I mean, no stealth aircraft is truly invisible, or the pilots and maintenance men wouldn't be able to see them either. These days, machine vision has improved to the point that if a human can see them, a properly-trained computer likely can too. Set up a network of drones with cameras, and anything less than perfect optical camouflage is going to be of limited value. Radar isn't the only thing you have to worry about anymore.

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

This is known as "optronics" in military applications, FWIW. I don't know if anyone is using it for target discovery yet, but optronic guidance to a known target is a thing.

Radar is nice in that it and works under all kinds of conditions (like through clouds) and can have very long range, but there definitely are other sensors that are making their way onto the battlefield. Passive audio sensors have been a huge success in Ukraine, for example. Sending out an radar pulse also draws all the wrong kind of attention.

6th gen fighters probably won't bother with anything except hiding at this rate, and the battlefield might be so transparent by then nobody will make a 7th. The "blue skies" will just be where various unmanned projectiles pass through.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I think most people know Stealth to mean invisible to Radar, not to the human eye. The F35 is obviously going to be seeable once you have human eyes on it. The idea is targeting systems and long range equipment would not pick it up. But Iran has proved that to be false it seems.

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

No, the engineers knew it would be visible like anything else, because they're not completely stupid. A lot of stuff still relies on radar, though, and other frequencies and tools can have limitations, like in range or "does-it-work-in-rain". Consider how many F-35s made it over Iran safe and sound.

Presumably they're as sneaky as possible in other ways as well, although at some point it's still a jet plane.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

I think you missed the comment I replied to