Read this article from Sean Meade at Aviation Week here, but this caught my attention...
initially planned to use Ghost Hawks, highly classified helicopters nicknamed "Jedi rides" that emit zero electromagnetic radiation and are invisible to radar.Wow.
However they were replaced with older Stealth Hawks after the White House abandoned plans to have F-18 "hornet" jets fly patrols over the helicopters and it was deemed too much of a risk that the Ghost technology would fall into enemy hands.
So much for the lack of progress in US helicopter development. Something tells me that all we're seeing is a whole bunch of old tech flying over the battlefields. Time to take a trip to Ft. Campbell with my night vision devices to see whats really flying.
If there is any truth to this, wow indeed. And you might wonder if the decision would have been different had there been F-22s or F-35s available instead of F-18s.
ReplyDeleteB. Bolsøy
Oslo
real good point. hey bud, i'm still going over the e-mail you sent earlier. i'll private message you in a bit!
ReplyDeleteHuh...well that's interesting. That could really open the door for air assualt in the future against a more formidable opponent
ReplyDeleteHmmm John; Perhaps a formidable opponent that is friends with Pakistan? Lame joke aside, I do find it hard to believe that we have TWO generations of "stealth" blackhawks that virtually no one knows anything about. Zero electromagnetic radiation emission and invisible to radar? I imagine that one can only go so far when making a helicopter stealthy. I will be reading that book though, for better or worse.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that surprising that US has a stealth helicopter that no one knows anything about. Back in the late 50s the CIA ran a project testing a stealth material prototype on the U-2, and no one knew about until a couple years ago. Just goes to show that when the Feds want to keep something under wraps, they can. At least until the helo's little brother crashes in downtown Abottabad.
ReplyDeleteI think the emphasis here should be on the phrasing "emit" as opposed to "reflect", that being said most helos are 90+% composite which is an rf transparent material (mostly), wack some high grade LO treatment on the metal stuff a little low grade over the fuselage for high band Ku sar and it could work...
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