STEALTH TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS:
1. History - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -01

2. Introduction - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 02

3. About radar - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 03
4. Stealth principles- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 05
4.1 Vehicle shape - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 05

4.2 Propulsion sub-system - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -05

4.3 Non-metallic air frame - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -05

4.4 Radar absorbing material - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 06

5. Case study: F-117 Nighthawk - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -07

5.1 F-117 Nighthawk specs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -07

5.2 Dimensions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -08

5.3 Stealth implementation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -08

5.4 Nighthawk engagement profile - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11

5.5 Retirement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11

6. Advantages - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13

7. Limitations - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -14
7.1 Instability of design - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

7.2 Reduced payload - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

7.3 Cost of operation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -14

8. Measuring stealth - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16

9. Conclusion - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17

10.Reference - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18

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HISTORY
Almost since the invention of radar, various techniques have been tried to minimize
detection. Rapid development of radar during World War II led to equally rapid development
of numerous counter radar measures during the period; a notable example of this was the use
of chaff.

In the late 1950's the American, Central Intelligence Academy (CIA) began sending
Lockheed U-2 'spy-planes' over the Soviet Union to take intelligence photographs. The U-2's
were little more than jet-powered gliders built of plastic and plywood flew at 80,000ft
(24,000m) to be out of range of anti-aircraft fire, but it then became clear that radar was not
detecting them.

It was not until May 1960, after more than four years of over-flights, that the Russians shot
one down using new radar equipment belonging to SA-2, surface-to-air missiles and even
then the U-2 did not receive a direct hit.

The success of the U-2s led to highly classified research work in the US, known as 'Stealth',
to create a military aircraft that was invisible to radar. The U-2 had gone undetected for so
long because it was made of non-metallic materials which absorbed radar waves rather than
reflecting them back to the radar ground station, as normally happens.

The Stealth program aimed at designing high-performance military aircraft incorporating,

among other features, a minimum of metal and with the exterior clad in highly absorbent
tiles. The aircraft would be almost invisible to radar and could make most radar-controlled
anti-aircraft systems obsolete.

After being developed under a blanket of secrecy, the high-tech B-2 Stealth bomber was
unveiled at the Northrop Company’s manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California, in
November 1988. An audience of invited journalists and guests was kept well away from the
plane, which was designed to slip through enemy radar defenses without being detected and
the drop up to 16 nuclear bombs on key targets.

Modern submarines are coated in a thick layer of a top-secret resin which is highly absorbent
acoustically, and reflects only a minute amount of the energy transmitted by sonar detectors.
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INTRODUCTION
“STEALTH”, as seen in dictionaries is ‘the act of moving, proceeding, or acting in a covert
way’. Stealth technology (also known as LOT, Low Observability Technology) is a sub-
discipline of electronic countermeasures which covers a range of techniques used with
aircraft, ships, submarines and missiles, in order to make them less visible (ideally invisible)
to radar, infrared and other detection methods.

A mission system employing stealth may well become detected at some point. With in a
given mission, such as when the target is destroyed, but current use of stealth systems should
seek to minimize the possibility of detection. Attacking with surprise gives the attacker more
time to perform is mission and exit before the defending force can counter-attack. If a
surface-to-air missile battery defending the target observes a bomb falling a summarizes that
there must be a stealth aircraft in the vicinity, for example, it is still unable to respond if it
cannot get a look on the aircraft in order to feed guidance information to its missiles.

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or
speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather
formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for Radio
Detection and Ranging. In infrared (IR) detection method, the IR signature of exhaust plume
is the prime contributor.

Stealth is not a single technology but is a combination of technologies that attempt to greatly
reduce the distances at which a vehicle can be detected in particular reducing the Radar Cross
Section (RCS).

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3. ABOUT RADARS

Radar is an object-detection system which uses electromagnetic waves — specifically radio

waves — to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed
objects such as aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather
formations, and terrain. The radar dish, or antenna, transmits pulses of radio waves or
microwaves which bounce off any object in their path. The object returns a tiny part of the
wave's energy to a dish or antenna which is usually located at the same site as the transmitter.

3.1 Principles of radar

It mainly works on the two principles:

1. ECHO and

2. DOPPLER SHIFT

Echo is used to detect time and distance of target

Doppler shift is used to detect the speed of target approaching

3.2 Echo and Doppler Shift

Echo is something you experience all the time. If you shout into a well or a canyon,
the echo comes back a moment later. The echo occurs because some of the sound waves in
your shout reflect off of a surface (either the water at the bottom of the well or the canyon
wall on the far side) and travel back to your ears. The length of time between the moment you
shout and the moment that you hear the echo is determined by the distance between you and
the surface that creates the echo.

Doppler shift is also common. You probably experience it daily (often without
realizing it). Doppler shift occurs when sound is generated by, or reflected off of, a moving
object. Doppler shift in the extreme creates sonic booms (see below). Here's how to
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understand Doppler shift (you may also want to try this experiment in an empty parking lot).
 STEALTH TECHNOLOGY

Let's say there is a car coming toward you at 60 miles per hour (mph) and its horn is blaring.
You will hear the horn playing one "note" as the car approaches, but when the car passes you
the sound of the horn will suddenly shift to a lower note. It's the same horn making the same
sound the whole time. The change you hear is caused by Doppler shift

Fig 3.1 Shows the Working Principle of Radar

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STEALTH PRINCIPLES

4.1 Vehicle shape:

One of the important factors is the internal construction. Behind the skin of some
aircraft are structures known as re-entrant triangles. Radar waves penetrating the skin of the
aircraft get trapped in these structures, bouncing off the internal faces and losing energy.

The most efficient way to reflect radar waves back to the transmitting radar is with
orthogonal metal plates, forming a corner reflector consisting of either a dihedral (two plates)
or a trihedral (three orthogonal plates). This configuration occurs in the tail of a conventional
aircraft, where the vertical and horizontal components of the tail are set at right angles.
Stealth aircrafts use a different arrangement, tilting the tail surfaces to reduce corner
reflections formed between them.

Stealth design must also bury the engines within the wing or fuselage, or in some cases where
stealth is applied to an existing aircraft, install baffles in the air intakes, so that the turbine
blades are not visible to radar. A stealthy shape must be devoid of complex bumps or
protrusions of any kind; meaning that – weapons, fuel tanks, and other stores must not be
carried externally. Any stealthy vehicle becomes un-stealthy when a door or hatch is opened.

a. Propulsion subsystem shaping:

Fluidic nozzles for thrust vectoring with aircraft jet engines, and ships, will have lower RCS,
due to being less complex, mechanically simpler, with no moving parts or surfaces, and less
massive (up to 50% less). Fluidic nozzles divert thrust via fluid effects. Tests show that air
forced into a jet engine exhaust stream can deflect thrust up to 15 degrees.

b. Non-metallic airframe:

Dielectric composites are relatively transparent to radar, whereas electrically conductive

materials such as metals and carbon fibers reflect electromagnetic energy incident on the
material's surface. Composites used may contain ferrites to optimize the dielectric and
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magnetic of Mechanical Engineering
of the material 6
for its application.
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c. Radar absorbing material (RAM):

RAM, often as paints, is used especially on the edges of metal surfaces. One such coating,
also called iron ball paint, contains tiny spheres coated with carbonyl iron ferrite. Radar
waves induce alternating magnetic field in this material, which leads to conversion of their
energy into heat.

Previously, neoprene-like tiles with ferrite grains embedded in the polymer matrix were used,
now RAM paint is applied directly. The paint must be applied by robots because of problems
of solvent, toxicity and tight tolerances on layer thickness.

Similarly, coating the cockpit canopy with a thin film transparent conductor helps to reduce
the aircraft's radar profile because radar waves would normally enter the cockpit, bounce off
something random and possibly return to the radar, but the conductive coating creates a
controlled shape that deflects the incoming radar waves away from the radar. The coating is
thin enough that it has no adverse effect on the pilot's vision.

Fig 3.1 Working of Radar Absorbing Material

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CASE STUDY: F-117 NIGHTHAWK

In the Gulf War, it can be clearly seen on TV, the American air attack on Baghdad - they
were getting bombed, but they didn't know by what, they were shooting all over the sky
hoping for a hit, kind of pathetic last resort, it was F-117, Nighthawk. Forty F-117s were
deployed to the Gulf. Only 59 production F-117s were built, yet the total cost of the program
is over $6 billion!

Fig 5.1: F-117 Concept design

The Stealth can be refueled in flight but, rumors about the handling of the F-117, said it was
somewhat 'erratic', especially when refueling as a result, one of the first nicknames for the
plane was "Wobblin' Goblin".

5.1 F-117 Nighthawk Specs:

Type: Single-seat low-observable strike fighter.
Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin
Maiden flight: 18 June 1981
Introduction: October 1983
Primary user: United States Air Force
Two non-afterburning General Electric F404-GE-F1D2 engines,
Power plant:
each delivering 10,800lb thrust.
Max Speed: Mach 1 (estimated)
Combat Radius: 750 mi. Un-refueled, with 5000lb weapon load.
Service ceiling: Not revealed.

Weapons: Up to 5,500lb, carried Internally and, principal weapons are BLU-

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
109 low-level or GBU10/ 8 GBU27 medium-level laser-guided
MIT Mysore
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bombs, provisions for two AIM-9L air-to-air missiles.

5.2 Dimensions:
• Span: 43ft. 4".
• Length: 65ft. 11".
• Height: 12ft. 5".
• Wing area (estimated): 913 sq. ft.
• Weights: Empty: 30,000lb
Loaded: 52,500lb

5.3 Stealth implementation:

The skeleton of the F-117 is made mainly of aluminum. The aircrafts skin, by contrast, is
mostly composite RAM. The twin butterfly (\/) tail obscures the exhaust plume from infrared
sensors aboard pursuing fighters.

The Nighthawk's twin General Electric engines are buried deep in the fuselage. That has
shallow "platypus" exhausts, which cool and deflect the exhaust gases upward to minimize
heat emissions.

Fig 5.2: Difference between conventional exhaust (above) and F-117 Nighthawk exhaust
(below)

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The stealth fighter/bomber carries all its weapons internally, with no non-stealthy surfaces
left outside to be detected by radar. The edges of the F-177's cockpit canopy, like all surfaces,
have no right angles (right angles are strong radar reflectors).

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Fig 5.3: Comparison between application regular and saw-toothed shapes in aircraft
parts

Fig 4.4 and Fig 4.5 clearly reveals the difference in the nose of a conventional aircraft and F-
117. The nose of F-117 is specially designed to deflect the radar waves away from the
antenna making the fighter invisible to the radar.

Fig 5.4: Reflection of waves back to the Radar antenna by the nose of a conventional
aircraft

Fig 5.5:
Deflection of
waves away from
the Radar
antenna by the
nose of F-117 stealth fighter
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Fig 5.6: Deflection of waves away from the Radar antenna

Fig 5.7: Stealth Fighter Planes

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5.4 Nighthawk Engagement Profile:

The Stealth fighter/bomber detects its targets via the forward looking infrared turret, called
FLIR, embedded in its nose. This provides a good picture of the target from several miles
away, on even the darkest of nights.

Bombing from medium altitude, the F-117's fire-control computer calculates the proper
release point for the weapons to reach the general target vicinity. Weapons release will
generally be a range of one or two miles.

Closer to the target, control is switched to the downward looking infrared turret, or DLIR.
This is equipped with a laser designator.

As the weapon approaches the target, the laser designator is fired. Sensors in the nose of the
weapon now steer it toward to radar reflection, where it detonates with devastating accuracy.

5.5 Retirement:
Despite its successes in the Kosovo and Iraq Wars and its high mission-capable rate, the F-
117 was nevertheless designed with late 1970s technologies. Its stealth technology, while still
more advanced than that of any other aircraft except the B-2 Spirit, F-22 and F-35, is
maintenance heavy.

Furthermore, the facet-based stealth design has been surpassed by newer technology.
Program Budget Decision 720 (PBD 720), dated 28 December 2005, proposed retiring the
entire fleet by October 2008 to allow for buying more F-22As. PBD 720 called for 10 aircraft
to be retired in financial year (FY) 2007 and the remaining 42 aircraft in FY 2008 and stated
there were other more capable Air Force assets that could provide low observable, precision
penetrating weapons capability including the B-2, F-22 and JASSM.

By late 2006, the Air Force had closed the F-117 pilot school, and announced the retirement
of the F-117. The first six aircraft to be retired made the last flight on 12 March 2007 after a
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ceremony
MIT at Holloman Air Force Base (AFB) to commemorate the aircraft's storied career.
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 STEALTH TECHNOLOGY

Brigadier General David Goldfein, commander of the 49th Fighter Wing, said at the
ceremony, "With the launch of these great aircraft today, the circle comes to a close - their
service to our nation's defense fulfilled, their mission accomplished and a job well done. We
send them today to their final resting place - a home they are intimately familiar with - their
first, and only, home outside of Holloman."

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Fig 5.8: Night Hawk Planes

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ADVANTAGES

6.1 Increased combat efficiency:

A smaller number of stealth aircraft may replace a large fleet of conventional aircraft while
maintaining or increasing combat efficiency, possibly resulting in longer term savings in the
military budget.

d. Unopposed air strikes:

A stealth aircraft strike capability may put off potential opponents from taking action and
keep them in constant fear of unopposed air strikes, since they can never know if planes are
already under way, or what they might strike next. This may make an opponent more willing
to accept a diplomatic solution, although the moral reasoning behind this is disputed.

e. Possibility of avoiding war:

Stealth aircraft allow raids on important point targets to occur, while maintaining a cover.
Since the approach and departure routes would likely remain unknown, a stealth operator
could simply refuse to comment and hope to avoid war.

f. Weakening of opposite party:

The production and fielding of stealth combat aircraft design may force an opponent to
pursue the same aim, possibly resulting in significant weakening of the economically inferior
party. The 1980s American Strategic Defense Initiative program served a similar purpose
against the USSR.

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LIMITATIONS

7.1 Instability of design:

Stealth aircraft are designed with a focus on minimal RCS rather than aerodynamic
performance. Highly stealth aircraft are aerodynamically unstable in all three axes and
require constant flight corrections from the fly-by-wire system to maintain controlled flight.

g. Reduced payload:

Fully stealth aircraft carry all armament internally, which limits the payload. By way of
comparison, the F-117 carries only two laser or GPS guided bombs, while a non-stealth
attack aircraft can carry several times more.

h. Cost of operations:

Stealth aircraft are typically more expensive to develop and manufacture. An example is the
B-2 Spirit that is many times more expensive to manufacture and support than conventional
bomber aircraft. The B-2 program cost the U.S. Air Force almost $45,000 million.

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MEASURING STEALTH
The size of a target’s image on radar is measured by the radar cross section (RCS), often
represented by the symbol σ and expressed in sq. meters. This does not equal geometric
area. A perfectly conducting sphere of projected cross sectional area 1m2 (i.e., a diameter of
1.13m) will have an RCS of 1m2. Note that for radar wavelengths much less than the
diameter of the sphere RCS is independent of frequency. Conversely, a flat plate of area 1m2
will have an RCS of about 14000m2 at 10 GHz if the radar is perpendicular to the flat
surface. If you rotate it, the amount of energy reflected directly back to the transmitter is
reduced as some is reflected to the side, so the RCS is reduced. Modern stealth aircraft are
said to have an RCS comparable with small birds or large insects, though this varies widely
depending on aircraft and radar.

If the RCS was directly related to the target’s cross sectional area, the only way to reduce it
would be to make the physical profile smaller. Rather, by reflecting much of the radiation
away or absorbing it all together, the target achieves a smaller RCS.

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9. CONCLUSION
To date, stealth aircraft have been used in several low and moderate intensity conflicts,
including Operation Desert Storm, Operation Allied Force and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In
each case they were employed to strike high-value targets which were either out of range of
conventional aircraft in the theater or which were too heavily defended for conventional
aircraft to strike without a high risk of loss.

In addition, because the stealth aircraft do not have to evade surface-to-air missiles and anti-
aircraft artillery over the target they can aim more carefully and thus are more likely to hit
the target and not cause as much collateral damage.

The stealth aircrafts as well as other war machines like stealth ships, submarines are the key
for dominance in the battlefield of the future.

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10. REFERENCE:

• Future Flight: The Next Generation of Aircraft Technology, William D. Siuru , Jhon
D. Busick, Published 1933 McGrew-Hill Professional, 194 pages, ISBN 0830643761

• Have Blue and the F-117A: Evolution of “Stealth Fighter”, By David C. Aronstein,
Albert C Piccirillo, Published 1997 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
305 pages, ISBN 1563472457

• Stealth technology: The Art of Back Magic, By J. Jones, Matt Thunder

• http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/projects.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stealth_aitcraft

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-117_Nighthawk

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