Aircraft Radar Cross Section

[Shin_kazama]

Ahhhh, you do realize that stealth does nothing for you if your opponent's radar is "pointing" the other way, right? And that without the aforementioned parameters declared exactly as I mentioned, you're flying with nothing more than "placebo" stealth?

 

 

even when i pass right under their noses at night?

 

even with no jammer on

 

even those shilkas if i mod one harrier with stealthiness, non fire back at me.(even when hovering beside it.)

[MigBuster]

Any idea why the F16C has only 1/3 the RCS of the 99% identical A modell ????

 

Aju,

 

Derk

 

Is that taking this into account?

 

"Lockheed has been able to lower the plane's visibility on radar by coating its body with certain materials, though for security reasons, Lockheed officials declined to be more specific. Critics contend that long-range precision missiles limit the need to fly within range of radar and that many enemy air defense systems aren't sophisticated enough to do harm to the F-16. "

 

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-9597.html

[Gunrunner]

CoolHand29>

The trouble here is that there is differences betwen a F-16A-1, a F-16A-15, a F-16C-30 and a F-16C-52+.

The RCS comparison doesn't specify which F-16A or which F-16C.

The F-16A-1 was of almost completely metallic construction, with little study and thought given to reducing RCS.

Later variants included more and more composite materials, and once RAM were becoming cheap and maintenance-friendly enough, some were incorporated as well (starting with Block 40 (a F-16C Block)).

 

Anyway, RAM are not a panacea, being mostly useful against a rather narrow range of frequencies, and given that their use in the F-16 is an afterthought such a spectacular decrease seems a little exxagerated (unless perhaps if you compare an early F-16A-1 to a F-16A-52+/60), especially when there has been no major redesign accounting for it (the differences between the B-1A and the B-1B being due to both the redesign of the inlet for the larger part, and use of RAM for the rest).