Every now and then, a story will come up about a few commercial flights who cross path with a stealth aircraft like the B2. I'm just wondering, since B2 is stealthy and most certainly won't appear on air traffic control radar. And the stealth aircraft will be flying in radar silence mode. How will they avoid collision with the airliners if they happen to cross into a busy airspace?
Stealth Aircraft Operation
- Thread starter Pendekar
- Start date
Here's one way they do it when flying in civilian / friendly airspace.
The Luneberg lens is a passive radar augmentation device used to increase the radar reflectivity of a target without the use of
Todjaeger
Potstirrer
For starters, the term more often used is LO for Low Observable. This is due at least in part because people have all sorts of misconceptions about what 'stealth' is.
Now for B-2 operations, what they are doing is going to depend on what the mission is, and where they are while in flight.
Generally speaking, the only times a B-2 would be operating in 'busy' or congested air space is either when overflying the US, or the strike target is completely surrounded by congested air space or is in an area of congested air space.
When flying over the US, the B-2 is not going to operating under EMCON and as AD mentioned, there is a special reflector designed to increase the RCS of an aircraft which the B-2 would extend. After that, once the B-2 switches to operating under EMCON, the B-2 would fly an ingress and ergress route mapped out to be away from most air traffic routes, as well as in areas of minimal radar and other sensor coverage. Given that the B-2's operate either from the continental US or Guam, much of the time the B-2 would be over open ocean, and there are vast areas which see little regular air traffic.
-Cheers
While operating in US/ICAO airspace they will be on an instrument flight plan (required above 10,000 ft msl) pure and simple. Like any aircraft that does operate on an instrument flight plan they will have a transponder. The transponder automatically responds to radar interrogation. ATC (air traffic control) will provide the crew with a discrete squawk code which the aircrew inputs into their transponder. When the transponder replies to radar interrogation it provides the squawk code and altitude of the aircraft. Since it is pinged every 5 to 10 seconds the ATC radar can track it's course. Ultimately the controller will see on his display the squawk code, heading, airspeed and altitude. While operating in an actual tactical environment, the transponder will either be put into to standby or IFF which only replies to and with a secure code. ATC is responsible for providing minimum seperation clearance for aircraft on instrument flight plans, they may or may not provide associated aircraft with traffic advisories, most likely not when the presence/proximity of the associated aircraft are not a factor due to horizontal and or vertical seperation.
The reflectors are used primarily when the aircraft are operating in restricted areas/moa,s etc where they are not required to be on a flight plan and civil aviation is otherwise permitted to operate.
The reflectors are used primarily when the aircraft are operating in restricted areas/moa,s etc where they are not required to be on a flight plan and civil aviation is otherwise permitted to operate.
2007yellow430
Active Member
Very accurate except the the instrument flight plan in the USA becomes mandatory when in class A airspace, which starts at 18,000 and goes to 60,000
Art
Good catch I was typing faster than I was thinking.
Class B goes up to 10,000, Class A is 18,000 to 60,000. Aircraft operating in Class A airspace are operating IFR....
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2007yellow430
Active Member
A friend of mine used to think it was funny when he'd ask for clearance to decend for landing or fuel. They cruised at 80k 2.3 Mach. Sr71 pilot.Good catch I was typing faster than I was thinking.
Art
I was in the O club (back when they had such things) at Eglin years ago and a Blackbird crew was there holding court. Someone asked if it would really go mach 3 and the reply was "I can't say". Next it was asked if it could do mach 4 and again the reply was an "I can't say". Finally mach 5 was thrown out and one of the crew exlaimed "nothing goes mach 5!". As cool as that aircraft is, that mission has to be as exciting as those flown by JSTAR and most other herbivores.
2007yellow430
Active Member
But the view is incomparable.
I'm in the skunkworks email distrib group - basically its comprised of ex habu pilots and maintainers. By a quirk of fate (AOC membership helped) I was added to the group about 6 years ago.
Everytime a war story hits the open press you get some guarded commentary from one of the ex operators, they never embellish, they only qualify "after" the facts.
there's been some hairy stories about overflights into chinese and soviet airspace - always "light" on detail though....
One of my most memorable trips into the US was seeing an SR71 close up. Went with Wookie and his boys for a day trip. Crapped me right off when I discovered that all my shots of the day came to nought. Damn roll cameras....
Everytime a war story hits the open press you get some guarded commentary from one of the ex operators, they never embellish, they only qualify "after" the facts.
there's been some hairy stories about overflights into chinese and soviet airspace - always "light" on detail though....
One of my most memorable trips into the US was seeing an SR71 close up. Went with Wookie and his boys for a day trip. Crapped me right off when I discovered that all my shots of the day came to nought. Damn roll cameras....
John Fedup
The Bunker Group
Here is a link to a new research paper about the consequences of drone operations. If there is a better thread for this feel free to move this comment.
The Consequences of Drone Proliferation: Separating Fact from Fiction by Michael C. Horowitz, Sarah E. Kreps, Matthew Fuhrmann :: SSRN
The Consequences of Drone Proliferation: Separating Fact from Fiction by Michael C. Horowitz, Sarah E. Kreps, Matthew Fuhrmann :: SSRN