Message posted by Q-nimbus (Member since 08/20/2020) on August 25, 2024 at 8:29:11 PST:
I don’t see stealth tankers ever becoming something real - at least not like tankers are now. It’s a nice idea, but there are some issues. First of all, the RCS of two aircraft flying in close proximity is big. Not two times as big as the individual RCS of each aircraft, but multiple times that. So they are not very stealthy, but perhaps there’s a technical solution. Then, tankers have a long, but limited endurance. They need to be based somewhere, and they’re very visible. As soon as some tankers go airborne, your enemy will know, and by following them they will have some idea of what to expect, from which direction, and when. So your enemy will know where to look, and they will be prepared. There’s no real need for a stealth tanker. They might be difficult to spot on radar, but you’ll still know more or less where they are, and what they are up to. That’s for the ‘classical’ tanker aircraft. Now, a small drone tanker that can fill up one or two aircraft? That might very well be a good idea. It will still be very hard to make it very stealthy while tanking, but who knows what they come up with?
In Reply to: Re: Sandboxx: Evidence is mounting that Lockheed Martin’s SR-72 could be in production posted by Ian Curtis on August 25, 2024 at 3:25:54 PST:
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