As the title says. Also, how actually effective is the radar footprint reduction? I’ve heard that a radar might register a stealth aircraft as a bird and not a plane, which makes no sense at all.
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Radar works by signals reflecting (bouncing back) off an object back to the source.
Normal aircraft shapes bounces lots of signals straight back.
Stealth designs cause the radar signal to bounce off in a random direction. It scatters. The radar system can’t tell the difference between a signal that hit nothing and a signal that hit something but never came back.
Stealth consists of 3 parts
Absorbing energy, reflecting energy, and not generating energy
At a very basic level radar works by reflecting radio signals off airplanes and receiving them with a big dish.
Stealth aircraft use shapes (angles and surfaces) to reflect radar energy into a different direction than the receiver. If you can send most of this energy in a directly 90 degrees away from the receiver then the radar will have a much harder time detecting you.
Absorbing radar energy is another factor. Metals that reflect radar are replaced with ceramics and plastics that absorb much of that energy instead.
This applies to all facets of a stealth airplane from gold mesh in the cockpit glass, to making sure the blades of the turbines aren’t visible to radar. You also need to reduce the number of probes, hatches, and external stores.
Lastly you need to stop sending out signals that can be used to detect you. So less radio emissions from the plane itself, which can include not using your own radar unless absolutely necessary.
Avoiding right angles is a big part of it, because bouncing off surfaces that meet at right angles means the signal gets bounced back in the direction it came from, perfect for radar. That’s how many cats’ eye reflectors work and that’s why they shine so brightly in your headlights at night.
If you ever go in a room with two mirrors that meet at a right angle, notice how you can see a reflection of yourself right in the corner, wherever you are in the room. It’s simple geometry.
Think of it this way. A radar that would see a normal aircraft at 50 miles, can’t see stealth until it’s within 10 miles. This is by no means a fact, but a simple way to visualize.
Now imagine you’re flying through a web, or mosaic of overlapping radars. Because of the reduced range detection, you can navigate between all of those sensors without being detected.
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