Girish Linganna

With booming technological brilliance, modern warfare is becoming more and more complex. Nations are now investing heavily in R&D in the defence sector, particularly in military airborne platforms. This is focused around multiple aspects such as electronic warfare (EW) suite, speed, weapons integration, etc. One such important aspect of modern aircraft is radar detection-defying stealth.

Stealth or low observable (LO) technology aims to render personnel, equipment, and vehicles less visible to detection methods such as infrared, sonar, radars etc. By extension, stealth aircraft are planes, helicopters etc. that are designed to use stealth technology to avoid detection. The US-based aerospace firm Lockheed Martin developed the first ever operational aircraft designed specifically with stealth technology—the F-117 Nighthawk. We have come a long way since then, with the development of various stealth aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-57, Shenyang FC-31, Chengdu J-20, B-2 Spirit, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 Lightning II.

Basics of a stealth aircraft

The most important principle in building a stealth aircraft is that there should be no projections or extensions of any sort on the fighter. This means that easily detectable parts such as the tail surface, propellers, jet turbine blades, compressor blades, the leading-edge of the wings, weapons, fuel tank—all have to be optimised to avoid radars.

This has been done in different ways in var