Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

At Arctic Thunder I noticed a rectangular object on the underside of the F-22 slightly behind the main weapons bay. If not classified, can anyone tell me what it is? Camera perhaps?

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I suppose you mean the RCS enhancer.

Scorpion82 is correct.
http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-11628.html has this thoroughly covered.

My apologies, I did not look thoroughly enough to see if this had been covered.

How does that small thing increase RCS to levels comparable to a normal fighter? Why not just carry fuel tanks when you need to be seen?

The RCS enhancer has virtually no impact on performance and why wear and tear drop tanks if they aren't necessary range wise? I'm not to sure about how the RCS enhacer works at all, but it's certainly not about its shape and size. Su-33s have RCS enhancers built in their undercarriage or better said gear doors to be better detectable by the ATC radar from the Kuznetsov which is reportedly weak.

Last edited by psychmike on Aug 14, 2010 - 01:57 AM; edited 1 time in total

I think it's a Luneberg Lens. This is a passive device which increases RCS. It's comprised of concentric dielectric shells in a sphere shape which refracts and then reflects EM energy. It doesn't have a specific axis which lets it reflect waves coming from different directions.

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Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

lampshade111 wrote:

How does that small thing increase RCS to levels comparable to a normal fighter?

That is why you can't tell how radar stealthy something is by looking at it. Radar reflects off objects in such a weird way when compared to light that we really have no innate rules of thumb to go by. You can make an inflatable raft looking device that has the RCS of a warship.

I guess you can think of this with an analogy of light and mirrors. Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a world where there is no light, save for your flashlight. If you want to see, you have to turn it on. Dark colored or 'matte' type materials will not be as obvious as things that reflect light well, such as crystals or mirrors. An aircraft can be seen as a diamond; it's normally shiny and if you point your flashlight at it, it will light up. A stealth aircraft can be seen as a piece of graphite; in a world of black, it will only be obvious from very near the observer with the flashlight. If it's far enough away you can't distinguish it from the surrounding "blackness". However, if you put a mirror on the chunk of graphite, you will notice the mirror - and thereby the graphite - from much farther away.

Tinito_16 wrote:

I guess you can think of this with an analogy of light and mirrors. Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a world where there is no light, save for your flashlight. If you want to see, you have to turn it on. Dark colored or 'matte' type materials will not be as obvious as things that reflect light well, such as crystals or mirrors. An aircraft can be seen as a diamond; it's normally shiny and if you point your flashlight at it, it will light up. A stealth aircraft can be seen as a piece of graphite; in a world of black, it will only be obvious from very near the observer with the flashlight. If it's far enough away you can't distinguish it from the surrounding "blackness". However, if you put a mirror on the chunk of graphite, you will notice the mirror - and thereby the graphite - from much farther away.

A good analogy if you turn the flashlight into a strobe light then move the diamond at the speed of stink while trying to track it.
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Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

F-22 Camera?