Stealth Retains Value, But Its Monopoly Wanes

Stealth--the ability of an aircraft to evade radar--is no longer the dominant focus for warfighters. For the U.S. and its allies, stealth is now considered only one of several factors that must be controlled and manipulated to make warplanes survivable on future battlefields.
The need for improved stealth is largely driven by the increasing ability of foes to network sensors and find the elusive clues that can give away the position of radar-evading aircraft. Because of the evidence of improving antiaircraft technology, the U.S. will keep developing stealthier aircraft. The ultimate goal is development of a reliable, precise, all-weather automatic target recognition system.
Pentagon planners assume knowledge about stealth technology is proliferating quickly, and U.S. industry can count only on staying a few years ahead of its competitors. Countries most likely to become a foe of the U.S. are not yet manufacturing stealth aircraft and missiles. Even leaks to Russia of algorithms used in stealth designs do not seem troublesome. Radar cross section computer codes cannot be used to produce and then thwart stealth designs without the exact knowledge of the shape of the vehicle and precise material specifications. Knowing about stealth is not difficult, but countering it is.
Two possible stealth-enhancing options interest scientists. One is putting magnetic materials in aircraft coatings to absorb incoming radar signals. The second is to apply coatings that conduct an electrical current aimed at disrupting or canceling incoming radar signals.
Electronic countermeasures or jamming will be a growing need for stealth aircraft as enemy radar systems become more sophisticated in picking out the electronic whispers from low-observable designs. Stealth aircraft already count on a certain amount of help from thermal noise, clutter, and externally generated interference to create an electronic floor or noise under which they can operate. Without the competition of noise and interference, even stealth aircraft would be detectable.