Janes Defence,
Stealth technology for aircraft is facing some fundamental changes and challenges. It is no longer a US monopoly, but even the US is having trouble affording a large force of stealthy aircraft.
The US Air Force (USAF) is buying less than a quarter of the number of F-22s it expected to buy in 1991. Stealthy aircraft will be no more than a silver-bullet force until well after 2010, when the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) enters service. There is no argument that stealth is a good thing to have. The question is how much of it is worth paying for.
The JSF is not significantly more stealthy than the F-117, B-2 or F-22. Its approach to stealth mirrors that of the F-22 – which in turn is a one-generation advance over the F-117. Many F-22 shaping features, such as curved wing and tail surfaces and soft edges between facets, might have appeared on the F-117 if the need for that aircraft had not been so urgent. More radical stealthy shapes have been tested – like the DarkStar unmanned air system (UAS) or the Boeing Bird of Prey – but as far as is known none of them has entered service. On the F-22, stealth was combined with speed and agility; the F-35 is planned to combine all three with affordability.
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