A captivating new image has set rumor mills running.
Aviation photographer Santos Caceres caught a never seen image
of a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter in his camera
as it flew out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada on the morning of Nov. 19, 2021.
The aircraft was covered in a tile-like
reflective metallic coating that is unlike anything we have seen on a Raptor before.
Importantly this doesn't look like a cobbled-up thing for temporary use, the coating has been
carefully installed to not obstruct the Raptor's many key access points like sensors and antennas.
While nothing can be stated with certainty, we can explore a few possibilities.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes what the intriguing -looking F-22 Raptor could possibly do?
Let's get started
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F-22 Raptor is developed from grounds up to be stealthy and is the stealthiest
fighter ever built & has a very low RCS (Radar Cross Section) of only 0.0001 m2.
The stealth is achieved due to its structural design
as well as the use of Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM).
Its external contour is designed to deflect signals away from the emitting radar which
makes it hard to detect or track. This is done by having no sharp
edges or protruding elements and having a smooth external curvature.
The RAM is designed to absorb radar emissions that are not defected by the special design
and play a very important role when it comes to achieving the Low Observable characteristics.
While LO is not invisibility, it greatly reduces the range at which
a radar can detect and track the Raptor. Let's check the possibilities one by one.
This is a conservative view - the images could be a new variant of
coating which has benefits of easier maintenance and better performance.
The current RAM has seen several issues that include
peeling off when exposed to a certain kind of environment.
The F-22 Raptors which were taking part in military operations in Syria encountered this.
This is confirmed by John Cottam, head of the F-22 program of Lockheed Martin,
who noted that external factors, such as rain and sand dust,
not only wrinkle and peel off the coating but also turn it into its original liquid state.
Reapplication is expensive and time-consuming.
The new coating could resolve this issue by being more robust.
There are reports that F-22 can reach
greater top speed and sustain this longer if not for the current stealth coating.
The new coating could have better heat dissipation to mitigate this problem.
If successful, this RAM can trickle down to the F-35 and have its performance envelope expanded.
This could actually be a metamaterial RAM coating. There is some ongoing research that seems to
indicate that properly engineered metamaterials can be very effective for stealth aircraft.
Metamaterials are composite media that can be engineered to exhibit unique electromagnetic
properties. Made up from subwavelength building blocks (most often based on metals),
these metamaterials have to potential to exhibit extremely complex characteristics.
The process of finding ways of developing metamaterials
into workable substances has been very slow. It could possibly be in a prototype stage
and would still need a lot of work before serial production of such a material could be pulled off
especially for scenarios that would see real-world wear-and-tear conditions.
But this can't be written off entirely.
This kind of coating could potentially render the aircraft
immune to directed Laser weapons that are being developed by several countries.
The general idea of laser-beam weaponry is to hit a target with a train of brief pulses of light.
The rapid evaporation and expansion of the surface cause shockwaves that damage the target.
A reflective coating such as this may help against a laser attack.
This is a radical view - the coating could make the aircraft invisible to Infrared (IR) detection.
Many missiles use IR for terminal guidance and also aircraft such as the Russian Su-57
are using IR as a means to detect rivals. It houses an Infrared Search And Track
(IRST) sensor which can track an aircraft by its Infrared signatures.
Imagine making an aircraft invisible with a special material that is capable of masking
the vehicle’s infrared signature to enemy eyes, and the significant advantages this
would hold on the battlefield. The system could avoid detection
by allowing the aircraft to mimic the temperature of their surroundings to suit varying scenarios.
While this is looking more like a scene from a Sci-Fi movie, work is being done on this.
BAE Systems is making this reality possible by developing a unique camouflage system called
ADAPTIV, that allows a vehicle to blend into its surroundings,
effectively becoming invisible to hostile thermal imaging systems.
A variant of this could potentially be used in a fighter jet to get the same type of effect.