is it possible to defeat the Radar
stealth technology
popular culture says no but there are
reasons reasons to beleieve the opposite welcome to millennium 7 star the
channel helps you make sense of military
history and military technology if you
have watched the previous videos in this
series you already know that radar
stealth is a technology that reduces the
intensity of the reflection of the
electromagnetic radiation from a plane
by coating it with radar absorbent
materials or by reflecting the radiation
away from the radar by a peculiar shape
of the plane it doesn't guarantee
invisibility and its effectiveness
depends from the aircraft's attitude in
respect to the radar all of this just
for a range of the possible frequencies
that can be used by different types of
radar so stealth is a very useful
technology that creates problems to the
radars that try to get a track but it is not
invincible and it can be defeated there
is a rather famous document from the
Israeli Air Force dated 2018 in which
it is said that stealth is going to be an
advantage for the next 5 years they are
well aware that for any action there is
a reaction and the reaction to stealth is
coming to fully understand how stealth
can be defeated we have to understand
that the radar is not the only sensor
available to fighters and air defenses
passive sensors that can receive the
radar emissions are increasingly common
on fighters and in ground-based defenses
actually any kind of emission radar
radio data links can be intercepted
usually at a distance far superior than
a useful range of the emission at the short
end of the electromagnetic spectrum
infrared search and track sensors are
also
increasingly common they are passive
and they can track the heat emitted by
the plane or the missiles obviously
without being spotted but unless the
other planes features an infrared search and
track as well the range at which they
can identify the target in ideal
condition it is about half than that of
the average radar when the F22 first took
part to the red flag exercises it had a
resounding success even against the top
of the line F15s pilots reported that
they simply couldn't spot it so they
were taken by surprise by the long-range
missiles and shot down obviously in the
simulation before they could really
react this is how stealth at least in
the American version is supposed to work
and indeed when it works it is
devastating a few years later fighting
Eurofighters and Rafales in
simulated exercises
the f-22 supremacy was not so clear
because new tactics allowed even
non-stealth airplanes to put themselves in
a situation to partially negate the
advantages of stealth. how this could
happen?
well there are two elements to counter
stealth: technology and tactics since
stealth works for the most part by
redirecting the reflected energy away
from the emitter one solution is placing
the radar receiver somewhere else and
possibly having more than one this seems
a bit outlandish for us but the first
Radars in the late thirties actually
worked in this way at the time it was a
technology limitation today the most
advanced integrated air defenses pool
together the resources to try obtaining
a clear picture of the airspace Russia
China and other countries are constantly
developing and refining this capability
networking their radars and other
sensors together since stealth is
effective in a limited range of
frequencies then other frequencies might
be used to detect stealth targets. It is
not widely known but often civilian air
traffic control radars which work at
lower frequencies than military radars
can detect stealth planes at least those
of the smallest size
Russia and China have both developed VHF
radars for the same purpose however the
problem is that the lower the frequency
the larger the error the position of the
target cannot be determined with an
error small enough to launch a weapon
against it as we have seen in a previous
video this error may be kilometers
sometimes this is not seen as a problem
because it is often explained that if a
target can't be engaged it doesn't really
matter if it is visible we will see that
this may not be true every kind of a
emission either thermal or
electromagnetic can potentially
compromise stealth. Electronic
surveillance measures are more and more
common and their capability to
discriminate and precisely locate the
emitter is constantly increasing the
f-35 is very very good at this I start
playing emits electromagnetic radiation
from the radar the data laying the
radios the weapons guidance systems and
the electronic countermeasures
plane has an infrared signature caused
by the engine nozzle and the exhaust
plume the aerodynamic friction on the
front edges and the launch of wet ones
with an engine which in turn they have
an engine nozzle and the plug it is
normal practice to fly under Mission
Control rules to limit the radiation
model LPI Raiders may be very difficult
to detect particularly in the scan mode
and some data links are heavily
directional so no emissions in theory
can be detected by the enemy not much
can be done to reduce the infrared
signature and the pilot needs to learn
how to manage it in the same way it must
be trained on how to get the most out of
the start features
[Music]
so since there are technology which can
locate a stealth target how can this be
used by a defender who is trying to stop
a start attacker well we could do
various scenarios but all of them rely
on the idea of forcing the stealth plane
to do something it gives up its start in
us for example if a stealth attack is
spot by a low frequency radar well some
fighter may be directed toward the
approximate position a barrage of
long-range missiles can be fired against
it the target can't simply ignore them
and it could be more than enough for a
mission kill that is the target abort
the mission to preserve its own
integrity in this case if a target
starts maneuvering it's 13's is
compromised even more and finally there
is the possibility to acquire at least
for a short period of time attract
actually it seems that Russian approach
the problem is actually launching salvos
of long-range missiles with different
guidance rather active infrared ammonium
even if a precise track has not been
acquired yeah this increases the
probability of a hit but also may for
the star target to react either
manoeuvring or start emitting allowing
for a better fix Annette the second
salvo has much better chances to hit the
target a similar situation may happen if
some fighters are used as a bait and
having the starting kirshen react to
their prizes again giving a part of
their saltiness even the launch of a
missile can give a sufficient hint to
direct a fighter to get close enough to
the start plane and when the distance is
close enough raiders can acquire the
star target and the passive sensor can
actively complement it also if the
stealth fighter is maneuvering in close
combat that's lost all the start
advantage in a defensive situation
stealth fighter defending an airspace
could be more difficult to identify with
proper taxes and LPI Raiders star planes
can sneak
the attacker and take a very safe shot
with a medium-range missile at that
point that may be noticed and chased but
they have already executed the mission
this situation may not be so favorable
to the stunt plane if the engagement
rules mandate or visual identification
where attackers ECM are negating the
automatic target recognition
however the interaction with a complex
environment with a lot of different
assets working in coordination like
airborne Raiders of electronic warfare
planes may lead to unpredictable
situations and this may happen
particularly in an advanced environment
among near-peer opponents and where
there is really the possibility for
unexpected situations to happen it is
clear that start is a very important
feature but it doesn't guarantee success
in itself it is just an important
element that participates to the
operations overall outcome whilst our
plane may have a decisive advantage
against an isolated no stop playing
disadvantage may be less important in a
complex and integrated environment thank
you very much for watching goodbye
you