Stealth questions

I am having trouble understanding modern radar's effectiveness against stealth. I have looked at passive and active radars and don't understand their differences in accordance to stealth. This site is what spurred my interest: www.flymig.com...

I know this is probably all just propoganda, but I am just having trouble grasping stealth's downfalls and I guess I would like an answer in plain english.

This what you're looking for?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

that is a great post on plasma stealth but what I'm looking for is information on basically why people would dismiss United States stealth technology so quickly and why active radars would be able to detect stealth supposedly so easily?

Two links for you, I did some googling on a related subject the other night - I do not vouch for the reliability of the data tho, but it seems 'geniune'.

www.aeronautics.ru...
www.aeronautics.ru...

Active radar sends radio waves and recieves the deflected ones. Pasive radar is just a reciever it picks only the em signal enemy plane emmits (radar, IFF etc.) It is so called "triangulation" - that means it employs at least 3 synchronized antenas 10-20lm apart. If plane emits no signal, than pasive radar recieves nothing. The most known ones are from Czech republic- Tamara and Vera.

[edit on 21-2-2005 by longbow]

Originally posted by Jahperson
that is a great post on plasma stealth but what I'm looking for is information on basically why people would dismiss United States stealth technology so quickly and why active radars would be able to detect stealth supposedly so easily?

Maybe I can help! I been doing my own research into stealth technology and the science behind it for years. I am willing to say, based on my research that most people don't understand stealth technology very well, and a lot of the information out there is incorrect.

First, The US steath technology is much better than most people think it is. US stealth aircraft use two different methods to achieve stealth: Shaping, which is still one of the most affective methods, and Plasma technology. the difference between the US and Russian systems is: Russia uses a free form plasma cloud, which requires a lot of energy to maintain. The US, uses a plasma-filled skin called Radar Absorbing Structure. Here's an artical on how Plasma is used in RAS:Plasma and Stealth
Note: This is a long artical containing lots of info; Read it carefully!

Second, Radar can't detect stealth as well as some people think it can. and at the Same time, no aircraft is completely invisible to Radar! The Us system is more expensive to make, but cheaper to maintain and more effective at hideing the aircraft.

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance