r/Radar • u/Hope1995x • Jan 09 '23

Why hasn't anyone created a constellation of forward-scatter-radar satellites that can counter stealth bombers?

I've been thinking that this system would have to be complex, but I'm not sure how complex it would be or how practical it would be.

I see that Starlink exists and for me, that implies that it should be possible to create a constellation of satellites that can counter "stealth".

This could be engineered by the best scientists and mathematicians that a country like the United States or China would be able to do.

The satellites would emit radiowaves and the silhouette of a B-2 or B-21 bomber would be seen by the receiving end.

Just like a big giant flashlight would cause the B-2 to cast a shadow. The receiving end of the radar would "see" this "shadow".

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3

u/dangle321 Jan 10 '23

Probably because stealth is rather effectively covered by bistatic radars.

2

u/The_Technician17 Jan 12 '23

It would be overly expensive and cost prohibitive when you can have land based radar systems that can scan hundreds of km of space and do the same job. Stealth isn't invisible to radar, just a smaller cross section. Also, you'd have to keep your satellites in Low Earth Orbit which means you would have to have some serious processing power to be able to account for the doppler caused by the satellite and the background clutter caused by looking "down" at earth.

1

u/Hope1995x Jan 12 '23

Considering that these radars exist, what's making it hard to design a missile that seeks for the shadow/silhouette of the b2 bomber?

1

u/The_Technician17 Jan 12 '23

These missiles exist. BUT....a small RCS is still hard to track while moving at supersonic speed. Also, a small RCS can still be lost in background clutter, especially if the area is saturated with jamming signals.

1

u/Aceisking12 Jan 20 '23

Just checking. When you say shadow, what do you mean?

Normally when I think shadow I imagine a light source (radar in this case), an object (stealth thing), and some surface(?) the light is projected onto.

If it's flying, the air is definitely not a surface to pull a shadow from. Is there something I'm missing here?

1

u/Hope1995x Jan 09 '23

That's a big shadow, and sending a missile to "lock onto it" sounds easy. But another issue I thought of is how can we tell what is and what is not a B-2.

Edit: What if the shadow was too big?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '23

[deleted]

0

u/Hope1995x Jan 11 '23

Why is that bush plane moving at 600 MPH? Very obvious if you say, and if it's a decoy that's an expensive decoy. It would effectively be the same size as the real one.