France and Plasma Stealth

According to AWST (Aug 9,2004) France is invstigating the use of plasma field technology to apply to combat aircraft and cruise missiles. The work at state owned research lab Onera has been ongoing since 2003.

They are looking at both generating a field around the airframe and withing compartments of the aircraft like the radome (It states that this technology is also being persued by Russian to mask the Radome in its 5th gen fighter)

This is an itnteresting development and could spark a whole new compettion in detection technology. This could be quite a force multiplier if it can be worked into conventional aircraft.

They are also working on counter stealth detection with a "surface wave radar" for detection.



[edit on 9-8-2004 by FredT]

I guess every one is getting in the plasma crave. The Surface Wave radar is not only a French project Australian and the US are also working on it check out this link for more info.

Working in the 5 to 20 Mhz frequencies the technology relies on the natural conductivity of sea water to send radio waves over the horizon, enabling it to see objects beyond the range of traditional detection devices. The Doppler shift that the system relies on are of the order of 0.2Hz so the design requirements and quality of the equipment are of the highest standard. The trial system used rather expensive DEC computing equipment to provide the considerable processing power required for this work. The antenna arrays used for the system are around 600-900m long.
The system can provide surveillance of more than 70,000 sq km in around 30 minutes, to cover the same area with patrol aircraft it takes around 4 hours and with patrol vessel it would take over 60 hours.

SWR capabilities include;

Economic Exclusion Zone Surveillance
Customs Operational Requirements
Illegal Immigration Surveillance
Illegal Fishing
Search and Rescue
Confined Space Management
Oil Rig Monitoring
Defence Surveillance Needs

Surface Wave Radar

Originally posted by WestPoint23
ISurface Wave Radar

I wonder if this is a derivative of the Backscatter radar array they were developing several years ago?