by Colin Clark
Stealth was sold as something close to magic when it first appeared. And, as usually happens when extraordinary claims are made, the blowback was intense. Skeptics pointed to its vulnerability to large-scale, land-based radars, to the fact it wasn’t invisible to the naked eye, to the costs and difficulties of maintaining the expensive coatings, and the staggering overall cost of some of the aircraft (see B-2).
This morning, the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute rolled out a report on stealth that should put many of those criticisms to bed. The study argues simply that America’s fighters, bombers and, probably, airborne tankers need stealth to remain effective and to perform well against increasingly sophisticated ground- and air-based missile threats..
In the reasoned language of the report: “Stealth, or aircraft signature reduction, is a potent and viable military capability in modern combat, and will remain so well into the future. It is not, however, an all or nothing capability, as some critiques have suggested.”
So stealth ain’t magic, but it’s absolutely necessary, the report’s authors say. Why? Stealth “significantly reduces the range at which aircraft can be detected, and this in turn increases survivability. Stealth combined with speed creates additional challenges for enemy air defenders. (See F-22) Even if defenders can detect the presence of aircraft, the time they have to track, fire, and guide surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) is minimal. Sometimes engagement windows are so short, even detected stealth aircraft are nearly impossible to engage.”
http://breakingdefense.com/2017/08/stealth-add-ew-careful-planning-spoofing-intel/
