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Grayskulllast Monday at 9:10 AM4 repliesview on HN

Well, you don't even need a radar. Tamara sensor could detect B-2, when it had it's onboard radar on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_passive_sensor


Replies

rcxdudelast Monday at 12:20 PM

stealth does in general go out the window when you turn on your radar. It's much like dressing in black and then running around with a flashlight at night. (and yes, there are equivalents to the various forms of night vision here, with associated tradeoffs)

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chipsalast Monday at 1:28 PM

Doubt: the APQ-181 radar on the B-2 is a Ku band radar, about 15 GHz. Tamara is about 1 GHz. This is entirely incompatible frequency ranges.

Also, the APQ-181 is a LPI radar, which means it’s specifically designed to avoid correlation of signals such that you can track by the signals emitted. There are presumably some downsides to working in LPI, but the upside is that the signal is designed to be indistinguishable from an increased noise floor.

ta20240528last Monday at 1:10 PM

It turns out for the Iran drama, that radar's like the Tamara have to survive the F-35s first, then the F-15s…

Which they don't.

Then the B-2s fly in in unopposed.

The key to the B-2s is dropping the F-35s. Which seems to be hard.

wat10000last Monday at 3:20 PM

I'm pretty sure that "don't operate your radar in enemy airspace" is right below "don't email your flight plan to the enemy" on the list of tips for stealth pilots who want to survive a mission.