Stealth aircraft

[greycat]

I've read that stealth aircraft are much more easily detected if they carry external stores, or when they open their bomb-bay doors. (Allegedly the F-117 shot down over the former Yugoslavia was detected due to the latter.)

Does anyone know if either of these factors modelled in CMANO?

Thanks.

[bartcbem]

Hi, to my knowledge and experience in CMANO yes, if you put external storage on to for example F-35/F-22 it will be more visible/vulnerable to enemy sensors.
Not 100% sure about opening the bomb doors factor, pretty sure other users can confirm/deny if this is modeled.

[DWReese]

I agree with your observations concerning the external stores and the bay doors.

With no "real" direct evidence to support it, I do believe that the game does model an increase in signature when carrying external stores, etc.

I'm not sure that it does increase the signature if the bay doors briefly opened in order to release ordinance. That may/might be difficult to do, and I'm not sure that it is THAT necessary. But, considering how much detail the developers put into this game, it really wouldn't surprise me if they DID include that brief increase in signature after all.

The developers of this game never cease to amaze me. They are great!

Doug

[Gunner98]

This article describes how the F-117 was shot down in Yugoslavia and supports the bomb-bay doors theory. I think there has been enough time and investigation of this one to believe the story.

My experience in the game is that a sure fire way of getting your F-35 shot at is to release weapons, so I cannot say for certain, but I do believe this is modeled in the game.

B

[FTBSS]

I have tested this and yes external stores (including conformal fuel tanks) add to the RCS of stealth aircraft, I do not think open weapons bays are modeled.

[DWReese]

I have tested this and yes external stores (including conformal fuel tanks) add to the RCS of stealth aircraft, I do not think open weapons bays are modeled.

I have been running some tests today on this topic and my findings match your conclusion as well.

The RCS of a unit that had external pods/weapons did increase the RCS of the unit, but the momentarily release of internal stores via the opening of a bomb-bay door did not.

This is as expected, and probably as it should be as far as programming goes. If it really did have a momentary increase, then the developers outdid themselves once again. <lol>

Doug

[greycat]

Thanks for all the feedback. As always, I am impressed by the phenomenal attention to detail in this fine game![&o]

[Zanthra]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

...

My experience in the game is that a sure fire way of getting your F-35 shot at is to release weapons, so I cannot say for certain, but I do believe this is modeled in the game.

B

This could be more related to identification than detection. A stealth aircraft may be detected, but NCTR may not be able to identify it as it would with other aircraft. With weapons tight ROE, they won’t shoot until it’s hostile. Releasing weapons will often identify a detected target as hostile then they will fire weapons at it.

[Gunner98]

more related to identification than detection.

A very good point! Hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks