Message posted by Anonymous on March 07, 2002 at 11:42:53 PST:

True, stealth is part tactics--as I just explained to Joerg. The 117 isn't invisible, it just selects, via its facets, where the reflections will go--not back to the radar. And the problem of shooting at anything airborne is that one must see it for some time interval in order to direct a fire control radar on to it and then shoot. Often, in the scheme of these things, one can see the target with the search radar but can't lock on a fire control tracking radar.

The Serbian 117 may have also just have opened one of its weapons bays. It can become radar visible to certain frequencies then, but yes, if the bad guys can visually see you, they can do the shot-gun approach and hope for the best.

The Russian approach to stealth with that Badger was novel, if not the first.

I do recall, that in the mid 60's while flying small aircraft myself, that there was some degree of consternation about an almost all-plastic private plane that made it difficult for FAA radars to keep a track on.

In Reply to: Re: stealth posted by Magoo on March 07, 2002 at 0:51:33 PST:

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