Stealth aircraft

Stealth aircraft are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce reflection/emission of radar, infrared, visible light, radio frequency (RF) spectrum, and audio, collectively known as stealth technology. The F-117 Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft explicitly designed around stealth technology. Other examples of stealth aircraft include the B-2 Spirit, the B-21 Raider, the F-22 Raptor, the F-35 Lightning II, the Chengdu J-20, the Shenyang J-35 and the Sukhoi Su-57. While no aircraft is completely invisible to radar, stealth aircraft make it more difficult for conventional radar to detect or track the aircraft effectively, increasing the odds of an aircraft avoiding detection by enemy radar and/or avoiding being successfully targeted by radar guided weapons. Stealth is a combination of passive low observable (LO) features and active emitters such as low-probability-of-intercept radars, radios and laser designators. These are typically combined with operational measures such as carefully planning mission maneuvers to minimize the aircraft's radar cross-section (RCS), since common hard turns or opening bomb bay doors can more than double an otherwise stealthy aircraft's radar return. Stealth is accomplished by using a complex design philosophy to reduce the ability of an opponent's sensors to detect, track, or attack the stealth aircraft. This philosophy takes into account the heat, sound, and other emissions of the aircraft which can also be used to locate it. Sensors are made to reduce the impact of low observable technologies and others have been proposed such as IRST (infrared search and track) systems to detect even reduced heat emissions, long wavelength radars to counter stealth shaping and RAM focused on shorter wavelength radar, or radar setups with multiple emitters to counter stealth shaping. However these have disadvantages compared to traditional radar against non-stealthy aircraft. Full-size stealth combat aircraft demonstrators have been flown by the United States (in 1977), Russia (in 2000) and China (in 2011). As of December 2020, the only combat-ready stealth aircraft in service are the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (1997), the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (2005), the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (2015), the Chengdu J-20 (2017), and the Sukhoi Su-57 (2020). a number of other countries developing their own designs. In-development aircraft include fighters such as the US' F-47 and China's J-36, as well as strategic bombers, China's H-20 and Russia's PAK DA. There are also various aircraft with reduced detectability, either unintentionally or as a secondary feature. Stealth aircraft first saw combat when the F-117 was used in the 1989 United States invasion of Panama. Since then US, UK, and Israeli stealth aircraft have seen combat, primarily in the Middle East, while the Russian Su-57 has seen combat in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 2025, there has been one confirmed shootdown of a stealth aircraft, during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, of an F-117 by a Serbian Isayev S-125 'Neva-M' missile brigade commanded by Colonel Zoltán Dani, while a second incident damaged an F-117. Russia and allegedly China studied the relatively intact wreckage, which the US military considered too outdated to warrant further action.