How Stealth Technology Shield Aircraft from Radar - Essay Example

How Stealth Technology Shields Aircraft from Radar Stealth technology covers a wide spectrum of techniques employed by personnel operating military submarines, satellites, ships, missiles, and aircrafts, being a sub discipline of passive electronic counter measuring as well as military tactics. This technology makes these vessels ideally invisible to such detections as sonar, infrared, and radars. In certain quarters, the application of stealth technology in warfare translates to camouflage. Therefore, stealth envisages the use of technological advancements to defeat the available detection systems operating using the electromagnetic spectrum. Many military personnel attribute the use of such systems not only to the ability to defeating the detection systems but also to achieving the benefits of surprising the enemy. “Using stealth technology, military planners can now achieve nearly total surprise” (Hadley, 15). Through the application of technology, such surprises achieve high levels of military success. In the process of understanding how the stealth technology operates against radars, it is critical to have a clear insight of the basic uncomplicated working principles of radars. In aerial warfare globally, radars continue to gain recognition as the most crucial sensors since their development during the World War 2. Principally, the radar has the ability to pick up reflective objects and aircrafts amidst the prevailing weather conditions, during the day or at night. The advantage accrued to radars is the distance that the signal of the radars can sense. In addition to the above, radars give precise information on target parameters such as target vector, range and elevation. This enables the effective engagement of the target. Other sensors such as optical, Infrared and acoustic have been experimented over the years. Nonetheless, acoustic methods only issued rough indications of the target parameters. On the other hand, optical sensors had inefficiencies in determining the targets from long distances, poor accuracy in the exact positioning as well as inadequate extraction capabilities of the target parameters. Despite the fact that infrared sensors were perfect in determining the target parameters, these sensors were severely affected by extreme weather conditions, hence required their collaboration with radars to achieve the desired excellence. All radar systems operate in a similar manner. A Travelling Wave Tube (TWT) or a magnetron generates electromagnetic energy. Before being channeled to a directional antenna, the energy is modulated suitably. The directional antenna focuses the radar energy into a conical beam. Therefore, when a reflective object blocks some part of the conical beam, the blocked part of the beam is reflected in several different directions. The dispersion of the beams is random, hence explaining why some energy is redirected in the direction of the radar antenna that previously transmitted the energy (Klass and Nordwall, 47). The use of complex time-sharing algorithms is responsible for staggering the radar energy transmission and leaving the radar antenna silent. This enables the antenna to perform both the reception and transmission roles. The entire reception and processing of this reflected energy by the associated electronics and the antenna itself enables the radar to spot the target and effectively extract data on its parameters. The application of stealth energy begins with the shape of the aircraft. Most of the radar waves hit the aircraft at horizontal angles. Therefore, this technology eliminates or minimizes the vertical surfaces on the aircraft with the aim of reducing the radar reflections. This process dictates the canting inwards and outwards or the elimination of the vertical stabilizers. This technology also eliminates the external pylons that are used for the carriage of weapons by moving them to internal weapon bays. Furthermore, the elimination of corner reflectors such as conventional wing fuselage intersections also helps in the redirection of the radar waves. The above modifications explain why the surfaces of the stealth aircrafts have to abandon the uniformly curved surfaces that act like a sphere for easy and random reflection of radar energies. Far from the shape of the aircraft, stealth technology is applied in the modification of fighter jet engines. Most jet engines that have turbine blades that rotates at high speeds and sharp edged metallic compressors. These are the most effective and efficient radar reflectors in aircrafts. Stealth technology masks the engine from the radars energy as one of the most difficult but important aspect of defeating the radar energies. Therefore, the jet engine inlet and exhaust are moved above the fuselage in order to block the radar energy in ground based radars from gaining direct access to the engines. In communication, security capacity has been presented to describe the possible ability to communicate in complete security (Wang et al., 259). This technology makes the exhaust tunnels and engine inlets twisting to prevent the radar beams from spotting the turbine blades and the engine compressors. Furthermore, in a bid to prevent reflections from the exhaust lips and the air intake, these components are made in irregular shapes and out of radar absorbent materials. In as much as the jet engine and aircraft shape are the significant components of stealth technology, the substructure of the above components plays an important role in the application of stealth technology. The substructure of the construction materials used in stealth aircrafts has the capability to capture and deplete the radar beam energy in areas of high radar reflectivity. The argument behind using such materials is that the process of delaying or denying radar detection is achieved if the incident radar beam is effectively depleted to certain extents that guarantees returned energy lower than the radar detection. The substructures of the air intake in aircrafts have wedges that are filled with radar absorbing materials. Such wedges capture the incident radar energy, hence reflecting the energy within the numerous wedges from one metallic surface to another, while progressively losing the energy. Stealth technology, through radar ablative paints comprises of paints that contain minute iron particles. When the radar energy falls on such paints, it induces a magnetic field in the iron particles that are within the paint. The induced magnetic field shifts the frequency of polarity at the incident radar energy. This converts the radar energy into heat, in the process calming the strength of the radar energy. Despite the fact that this technology is effective, the iron paints come with a weight penalty that may affect the speed and velocity of the aircraft. In addition to that, the effectiveness of the iron ball paints is dependent on the size of the iron balls in relation to the wavelength of the incident radar energy. This makes the paint a narrow band. According to (Warwick), “protecting a fast-moving fighter is "much different" than jamming missiles launched at slow-flying helicopters and transports.” However, radar absorbent materials feature free electrons in their atomic structure as part of stealth technology. The illumination of radar absorbent materials by the radar beams forces the free electrons in the material structure to oscillate at a similar frequency to that of the incident radar beam. The inertia and friction of the oscillating free electrons converts the radar energy into heat, hence helping to weaken the radar energy. Such materials include Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC) that has the radar absorbent characteristic, thus securing its application in the construction of stealth aircraft structures. The above innovations illustrate the implication of stealth technology in radar signaling. However, the application of this technology can be used for both offensive and defensive missions. As the fight against organized crime and terrorism takes centre stage, many criminal organizations may take advantage of such technological advancements to instigate attacks and render instability on many war torn states. Regulations to limit the widespread use of stealth technology have taken a swipe on the advanced countries, as other countries have become terror sympathizers. In conclusion, stealth technology is an effective way to block and limit the operations of radar beams. The use of stealth technology can be advantageous for military operations that are aim at fighting for the just course. However, the terror threats that flood the military operations threaten to derail the success of stealth technology as a means of achieving successful military executions. On the other hand, the improvement of technology prompts the reinvention of stronger detection mechanisms that beat the power projected by the radar electromagnetic energy. For successful and uniform execution of military power, the use of stealth energy should be governed by regulations that take into concern the threats posed by terror. Stealth target severely weakens the detection power of radar (Tan et al., 900). Works Cited Hadley, Fred. Stealth Technology. The technology Teacher 56.5 (1997): 15. Print. Klass, Philip J., and Bruce D. Nordwall. Impulse Radar Fails To Defeat Stealth Technology In Tests..Aviation Week & Space Technology. 137.16 (2015): 47. Print. Tan, Huang, XU Zhenhai, DAI Chong, & WANG Xuesong. Optimal Distribution Model Selection Of Stealth Target RCS. Chinese Journal of Radio Science / Dianbo Kexue Xuebao 29.5 (2014): 899-904. Print. Wang Fei, Mathini Sellathurai, Weigang Liu, & Jiangjiang Zhou. Security Information Factor Based Airborne Radar RF Stealth.. Journal of Systems Engineering & Electronics. 26.2 (2015): 258-266. Print. Warwick, Graham. Fast-Jet Shield. Aviation Week & Space Technology 175.36 (2013): n. pag. Print. Read More