PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - F-35 Cancelled, then what ?
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Old 26th Mar 2016, 21:43
  #9062 (permalink)  
Mach Two
 
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This forum appears to have turned into a farce. More name calling and school girl squabbling than discussion.

Between the sniping, there seems to be some disagreement about RCS. I think you are trying to make comparisons based on assumptions that are ill-founded. RCS is not an additive process and is far more complicated than you seem to be suggesting. For example, a bare pylon can have a far larger reflectivity than a pylon with an adapter and/or weapon(s) fitted. A thousand pound bomb in freefall does not have the same effective RCS as the same weapon being carried and the effect the weapon has on total RCS depends greatly on the aircraft carrying it due to reflections between the weapon and the airframe.

External carriage certainly makes a huge difference to RCS; if that were not the case, no one would have spent all that time and money working out how to carry everything internally, with all the limitations and complications that brings. But it is almost impossible to speculate the degree of difference any external weapon would make to the total RCS of a VLO aircraft and it is somewhat pointless to try to do so, especially in public and with the attendant squabbling.
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