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Originally Posted by bookworm_020
I think the purpose of a having astealth features is to reduce the radar sig to make it less vunrable to emeny weapons, I don't think it's going to disappear from radar screens any time soon. It will reduce the range it can be detected, which gives the carrier a greater chance of detecting the intruder and dealing with it.
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Quite frankly, an F-22 or B-2 will disappear from radar screens completely. So can a properly coated F-117, so this is not a true statement.
A F-117 has an estimated radar cross section of less than .75 meters (Which is quite good considering its size!) which makes it pretty much undetectable by almost all Ex Soviet or current generation Russian Radar. This is true if the RAM (RADAR ABSORBING MATERIAL - it must be properly coated each and every time the aircraft flies to cover every seem that can bounce signals prior to every flight - not an efficient way to operate aircraft and it takes a large ground crew to turn aircraft around this way) is coated on the aircraft properly by ground crews and it is not flying in any sort of rainy weather. Russia does have a few radars that can detect this plane however and they are called OTH radar (which stands for over the horizon), but at only limited range. Basically, for a normal RADAR to see this aircraft if everything is operating normally, the F-117 would need to be flying pretty much right next to it and from the side (which is further hampered if its a doppler radar which typically calculates only too or from but has a hard time seeing something that is not changing distance). Move the F-117 above or to and from the radar, and its pretty much invisible.
The F-22 however ups the game and has the radar cross section of what? A bumble bee? Its RCS is calculated at about .01! Whoaa!
As you can see, the F-117 is no longer needed. You have a full fighter with full stealth (If properly configured with no drop tanks and all internal weapons of course) that can not only do the job of dropping precision guided JDAMS from its internal bays, but can also engage enemy aircraft in a practically unfair air to ar engagement with little or no threat to itself.
Isn't the F-117 retired already? i think it is. I'll google that and take a look.
-S