Is there weakness in the Stealth Bombers "invisibleness" ?

Question

I think there is. I wached someting about the Stealth bombers invisibility to Radar. Because, the waves just break up after hitting it. Due it's angular design. But, isn't it possible to hear it coming. Using somekind of modified sonar technology or maybe it can be seen with specially positioned infrared telescopes ?

Answer 1

They can be seen in cellular wake. As the planes cut through cell phone tower signals, they leave behind a bit of a wake (like what a boat does to water when it's moving). With enough computing power, this wake can be seen, and a path projected.

Answer 2

The details of stealth technology are still very much classified. The concept is pretty well-known to the general public, but exactly how everything is made and how it all works still makes it a viable technology.

First of all, the design of the stealth bomber and fighter structures are intended to deflect radar signals so that they do NOT bounce back to the radar receiver. The signal is sent out bounces off the object, reflects back and is received. The timing of the signals and orientation allows the radar to locate the aircraft. SONAR is the same concept but uses sound waves through water. If the signal is deflected off the object so that it can't get back to the receiver, there is no information to use, just like if there were nothing there.

Since its not completely possible to deflect signals, the structure and the coating are also designed to absorb and distort what little energy is reflected back. This causes a signal that is weak and would be filtered as background noise.

As for the sound, stealth aircraft are subsonic. Supersonic aircraft generate a great deal of noise, and generally only travel supersonic for short bursts. Aircraft on bombing missions usually slow for their runs. The engines used on stealth aircraft are specially designed for the least amount of sound possible. This makes the engines less efficient and less powerful, but very hard to detect until they are on top of you. By that time its too late to do too much. Also the amount of sound is easily covered by explosions after the bombing run making it unusable to use for precise targeting.

Finally for the heat or infrared signature. Again, the stealth coating absorbs energy and does not reflect infrared. The engines are specially ducted to run very cool and leave only a vague heat trail.

The aircraft do have a very limited vulnerability for the anyone who survived the attack with enough focus to get a shot off. Nearly a lucky shot is all you get. The countries unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end usually resorted to shooting as much as they could randomly in the air hoping that if the sky were thick with anti-aircraft fire, they might just hit something. The one shoot-down of the F117 was really pretty much just a case of the shooter being in the right place at the right time for the perfect one-in-a-million shot. The radar signature, sound generation, and heat is rumored to be similar to a few geese flying. That's something most radar tries to filter out.

Finally for those concerned about national security, this information is widely available through Jane's, Aviation Week and Space Technology, and even children's books at your local library. The emphasis is not on the concept, but the materials and design details that really make it happen.

Answer 3

The Stealth bomber's functionaly is entirely dependant on the enemy's radar technology. The Entire idea of the stealth was to make it invisible to the enemy's rador, not to acheive a vehicle incapable of being detected. The entire hull of this vehical is coated with a particalar material that absorbs electromagnetic frequencies of a particular bandwidth. lets say x to y Mhz, as long as the stealth flies over enemy radar installations that operate within those frequencies, the stealth craft will be extremely difficault to pick up, since those frequencies would need to reflect off the plane and back to the radar receiver dish. Should the enemy know this, and was capable of developing a radar technology that operated outside the x - y bandwidth, then the effectivness of the Stealth's special coating would not work efficiently, and thus the stealth would glow on the radar just as any other plane without special absorbant material would.

The flat shapes and sharp angles of stealth vehicle is a second property in regards to angles of reflection. If you look at the signiture of a nice rounded off plane like a C-17 or a 747, the broad rounded edges of the wings and nose make good reflections in all direction, picture that rounded mirror in the back of 7-eleven. A rounded reflector allows radar frequency signals (like a flash light) to reflect and bounce the incomming radar signal in many directions. Now go back to the 7 - eleven and replace that rounded (spherical) mirror with a flat one. The flat surface would only reflect in one direction given that you are standing still. now if that flat mirror was also positioned to point in a completely useless direction like 45 degrees up, or 180 degrees flat (parallel to the ground) the cashier would see the reflection of the ceiling, or the wall to which the mirror was attached. In this you can now picture the angles on the stealth craft. Radar signals coming from the ground hit the flat surfaces and bounce at equal angles of incidence. So for example the radar signal hitting the flat bottom of the plane would simply reflect off the bottom and hit some point on the ground behind the plane. The radar signal hitting the steep slanted angles along the face or top of the stealth would reflect into the sky. The very sharp angles and edges reduce the signature, or rounded edges with which a radar needs reflection from to receive back its radar signal. Now for example, assuming that the signal isn't absorbed enough, then that means that the radar could get a nice reflection at one point in time, when the Stealth was exactly staright over-head..... which is unfortunate for the radar facility, because I would assume the only reason a Stealth would fly directly over a radar installation would be to drop its payload, and since its droppe dits payload prior to corssing overhead, then the poor sap who yells enemy plane! enemy plane!! probably wouldn't live to tell anyone important.

Remember that its teh combination of these technologies and probably plenty I do not know about that make the Stealth technology work. If somebody got lucky and hit a stealth craft with something like a big paint ball, then the special radar absorbing material wouldn't be effective everywhere there was paint, and thus a sensative radar might pick the plane up, OR if a SAM exploded near the plane causing damage to the surface in a way that dents with many angles or reflection occured, then these damaged areas may be picked up by radar.

As for Infrared imaging, yes the stealth should glow nicely to an infrared imager, unfortunaly the way Infrared imaging works requires focusing optics and very small viewing angles if see long distances. The scan rate to watch 360 degrees around and 0-90 degrees virtically would take some time, and might not be very effective for long ranges. Imagine trying to watch for incoming planes with a pair of binoculars, you would have to sweep for quite some time to cover that area, and the farther the distance yoy attempt to scan, the smaller the viewing angle or window would be.

Sonar = radar for water, using audible, or percussion waves.

Answer 4

What if the question was "What are the weakness in security at a nuclear facility?" Some questions should not be asked or answered in a public forum. My advice to those who want to find a stealth bomber is to stand in a field away from civilians. If a bomb falls on you and you did't see or hear it coming then it was probably a stealth bomber.

Answer 5

The inferred signature is low as well due to the shape of the exhaust ports. As for the shape, that is only part of the reason for the invisibility to radar. The rest of the story has to do with special coatings that absorb radar imissions.

Answer 6

As military I apreciate all the concern about "stealth" technology being secret, but don't you think that anything the American public knows or has figured out our enemies have done the same? Nothing that has been said here about the stealth is classified anymore. :)

Answer 7

They're actually pretty quiet too - compared to other jets. Heat signature is also reduced given ducting etc.

The weakness is when they open bomb bay doors because then it disrupts the stealth nature of the fuselage.

Uh-- most stealth planes are sub-sonic. The sonic boom would give it away.

Answer 8

Manny is right, the Serbs used this method to shoot down a stealth jet in the Bosian war.

Answer 9

Yes, you're right. They are invisible, but nothing is perfect. When America bombed Serbia in 1999 one of those "invisibles" was hit and it crashed in the fields. It was F117.

Answer 10

id say it would be weak against enough radar devices. Thats why one day it will be all "active cancellation". Until then, u cant hear it coming because it travels faster than sound.