The U.S. military should continue improving its stealth aircraft technology to keep its advantage over possible rivals in the coming decades, according to a report released Aug. 2 by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute.
Stealth aircraft have played an important role in U.S. operations since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the F-117 stealth fighter struck strategic targets in Iraq without being detected by enemy radar. The B-2 stealth bomber and the F-117 played a similar role in the 1999 air strikes on Yugoslavia.
By 2022, about a fourth of U.S. combat air forces will be low-observable, and that proportion will continue to grow each year as the new Northrop Grumman [NOC] B-21 stealth bomber and more Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35 stealth fighters replace non-stealthy aircraft, the report says.
But U.S. air dominance faces growing threats. Potential adversaries, such as China and Russia, are fielding advanced air defenses to help them detect and destroy stealth aircraft. These new defenses include more powerful radars, more agile surface-to-air missiles, advanced command-and-control networks that can share information quickly, and advanced fighters.
According to the report, the United States can stay ahead of its adversaries by continuing to enhance stealth aircraft designs and materials and supporting capabilities, such as electronic warfare and mission management.
“The computational capabilities that were available to design the F-117 and B-2 are dwarfed by the power now available to design teams,” the report says. “Simulations of interactions between designs and various threat radars are now far more accurate and realistic, allowing additional refinement of stealth design solutions before any hardware is actually built or tested. This capability should drive significant cost and schedule efficiencies in the development of the B-21, resulting in reductions in [radar cross section] beyond those already achieved on other platforms.”
The report, entitled “Survivability in the Digital Age: The Imperative for Stealth,” was written by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Barrett, who led the F-22 stealth fighter’s first operational wing, and retired Air Force Col. Mace Carpenter, who flew the F-117 in the Yugoslavia operation.
Barrett said that networking between stealth planes needs to improve to increase their situational awareness. While the F-35 can send information to the F-22 via a Link 16 data link, the F-22 cannot return the favor. The Air Force is adding a transmit capability to the F-22 and plans to begin delivering it to the fleet in 2021.
The report was released at a Capitol Hill event, and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, endorsed the document’s conclusions.
“Today, stealth is 40 years old and … stealth will be around for the next 40 years,” Rounds said. “That doesn’t mean stealth or more accurately how we think about stealth must not continue to evolve to remain viable in the future.”