Forum: F-35 Lightning II

What happens to stealth aircraft such as the F-35 when their LO shaped airframes no longer hide them from enemy sensors? Lets put a hypothetical date of 2035 when this technology will be "widely" available.

The stuff mentioned in these links might just be the tip of the ice berg. They could form the core of future air defense systems.

http://defense-update.com/products/l/ladar.htm

http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/te ... ;zoneid=64

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What happens to stealth aircraft such as the F-22 when their LO shaped airframes no longer hide them from enemy sensors? Lets put a hypothetical date of 2035 when this technology will be "widely" available.

The stuff mentioned in these links might just be the tip of the ice berg. They could form the core of future air defense systems.

http://defense-update.com/products/l/ladar.htm

http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/te ... ;zoneid=64

By 2035, 6th gen will be coming along.

I think that by 2035, directed energy weapons will play a factor in the air.

Think the F-35 will be slinging some direct energy weapons?

discofishing wrote:

Think the F-35 will be slinging some direct energy weapons?

If operational requirements and funding permits. Lockheed is doing studies on on both high and low power laser implementations for the F-35. Scroll a bit down in this article:

http://www.f-16.net/news_article3837.html
http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopi ... r-asc.html

B. Bolsøy
Oslo

discofishing wrote:

What happens to stealth aircraft such as the F-35 when their LO shaped airframes no longer hide them from enemy sensors? Lets put a hypothetical date of 2035 when this technology will be "widely" available.

The stuff mentioned in these links might just be the tip of the ice berg. They could form the core of future air defense systems.

http://defense-update.com/products/l/ladar.htm

http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/te ... ;zoneid=64

These are both ground surveillance capabilities working at roughly 1000 metres.

Gven air surveillance systems need to work at tens or hundreds of kilometres, I think stealth fighters have an effective career ahead of them, in the face of laser targetting systems...

Stealth doesn't make a platform invisible. It makes a platform difficult to locate and even moreso, difficult to target. So much so in fact that the platform you are trying to target will be well within it's own weapons range, before you can put a weapon on it.

There is no "magic bullet" that is going to make "stealth" obsolete in the near future.

SpudmanWP wrote:

I think that by 2035, directed energy weapons will play a factor in the air.

DEWs work at the speed of light and will almost assuredly play a role.

However I'm picturing a Cyberwarfare Task Force (or pod) of sorts that will tear any OPFOR C&C to shreds in any future advanced conflict. No need for kinetic close up interaction.

Quote:

These are both ground surveillance capabilities working at roughly 1000 metres.

that's why I mentioned them being the tip of the ice berg. It doesn't mean they won't work beyond 1km. Why would you want to be that close?

6th generation fighters probably won't happen... we'll probably end up going to simpler, cheaper unmanned fighter drones that are smaller and more maneuverable (no g limits). Because our enemies are probably going to end up sending hordes of cheap drones instead of trying to counter 5th-gen fighters with similar aircraft.

Quote:

There is no "magic bullet" that is going to make "stealth" obsolete in the near future.

I disagree, mainly because of what the second article states about LADAR (and if it's true)...
"These systems do three-dimensional modeling of scanned objects in real time, offering missile defense systems the capability to differentiate between re-entry vehicles and decoys."

Surely that's not at 1000m. If a system can do that, then it can probably detect an F-35 or any other LO aircraft at great distance. If what this article says is accurate, then the magic bullet already exists. This is all hypothetical, but I think it's going to be reality some day. Radar could give way to LADAR, making stealth obsolete. If Russia gets it's hands on this technology, rest assured it will be available to foreign buyers pretty quickly.

Now with respect to the F-35, I don't think it will be obsolete because stealth is. The EODAS will probably be upgraded to handle the LADAR threat and maybe will be able to blind LADAR stations with it's own laser (a DEW of some sort?).

If I am reading the article correctly, a radar is used to find a target, and lasers are used to paint the pic of the target. So in essence, you would still need a better radar system to find said target, before the lasers and algorythymns can work their magic.

The exact same things happens when you asked exactly the same question on the F-35 forum. See that for answers.
Fisk

fiskerwad wrote:

The exact same things happens when you asked exactly the same question on the F-35 forum. See that for answers.
Fisk

entertaining video.. oh no f-22s are doomed..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckLInopu ... re=related

Quote:

If I am reading the article correctly, a radar is used to find a target, and lasers are used to paint the pic of the target. So in essence, you would still need a better radar system to find said target, before the lasers and algorythymns can work their magic.

http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/te ... ;zoneid=64

"Ladar also is very effective for tracking moving objects"

I don't think you read it correctly. Listen, I'm not one of those "Fighter Mafia" followers that is anti-F-35. I'm not trying to knock stealth aircraft, I'm just saying the US Military's stealth advantage will eventually come to an end. I believe the F-35 will still be the top dog in 2035 because of avionics, performance and training. By that time the Lightning II will have evolved a good bit as well.

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

The day when stealth can no longer hide you