Introduction Stealth fighters are spreading, yet very few to none have what is necessary for a stealth fighter to be truly effective. Some are better than others – PAK FA would eat F-35 for lunch and spit out the bones – but all have serious flaws and are, in essence, half-baked experiments in stealth fighter … Continue reading Stealth fighter characteristics and requirements overview
Tag: stealth
Air combat and stealth
Introduction For a long time, visual detection was the only type of detection possible. But in World War II, two significant advances appeared: radar, as well as radar- and IR- -guided missiles. Until 1970s, these were defeated through jamming and decoys. Early German attempts at building LO aircraft - Ho-229 - never got anywhere, albeit … Continue reading Air combat and stealth
Defining stealth
Introduction Word "stealth" has lately become a catchword used to define the weapon - mostly aircraft - as "superior", with little or no thought as to what the term actually means. Stealth fighters, stealth bombers, stealth ships... even stealth tanks, the craze is in full swing. But how much do these weapons deserve the label? … Continue reading Defining stealth
Aircraft signature reduction measures
Rafale Typhoon Gripen J-10 J-20
How stealthy is the F-35
Introduction F-35 is the newest Western flying piano. Apparently US have already forgotten all the lessons of World War II and Vietnam war, where such impressive-on-paper-but-sluggish fighters ended up on mercy of far more nimble fighters and were thus relegated to ground attack roles. In fact, F-35 was designed as a ground attack aircraft, only … Continue reading How stealthy is the F-35
Value of stealth aircraft
Introduction Unlike US Navy and every other air force across the world, USAF has decided to transit to an all-stealth air force. But due to the Moore's law, processing power doubles every 18 months - which means not only improvements in sensors that are already very capable of detecting stealth aircraft, but also that, as … Continue reading Value of stealth aircraft
On AviationIntel F-22 vs Typhoon article
http://aviationintel.com/2012/07/28/in-response-to-reports-of-simulated-f-22-raptor-kills-by-german-eurofighters/ While author is indeed correct that training sorties do not necessarily mean that one type of aircraft is superior, multiple sorties can, when analyzed properly and assuming that setup is known, provide some information about respective fighter's capabilities. Huge control surfaces and thrust vectoring are useful for high-altitude and low-speed maneuvers, not in … Continue reading On AviationIntel F-22 vs Typhoon article
Cleaning up Red Flag Alaska F-22 vs Typhoon debate
Since Eurofighter Typhoons defeated F-22s at Red Flag Alaska in June 2012, discussion has produced many claims. I will address some of them here: 1) WVR combat is only small spectrum of air combat. Yes, and no - it mainly depends on numbers, and who you are shooting at. As enemy numbers, as well as quality of … Continue reading Cleaning up Red Flag Alaska F-22 vs Typhoon debate
Why F-35 cannot replace Harrier
This is news from 16/9/2012: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/6_harrier_jets_destr.php In short, 6 Harrier jets were destroyed and 2 damaged in Taliban attack. It drives home the point that air bases are bound to be attacked, and aircraft are bound to be attacked, regardless of type of war waged. F-35 is supposed to replace Harrier. But when we … Continue reading Why F-35 cannot replace Harrier
Superiority (Clarke short story)
If you want to understand dangers inherent in relying on technological superiority to win against enemy, read this story:http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.htmlStory shows what happens when one tries to counter enemy's superior numbers by focusing too much on hyper-technology weapons, and so can be understood as a warning against high-tech weapons, underlining one basic problem - there is … Continue reading Superiority (Clarke short story)
History and War 