Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: How Many B-2's Are Enough ???
Message-ID: <8478@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Jul 89 04:09:37 GMT
References: <8347@cbnews.ATT.COM> <8413@cbnews.ATT.COM> <8445@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)


In article <8445@cbnews.ATT.COM> stevew@wyse.wyse.com (Steve Wilson xttemp dept303) writes:
>>Except the Soviets are way ahead of us in IR technology...
>
>I'm not sure I buy this at all.  We aren't exactly incapable of dealing
>with IR ourselves.  We have a multitude of VERY capable weapons systems
>using IR technology, i.e. Sidewinder, nite vision systems, etc.

But our fighters, in particular, do not carry IR detectors.  Probably
a better statement would be that the US is ahead a bit in the technology,
but the Soviets have a large lead in practical deployment of it.  And
they are likely to keep it.  Some of the ANG units which have recently
switched from older US fighters to modern ones have argued loudly that
the IR detectors from the old fighters should be shifted to the modern
ones, if there's no other way to get IR detectors on them.  No results.

>Secondly, it is my understanding that one of the design parameters of the
>stealth hardware is to muffle the IR signatures of the planes...

The B-2 is probably designed with IR signatures in mind.  One simple aspect
of this is the engine exhausts being above the wing, so you can't see them
from below.  Of course, now that the B-2 is expected to penetrate at low
level rather than 30,000 ft, this particular design decision is a bit
more dubious...  Helicopter designers have for some time been adding
widgets to deflect exhaust gases upward to minimize IR signature downward;
the latest Soviet design deflects the gases DOWNWARD instead, to hide from
IR-equipped fighters above.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu