Stealth Technology The Most Advance Weaponry In Modern Warfare
It’s the military high tech vanishing act that makes aircraft invisible to radar, its sky height advantages are coming now high towards and setting out on a high seat, daunting, deadly, and top-secret know as stealth technology.
Sleek, lethal, powerful the FA-22 raptor opens a new era in stealth technology. The revolutionary concept that changes the face of aerial warfare since the 1990s where it can get to the places very quickly before the people expect and with stealth, the enemies don’t know they were there changing the whole concept of war. The raptor-like all stealth aircraft reduces its observing ability by distant periods by Visual, Acoustic, Heat, Infrared and the most important by radar. Radar short for radio detecting and ranging locates the object by transmitting ultra-high-frequency radio waves and then by calculating the time taken by radio waves reflected by the transmitter location, speed and size of the object can be determined. One of the best ways to reduce the chance of detection is to create aircraft with the smallest possible cross-section intersecting points of radar which can be reduced in two fundamental ways where the first one is specially designing the contours built on the aircraft to help deflect radar away from the source. The newly stealth aircraft accomplish this using flag panels and the second way is with the help of the materials which coat the airplane by trapping the radar signal and make them invisible to radar.
Manufactured by Lockheed Martin in partnership with Boeing it measures more than 62 feet long with a wingspan of 44 inches yet its radar signature is smaller than a sparrow but to achieve this comes with a price as its aerodynamics performance is lower than its predecessor than raptor FA-17. FA-22 raptor has a planform shaping built with a design strategy in which leading edges are aligned along with identical angels which helps to control and predict directions of radar waves that bounce of surfaces. Due to this stealth technology the raptor can enter into enemy’s air space undetected and damage than with his deadly arsenal and return home upstretched. Without his stealth mode on the raptor size on radar gets double making us believe how important the stealth mode.
The development of radar takes place in the 1940s during World War 2 when the Nazis forces were trying to control all European air space but the only thing which stood in their way was the royal air force. After having statical advantages and several airplanes it was becoming hard for the royal air force to crush Nazis and when it looked like an easy win for Nazis the game changed as the development of high performing radar and the latest technology crush the Nazis airplanes in the sky and helps England to control all European air space. The radar also determined the speed, size, and formation of aircraft which prove very beneficial to form attack strategy even with less number of airplanes. Since then the radar made it impossible for the military aircraft to attack in enemy air space but with development in stealth technology now the radar concept is looking smaller.
The SR-71 Black Bird was another greatest spy plane developed by Lockheed Martin for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency of America) to spy on soviet air space. It was capable of high speed which can go up to 1000 miles per hour at 80000 feet. It was specially designed to penetrate radar as its wings, tails, and the fuselage was loaded with special composite material called iron fluorides which absorbs radar frequency besides its linear edges of wings are aligned with radar absorbing structure which traps radar energy.
Another field other than aircraft where the stealth technology is used in most ships where a similar method is adopted. The Arleigh Burke-class is a guided-missile destroyer (DDGs) of United States Navy class of destroyer built around the Aegis Combat System is the first ship which used the stealth technology with minimum detection signature on the radar. It was designed as a multi-mission destroyer able to fulfill the land strike role. It has antisubmarine warfare (ASW) with a towed sonar array, anti-submarine rockets, an ASW helicopter, and antisurface warfare (ASuW) with a Harpoon missile launcher. In 2016, the US Navy announced they would begin the outfitting of 34 Flight IIA Arleigh Burke vessels with a hybrid-electric drive (HED) to lower fuel costs which proved a significant strategy for the operation of Arleigh Burke vessels.
Another ship that belongs to a class of stealth technology is the Kolkata class destroyer built by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in India. It is a stealth guided-missile destroyer develop for the Indian army. It compromises of three classes i.e. Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata. The classes have a length of 163 m (534 ft 9 in), a beam of 17.4 m (57 ft 1 in) and a draught of 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) and works on propulsion features of the combined gas system. Compared with another missile destroyer it has a very less heat signature on the radar which proves vital during the war.
On the other hand, the simplest stealth technology used all around the globe is visual camouflage; the use of paint or other materials to color and break up the lines of a ship or airplane, or man. It is the most common technique used by the military makers to paint the ship or aircraft in light grey or white paint so that it becomes invisible from a large distance. Also, the green paint has started to use more and more nowadays has its infrared signature is very less compared to others hence you can find ships or aircraft with green straps on it.
Since with the development in technology and fear of raging war now and then the advancement in stealth technology will prove vital as it will be the one who will decide on whose side the war is in favor of or short winning. Also With the latest research and development work in stealth technology we are not far away from where we will develop such a system with zero radar detection and cloaking technology invisible to eyes and more.
