August 3, 2020

Stealthy Aircraft & Submarines of Long-Term Effectiveness

In response to Brumby's thought provoking August 1, 2020 comments:

Overall China, Russia, US (to an extent Australia) would have a complex game-plans to overcome anti-stealth defences. 

Many radars could detect F-35s, F-22s or B-2s, but only when these aircraft are several kms away.

That is if the radars haven't been jammed. Notably Australia has purchased US made Boeing EA-18G Growlers to jam Chinese or others' radars, permitting Australia's new F-35As or medium sized conventional missiles to hit the radars or other initial targets. As Brumby said on July 30 "the Growler with its AN/ALQ-99 can jam [Russian or Chinese] S-400 sensors from a distance of 400 km operating at 30,000 feet. Advances are also being made when the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) rolls out. The [Australian Airforce] has been making wise bets."

China, Russia and the US are best placed to reduce jamming vulnerability and spot stealth aircraft early by using widely distributed radars (on ground, ship, aircraft, UAV and LEO satellite (?) platforms). Multiple and widely distributed radars are also harder to successfully wipe-out with dedicated anti-radiation missiles or multi-mission cruise missiles programed for anti-radar.

The initial strike may be with multi-mission long range, stealthy cruise missiles.  See:  

"AGM-158B JASSM-ER orders would keep the production line going into the late 2020s, and possibly beyond. Customers include the USA, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Poland."

The Chinese are indeed producing J-20s [as well as FC-31s] and the Russians SU-57s at great cost because they consider  stealth aircraft will be viable weapons systems for many years.

This is akin to continuous production and development of submarines - being stealth assets of
long-term effectiveness, with no countermeasures in the medium term to render them obsolete.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To supplement and enhance stealth, we can add MALD, loyal wingman, and soon UAV swarms. I am sure similar arsenals will show up with submarines as well.
KQN

Pete said...

Hi KQN

Agreed.

Submarine decoys (which are mini-torpedos), cheap-swarm UUVs or less numerous highly capable UUVs and longterm dormant/mobile/smart mines promise to enhance submarine stealth.

They are also potential threats to submarines and can do many jobs of submarines, but no-one knows precisely how much. So the safe hedging strategy is to develop all those technologies while launching ever-stealthier submarines.

Cheers

Pete