Forum: F-16 versus XYZ

Decoys and jammers aren't new to the F-16. Again, Internal jammers don't necessarily make better jammers. They do take up stores locations though. Not truly a factor on the F-16 since its not going to carry a munition on the center line anyway, but does have the potential to increase RCS.

Sprstdlyscottsman, I understand, just giving my two cents as well.

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Oh the irony in that statement.... ECM pod INCREASING the RCS.... I understand what you mean by it, it just sounds funny.

The Viper has a far greater RCS not frontal or rear, but especially from the sides.

The SH has angled air intakes, angled vertical and horizontal stabilizers that produce a smaller RCS. The ordinance hangs at a small angle and isn't pointing straight for this reason also. RCS reduction measures were "designed" into a SH, while it's an afterthought (If at all) on a Viper. A Viper has a small RCS because it's a small airframe.

bubuhead wrote:

The Viper has a far greater RCS not frontal or rear, but especially from the sides.

The SH has angled air intakes, angled vertical and horizontal stabilizers that produce a smaller RCS. The ordinance hangs at a small angle and isn't pointing straight for this reason also. RCS reduction measures were "designed" into a SH, while it's an afterthought (If at all) on a Viper. A Viper has a small RCS because it's a small airframe.

Having a small airframe does not neccessarily mean it has a small RCS. These babies were very small but appeared on radar the size of a bomber! Shocked

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-20_Quail

That's because they were designed that way with radar reflectors. That said, size has little to do with RCS. Using public sources, Ben Rich (Skunk Works) said in his book that the F-117 shape was such that it could be made bomber sized and the RCS would not increase.

The Viper was not designed with RCS in mind but being shaped as it is it was inherently better than others of the era (also not designed for LO). Over the years things have been done to improve it. The super bug was redesigned from scratch with RCS as a primary driver (not the only driver, but a big one). I suspect it has a lower RCS than the latest Vipers, but haven't seen the numbers to know for sure.

I'm under the impression that a variation of RCS values becomes significant only when one value is well below a certain limit. Where that limit is to be dependent on the enemy radar's resolution (correct word?) over range.

Probably I'm wrong.

well look at it this way, if a radar has to detect an aircraft with an RCS similar to a bird or bug, then the radar will pick up every bird/bug in the sky, natural jamming!! j/k R2D2, you are fairly correct as I understand it. The radars detectable/trackable RCS decreases as range increases, so a lower RCS means you can get closer to a radar before it picks you up.

Forum: F-16 versus XYZ

F-16 block 50/52+ RCS vs Super Hornet RCS