j_hungary
Professional
Stealth is not that you can't see them in Radar, stealth is basically lowering their emission and having the signature mimic something else. Like a plane can be disguised as a bird if you limit its emissions.The F-35's infrared signature is optimized to delay medium/long range detection. This means it is vulnerable at short range. The idea is to dissipate / disperse heat quickly by mixing the hot exhaust with ambient cold air so an IR receiver at 60 miles can't see those emissions. However, this makes it very visible at short range a design trade off since the F-35 isn't meant to get close to the enemy.
Problem is, if you know, from experience, that is where that stealth fighter is going to appear, because either they repeat the same route or you have prior information knowing this will happen, then you can lock into it regardless of range, because you will know that is not a bird, that was a fighter jet, and you can lock on it
by the way, that is how they shot down the F-117 back in Bosnia







