The B2 is relatively ancient as far as stealth tech goes. Also, most stealth aircraft are detectable on radar. The question is how big or small is the radar cross section. That’s not something this blog post digs into. Meaning, most of the time a B2 looks like a goose or a small animal. Correction on my part: The B-2 and F-35 have radar cross sections roughly the size of a marble.
A goose flying at 600mph?
It's a matter of signal to noise. There's a lot of clutter out there, and most radars have some level of filtering. Most stealth is detectable, but lost in the noise.
Drones represent a huge range of different things. Assuming you mean something that’s a replacement for military aircraft. In order to have a useful X,000miles range and useful payload you need to build fairly large drones which means a large target. If their cheap that directly translates into low speeds making them a very easy target for anti air guns, or low cost anti aircraft missiles. If you want a large fast dr…
Why would you not deploy smaller drones via another platform? Small cheap disposable drones are a game changer. Drop them on a military base and have them seek and distort any human shaped targets, any sources of RF radiation, anything that looks like a vehicle or plane...
I'd argue we've had those for a while, just by different names: cruise missiles, anti-radiation missiles, smart glide bombs, etc. The SDB II has a 60 nm range with active terminal homing, including targeting anything that looks like a moving vehicle. Though I wouldn't consider the SDB particularly cheap, at around 200K each. I would certainly agree the these sorts of precision guided weapons are a game changer, though. I don't believe there's been a conflict yet where both sides have these weapons. Such a conflict would get very very bloody.
That's why US has HARM missle. First operation is to send in aircraft along the "fringes" with HARM missle to take out any and all radar sites. Then, enemy fighters don't have such radar to detect stealth US aircraft.
Hmm, not your typical RADAR. This is basically using the RF emissions of the plane, and their detection at multiple RF detection stations with synchronized clocks, to determine the difference in arrival time. The radio emissions all travel at the same speed through the air, the difference in arrival time can be used with some simple trig to figure out where the RF emitter is. There are a number of Time Difference of…
>multiple RF detection stations with synchronized clocks, to determine the difference in arrival time. The radio emissions all travel at the same speed through the air, the difference in arrival time can be used with some simple trig to figure out where the RF emitter is.
What would air defence against a swarm of a few 1000 UAV look like? Because China...
Drones represent a huge range of different things. Assuming you mean something that’s a replacement for military aircraft. In order to have a useful X,000miles range and useful payload you need to build fairly large drones which means a large target. If their cheap that directly translates into low speeds making them a very easy target for anti air guns, or low cost anti aircraft missiles. If you want a large fast dr…
A pilot severely limits the kinds of maneuver the craft can perform, where the craft can be deployed from, etc.
Why would you not deploy smaller drones via another platform? Small cheap disposable drones are a game changer. Drop them on a military base and have them seek and distort any human shaped targets, any sources of RF radiation, anything that looks like a vehicle or plane...
> Drop them on a military base If you can get close enough to drop a bunch of slow drones, you can get close enough to just drop a bomb on the whole thing instead. Much more bang for your buck. Let's also not forget that small drones might become 'banned' much like chemical weapons did, if they ever became viable.
Small drones will never be banned by international treaty. There is zero chance of that.
There is also a matter of accuracy. I believe stealth planes are often “detectable” at longer frequencies, which however do not give precise enough information to fire a missile at them. So you’ll know they are coming but can’t shoot them down. I would imagine radio signal triangulation falls into a similar category.
Hmm, not your typical RADAR. This is basically using the RF emissions of the plane, and their detection at multiple RF detection stations with synchronized clocks, to determine the difference in arrival time. The radio emissions all travel at the same speed through the air, the difference in arrival time can be used with some simple trig to figure out where the RF emitter is. There are a number of Time Difference of…