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Donald Trump isn’t the only guy who has trouble with stealth technology and wavelengths

Summary:
There has been much laughter over the fact that Donald Trump has repeatedly given the impression that he thinks that stealth technology works at the wavelength of visible light, so stealthy aircraft are invisible. He isn’t the only one who is saying silly things based on ignoring wavelength. The technology used by the F117, F22, and F35 does not hide planes from world war II era radar. The old radar used long wavelength waves. They are reflected by “stealth” fighters and fighter bombers (I don’t know how the 20 surviving B2s do). This is an intractable problem related to wavelength and the size of things the plane really needs in order to manover like fins and stuff. The general (generals’) line is that this is not big deal, because WWII era

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There has been much laughter over the fact that Donald Trump has repeatedly given the impression that he thinks that stealth technology works at the wavelength of visible light, so stealthy aircraft are invisible.

He isn’t the only one who is saying silly things based on ignoring wavelength. The technology used by the F117, F22, and F35 does not hide planes from world war II era radar. The old radar used long wavelength waves. They are reflected by “stealth” fighters and fighter bombers (I don’t know how the 20 surviving B2s do). This is an intractable problem related to wavelength and the size of things the plane really needs in order to manover like fins and stuff.

The general (generals’) line is that this is not big deal, because WWII era radar does not give a location precise enough to guide a missile to hit an airplane. In other words, the planes are fine unless missiles are equiped with 2 sensors — radar at a distance and infrared or visible light for final targetting.

In other words, stealth technology is silly.

Recall I don’t know what I am typing about.

Robert Waldmann
Robert J. Waldmann is a Professor of Economics at Univeristy of Rome “Tor Vergata” and received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Robert runs his personal blog and is an active contributor to Angrybear.

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