The Scary Way a Stealth Fighter Could Be Shot Down
War Is Boring
Security, Asia
Not impossible.
There is a famous series of videos showing experimentation with "selective attention.” Selective attention suggests we focus on certain elements in our environment while other elements disappear into the background. This is the case with the stealth bomber; it disappears into the background of other, higher levels of electronic stimulus. Simply put, the phenomenon of selective attention demonstrates the power of a stealth bomber to delay detection in the current strategic environment.
The entire kill chain for bringing down an invading aircraft is not as easy as the horrific shoot down of flight MH-17 might suggest.
Seventy years ago today, Col. Paul Tibbets flew the Enola Gay on a mission that would change the course of world history and set the stage for the development of nuclear deterrence. The mission itself was straightforward, but the enormous scientific and industrial activity leading up to it was not. The atomic weapon, "Little Boy,” involved a massive industrial effort that is only slightly less difficult today. The development of the B-29 bomber that delivered the bomb was no simple matter either. It required an aircraft that flew higher and faster than any other aircraft could at the time.
(This article originally appeared in 2015.)
The B-29 significantly outmatched opponents, and Japanese Zeros could only bore holes in the sky at a lower altitude as they watched American airpower pass overhead. Even high performance follow-on aircraft to the Zero had difficulty intercepting the capable B-29. The key to the B-29’s success was in understanding the enemy’s capabilities and crafting an aircraft capable of reducing or eliminating the Japanese ability to counter it. This understanding of an enemy’s capabilities and exploiting technology gaps continues over 70 years later with introduction of the next evolution of bomber stealth capability in the Long Range Strike Bomber, or LRS-B.
This first appeared in August 2015.
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