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KOTHAMANGALAM
SEMINAR REPORT
On
Stealth Technology
Submitted By
Deepak Jacob
S8L
Roll no:15
no:15
CERTIFICATE
Certified that this is a Bonafide Seminar Report on
Stealth Technology
Presented by
Deepak Jacob
during the year 2007-2008 in partial fulfillment
Of the requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of
Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering
of
Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala
is a bonafide account of the work done by him under our supervision.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
While submitting this seminar report I would like to thank a few persons
whose able advice and co-operation made my work smoother.
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Contents
• Introduction
o Definition
o History
• Aim of Stealth Technology
• Detection Techniques
o Radar Cross Section
Geometric cross section
Reflectivity
Directivity
• Stealth Techniques
o Visual stealth
o Infrared stealth
o Acoustic stealth
o RADAR stealth
Absorption
• RAM
• RAS
Deflection
• Shaping
o Plasma stealth
• Counter Stealth Techniques
• Disadvantages
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Stealth
Technology
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Introduction
The concept of stealth is not new: being able to operate without the
knowledge of the enemy has always been a goal of military technology and
techniques. However, as the potency of detection and interception technologies
(radar, IRST, surface-to-air missiles etc.) has increased, so too has the extent to
which the design and operation of military vehicles have been affected in
response. A 'stealth' vehicle will generally have been designed from the outset
to have reduced or controlled signature. It is possible to have varying degrees of
stealth. The exact level and nature of stealth embodied in a particular design is
determined by the prediction of likely threat capabilities and the balance of
other considerations, including the raw unit cost of the system.
Definition
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impossible to reach. Thus we can clearly say that the job of a stealth aircraft
pilot is not to let others know that he was ever there.
History
With the invention of RADAR during World War II, stealth became both
more needful and more feasible: more needful because RADAR was highly
effective at detecting aircraft, and would soon be adapted to guiding antiaircraft
missiles and gunnery at them, yet more feasible because to be RADAR-stealthy
an aircraft did need to be not be completely transparent to radio waves; it could
absorb or deflect them.
During World War II, Germany coated the snorkels of its submarines
with RADAR-absorbent paint to make them less visible to RADARs carried by
Allied antisubmarine aircraft. In 1945 the U.S. developed a RADAR-absorbent
paint containing iron. It was capable of making an airplane less RADAR-
reflective, but was heavy; several coats of the material, known as MX-410,
could make an aircraft unwieldy or even too heavy to fly. However, stealth
development continued throughout the postwar years. In the mid 1960s, the
U.S. built a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the Lockheed SR-71
Blackbird, that was extremely RADAR-stealthy for its day. The SR-71 included
a number of stealth features, including special RADAR-absorbing structures
along the edges of wings and tailfins, a cross-sectional design featuring few
vertical surfaces that could reflect RADAR directly back toward a transmitter,
and a coating termed "iron ball" that could be electronically manipulated to
produce a variable, confusing RADAR reflection. The SR-71, flying at
approximately 100,000 feet, was routinely able to penetrate Soviet airspace
without being reliably tracked on RADAR.
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continued, primarily in the U.S., throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and several
stealth prototypes were flown in the early 1970s. Efforts to keep this research
secret were successful; not until a press conference was held on August, 22,
1980, after expansion of the stealth program had given rise to numerous rumors
and leaks did the U.S. government officially admit the existence of stealth
aircraft. Since then, much information about the two U.S. stealth combat
aircraft, the B-2 bomber and the F-117 fighter has become publicly available.
The idea is for the radar antenna to send out a burst of radio energy,
which is then reflected back by any object it happens to encounter. The radar
antenna measures the time it takes for the reflection to arrive, and with that
information can tell how far away the object is. The metal body of an airplane is
very good at reflecting radar signals, and this makes it easy to find and track
airplanes with radar equipment.
Detection Techniques
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Fig 1: Concept of pulsed radar
Even though a radar may transmit megawatts of power in a single pulse, only
a tiny fraction of that energy is typically bounced back to be received by the
radar antenna. The amount of power returned from a target to the transmitting
radar depends on four major factors:
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Fig 2: Factors that determine the energy returned by a target
Once the radar power reaches the target, some portion of that power will
be reflected back to its source. However, this reflected power also dissipates and
spreads out as it echoes back to the radar receiver. Since the power density has
already been reduced by a factor of 1/R2 by the time it reaches the target and is
again reduced by 1/R2 on the return trip, the final power density of the energy
received by the radar is proportional to 1/R4. The ability of radar to detect the
target depends on whether the amount of power returned is large enough to be
differentiated from internal noise, ground clutter, background radiation, and
other sources of interference.
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The amount of power that is reflected back to the radar depends largely on a
quantity called the radar cross section (RCS.) Although RCS is technically an
area and typically expressed in square meters (m2), it is helpful to break the term
apart to better understand what it means. Radar cross section is usually
represented by the Greek letter σ (pronounced "sigma"), and the quantity
depends on three factors.
The geometric cross section refers to the area the target presents to the
radar, or its projected area. This area will vary depending on the angle, or
aspect, the target presents to the radar. In other words, the target will
probably present the smallest projected area to radar if it is flying directly
toward the radar and is viewed head-on. A view from the side, top, or
underneath will present a much larger projected area. The geometric cross
section (A) determines how much power transmitted by the radar (Pincident)
is intercepted by the target (Pintercepted) according to the following
relationship:
2. Reflectivity:
3. Directivity:
These three factors can be combined to determine the complete radar cross
section (σ) for a target.
Simplifying that expression yields the following relationship for radar cross
section.
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where
The following graph gives some understanding of just how little radar
power is typically reflected back from the target and received by the radar. In
this case, the target presents the same aspect to the radar at ranges from 1 to 50
miles. At a range of 50 miles, the relative power received by the radar is only
0.00000016, or 1.6 x 10-5 % of the strength at one mile. This diagram
graphically illustrates how significant the effect of energy dissipation is with
distance, and how sensitive radars must be to detect targets at even short ranges.
Furthermore, every radar has a minimum signal energy that it can detect, a
quantity called Smin. This minimum signal energy determines the maximum
range (Rmax) at which a given radar can detect a given target.
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The above equation is popularly known as the Radar Range equation.
According to this relationship, reducing the radar cross section of a vehicle to
1/10th of its original value will reduce the maximum range at which the target
can be detected by nearly 44%! While that reduction alone is significant, even
greater reductions in RCS are possible.
Stealth Techniques
Visual stealth
Low visibility is desirable for all military aircraft and is essential for
stealth aircraft. It is achieved by coloring the aircraft so that it tends to blend in
with its environment. For instance, reconnaissance planes designed to operate at
very high altitudes, where the sky is black, are painted black. (Black is also a
low visibility color at night, at any altitude) Conventional daytime fighter
aircraft are painted a shade of blue known as "air-superiority blue-gray," to
blend in with the sky. Stealth aircraft are flown at night for maximum visual
stealth, and so are painted black or dark gray. Chameleon or "smart skin"
technology that would enable an aircraft to change its appearance to mimic its
background is being researched. Furthermore, glint (bright reflections from
cockpit glass or other smooth surfaces) must be minimized for visual stealth;
this is accomplished using special coatings.
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Infrared stealth
Acoustic stealth
RADAR stealth
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this energy is reflected by the target, some of it may be collected by a receiving
antenna. By comparing the delay times for various echoes, information about
the geometry of the target can be derived and, if necessary, formed into an
image. RADAR stealth or invisibility requires that a craft absorb incident
RADAR pulses, actively cancel them by emitting inverse waveforms, deflect
them away from receiving antennas, or all of the above. Absorption and
deflection, treated below, are the most important prerequisites of RADAR
stealth.
Absorption
RAS
RAS or Radar Absorbent Surfaces are the surfaces on the aircraft, which
can deflect the incoming radar waves and reduce the detection range. RAS
works due to the angles at which the structures on the aircraft's fuselage or the
fuselage itself are placed. These structures can be anything from wings to a
refueling boom on the aircraft. The extensive use of RAS is clearly visible in
the F-117 "Night Hawk". Due to the facets (as they are called) on the fuselage,
most of the incoming radar waves are reflected to another direction. Due to
these facets on the fuselage, the F-117 is a very unstable aircraft.
The concept behind the RAS is that of reflecting a light beam from a
torch with a mirror. The angle at which the reflection takes place is also more
important. When considering a mirror being rotated from 0º to 90º, the amount
of light that is reflected in the direction of the light beam is more. At 90º,
maximum amount of light that is reflected back to same direction as the light
beam's source. On the other hand when the mirror is tilted above 90º and as it
proceeds to 180º, the amount of light reflected in the same direction decreases
drastically. This makes the aircraft like F-117 stealthy.
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The RAS is believed to be silicon based inorganic compound. This is
assumed by the information that the RAM coating on the B-2 is not water proof.
This is just a supposition and may not be true. What we know is that the RAM
coating over the B-2 is placed like wrapping a cloth over the plane. When radar
sends a beam in the direction of the B-2, the radar waves are absorbed by the
plane’s surface and are redirected to another direction after it is absorbed. This
reduces the radar signature of the aircraft
RAM
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Deflection
Most RADARs are monostatic, that is, for reception they use either the
same antenna as for sending or a separate receiving antenna collocated with the
sending antenna; deflection therefore means reflecting RADAR pulses in any
direction other than the one they came from. This in turn requires that stealth
aircraft lack flat, vertical surfaces that could act as simple RADAR mirrors.
RADAR can also be strongly reflected wherever three planar surfaces meet at a
corner. Planes such as the B-52 bomber, which have many flat, vertical surfaces
and RADAR-reflecting corners, are notorious for their RADAR-reflecting
abilities; stealth aircraft, in contrast, tend to be highly angled and streamlined,
presenting no flat surfaces at all to an observer that is not directly above or
below them. The B-2 bomber, for example, is shaped like a boomerang.
Shaping
Most conventional aircraft have a rounded shape. This shape makes them
aerodynamic, but it also creates a very efficient radar reflector. The round shape
means that no matter where the radar signal hits the plane, some of the signal
gets reflected back:
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Fig 5: Stealth aircrafts
A design dilemma for stealth aircraft is that they need not only to be
invisible to RADAR but to use RADAR; inertial guidance, the Global
Positioning System, and laser RADAR can all help aircraft navigate stealthily,
but an aircraft needs conventional RADAR to track incoming missiles and
hostile aircraft. Yet the transmission of RADAR pulses by a stealth aircraft
wishing to avoid RADAR detection is self-contradictory. Furthermore, RADAR
and radio antennas are inherently RADAR-reflecting.
At least two design solutions to this dilemma are available. One is to have
moveable RADAR-absorbent covers over RADAR antennas that slip aside only
when the RADAR must be used. The antenna is then vulnerable to detection
only intermittently. Even short-term RADAR exposure is, however, dangerous.
The disadvantage of sliding mechanical covers is that they may stick or
otherwise malfunction, and must remain open for periods of time that are long
by electronic standards. A better solution, presently being developed, is the
plasma stealth antenna. A plasma stealth antenna is composed of parallel tubes
made of glass, plastic, or ceramic that are filled with gas, much like fluorescent
light bulbs. When each tube is energized, the gas in it becomes ionized, and can
conduct current just like a metal wire. A number of such energized tubes in a
flat, parallel array, wired for individual control (a "phased array"), can be used
to send and receive RADAR signals across a wide range of angles without
being physically rotated. When the tubes are not energized, they are transparent
to RADAR, which can be absorbed by an appropriate backing. One advantage
of such an array is that it can turn on and off very rapidly, and only act as a
RADAR reflector during the electronically brief intervals when it is energized.
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Plasma stealth
The Russian Academy of Sciences, however, according to a 1999 report
by Jane's Defense Weekly, claims to have developed a low-budget RADAR-
stealth technique, namely the cloaking of aircraft in ionized gas (plasma).
Plasma absorbs radio waves, so it is theoretically possible to diminish the
RADAR reflectivity of an otherwise non-stealthy aircraft by a factor of 100 or
more by generating plasma at the nose and leading edges of an aircraft and
allowing it flow backward over the fuselage and wings. The Russian system is
supposedly lightweight (>220 lb [100 kg]) and retrofittable to existing aircraft,
making it the stealth capability available at least cost to virtually any air force.
A disadvantage of the plasma technique is that it would probably make the
aircraft glow in the visible part of the spectrum.
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Counter-stealth Techniques
With the help of microwaves similar to the ones emitted by the cell phone
towers.
By using over the horizon radar, ultra wide band (impulse) radar, bistatic
radar, imaging radar and IR imaging seekers.
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Disadvantages of stealth technology
Whatever may be the disadvantage a stealth aircraft can have, the biggest
of all disadvantages that it faces is its sheer cost. Stealth aircraft literally costs
its weight in gold. Fighters in service and in development for the USAF like the
B-2 ($2 billion), F-117 ($70 million) and the F-22 ($100 million) are the
costliest planes in the world. After the cold war, the number of B-2 bombers
was reduced sharply because of its staggering price tag and maintenance
charges. There is a possible solution for this problem. In the recent past the
Russian design firms Sukhoi and Mikhoyan Gurevich (MiG) have developed
fighters which will have a price tag similar to that of the Su-30MKI. This can be
a positive step to make stealth technology affordable for third world countries.
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References
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