Is it Possible to Have a Stealth Carrier???

[motsivad]

Stealth Destroyers are becoming ever more common but is it technically possible to have a Stealth Aircraft Carrier?

The cost would be astronomical of course, but I just wondered.

Surely thought the aircraft on its deck would ruin the ships stealth profile though.

[Letum]

Well....yes, but it would mean huge compromises.

[Tchocky]

A PS2 game involved a submerged carrier
Stealthy enough? (I doubt it, the sheer amount of noise that thing would make...)



Thinking about a stealth carrier, I can't really see the point. Mostly, when a nation moves a carrier, it wants people to know that it's there.

[JSLTIGER]

Beginning with the USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78), US carriers are slated to start incorporating some stealth technologies.

[seafarer]

Kind of also depends on what you mean (want?) by stealth. Could a carrier incorporate stealth technology to reduce it's radar signature? Sure, I'd image so.

Could you reduce a carrier's radar signature to that of a fly - not and make it out of any kind of metal, that's for sure.

Seems to me that even with the stealth aspects of current DDs and such, the idea is just to reduce their hard point radar returns to the point they are at least not distinguishable easily as a warship. It's not like a B-2 or F-117 where the idea is to shrink the whole radar signature down to such a small size the entire aircraft gets completely missed against the background.

'Course, I ain't no engineer, so maybe you can make a 95,000 ton metal ship disappear completely from radar?

[Kapitan]

I think they are implementing stealth features into the new Queen Elizabeth class CV's of the royal navy not 100% though.

[Oberon]

The Scinfaxi and Hrimfaxi!! *hugs them*

I think a stealth carrier could be done, but would be bloody awkward to keep fully stealth, particularly with aircraft on deck. BUT, it would wreck the whole point of a CVBG (or CSG whatever they want to call them these days, they'll always be CVBG's to me) which is to project power. For stealthy strikes on enemy targets, there's B2, B1s and TLAMs

Interesting concept though

[geetrue]

Yes, you could make a stealth carrier ... it would have to be long and narrow with a low profile, but it would still cause a hole in the water standing still and all machines make noise ...

You wouldn't be able to hide from submarines that's for sure ...

[elite_hunter_sh3]

with money, anything is possible.... in 20-30 years we are gonna have cloaking fields etc.. all that mumbo jumbo... we already have rail guns FTW..

[bradclark1]

It would probably be possible within a given range untill things start happening on deck but wow, could you imagine the cost? I'd say it's going to be far down the road yet.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by seafarer

Seems to me that even with the stealth aspects of current DDs and such, the idea is just to reduce their hard point radar returns to the point they are at least not distinguishable easily as a warship. It's not like a B-2 or F-117 where the idea is to shrink the whole radar signature down to such a small size the entire aircraft gets completely missed against the background.

The F-117 has quite a large radar cross section as compared to a B-2 or an F-22. They are being retired for this reason alone. To expensive to maintain, such as sparying it with RAM prior to flight, etc. The F-22 can accomplish a lower RCS without any maitenance or RAM coatings.

-S

[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.

[geetrue]

Everybody is going to have a satellite someday ... look down and see everything that is moving.

Bam! No stealth carrier left ...

[sonar732]

Originally Posted by geetrue

Everybody is going to have a satellite someday ... look down and see everything that is moving.

Bam! No stealth carrier left ...

It's no secret that we kept satellites overhead watching the GIUK gap and I'm sure that the Russians kept one off the east and west coast.

Not to mention the fact that if the theory of having a satellite shot a ray from space is in the Aces flight simulator game...gives the obvious of "where did they think that up from".

[SUBMAN1]

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.

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