow little null, an
averaged plot, or actually a nasty nose flash?

Unless there's some exteme qualifiers, you have to assume it's a fairly
general average. With even moderately ambitious stealth, you can get a
good reduction in cross section across the board (even a 10% reduction
gives you several extra miles of "shoot first" at long ranges). By
keeping in mind that you're limited in the frequency ranges you have to
deal with for long and short range radars, it's reasonably easy to
handle everything.

The big problems on aircraft are the intakes and exhausts. By using RAM
in the intake, along with moderate intake duct work, you can minimize
that aspect pretty nicely (by 1/4, for example - this was late-stage
design "add on" for the Eurofighter). To get a bigger reduction on the
intakes, you have to do some fairly radical ducting and materials work,
or design the aircraft around the problem (this makes the plane much
bigger internally, and is part of the reason the Raptor is so bulky for
its mass).

You're just not going to get *useful* RCS data in the public domain.

But it shows you where to bet. Having an overall RCS of 1/100 of a
"typical" fighter, but with a few spikes and odd flashes, makes the job
incredibly easier, especially when it comes to breaking lock on incoming
missiles (or in not being acquired in the first place).

Consider the old-tech F-117. They fly it through some of the most
heavily-defended airspaces, *ever*, and manage to not get shot down
(except for one case when they got nailed in a low-level raid by
visually-sighted AAA). And it's practically obsolete, in most "stealth"
respects. The F-22 may have a couple of weaknesses (the aforementioned
intake and exhaust), but even those are relative.

Dogfighting is cool, but the missile is currently reigning supreme. And
when the other guy can fire six shots before you even have a good idea
where he's at, you're not going to come out ahead of the game.

--


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Slam on brakes accordingly.