but surely a low RCS aircraft will be as difficult to detect using such a passive system as it is using normal AD radar systems anyway?

You taking the p**s?

X-band = 8-12 GHz

Medium wave radio = 0.5 – 1.6 MHz

Don’t forget the old mantra “there is nothing invisible to radar below 2 GHz”.

Here is an article claiming that defence against stealth is just around the corner

There are numerous means of effective defence against VLO aircraft.

Just because the stealth-mafia on here don’t realise it, doesn’t make it any less factual.

At BAESYSTEMS the replacement RMPA studies started on the very late 80’s. By 93-94 the favoured solution was FLA (A400M) which was expected to be given the go ahead in 95. But even this was not going to be available in RMPA form until 2005. So the MR2’s had to be O/H to span the gap………. A400M did not start in 95 and the RAF really liked the MR2+ O/H ……….and that’s how MRA4 started.

Ah – I suppose in hindsight, waiting for 400M would have been the right call – but not given projected timescales.

Pity the electronics weren’t of modular design that would fit into an A400M (with relatively few mods).

Its easy to say “just convert an A321” ( I was involved in this study in 92) but in reality its far from easy;

Fair enough – if you were on the study team, I’ll not dispute it as you’d have examined it in far greater depth than me.

Is there any better upcoming tech to replace riviting in airplane manufacturing, in the future? it got alot bad caractaristics…

Oh yes.

Friction Stir Welding and Laser Beam Welding* are two big ones.

The current craze for composite wings may well become a passing fad (at least until there is production capability with Carbon Nano-Fibre infused resin). Right now – a metallic wing built with FSW or LBW would be around as light as a composite wing – without many of the associated issues.

Engine maturity is not the only reason Boeing shelved the 737RS and Airbus went with NEO. 😉

*LBW is already used on A380 – probably also on 787.

This was the impetus and reasoning behind the common Support Aircraft program. The plan was to replace AEW, EA, ES, EW, IFR, COD, ASW, ASUW, etc with a common airframe that supported all the various rolls with little customization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Support_Aircraft

If you had a propfan powered lifting body in a similar (if smaller) vein to the IRKUT DOLPHIN* (albeit with folding wings); you could probably get sufficient cargo in to meet some last mile Army needs too, as well as medi-vac and possible short range civilian freighter (like a slightly bigger version of the Shorts Skyvan).

It would also be a good proving ground for blended-wing-body and propfan studies in Western aerospace.

*warning pdf

Now I want some reason to support such senility and why us didn’t foster something new?

Low speed propulsive efficiency would be a big plus towards turboprop/propfan.

As others have said, endurance ranks far above dash speed for AEW requirements.

RCS is completely a non-issue – it has a honking big radar emitting (or at best, a big dirty housing reflecting) – and the Navy would rather have the enemy direct pot-shots at it than at their billion+ dollar ships.

If you want to predict the future of Navair AEW – think along the lines of turboprop/propfan UAV (or dirigible) with bigger radar than E2, that has extended loiter time relative to E2 and has significantly higher service ceiling than E2.

The data is then put through limited onboard processing before a compressed encrypted stream is sent back to the SAG/CVBG on datalinks where full processing and dissemination of information can occur.

And another nice question is, Was the Berkut used as T-50 testbed?, or the T-50s technologies were tested in the Berkut program?

I would say with absolute certainty knowledge gathered in Berkut will have been carried to PAK-FA.

It is very unlikely that many things above component level will have been carried over though.

By the way, where are the Japanese orders for the A380?

As far as I know, only Skymark with 4 orders is the entire Japanese A380 portfolio.

Air Japan are short haul only – and all (relatively) small twins. Air Nippon are the same.

That leaves (any more I’ve missed) ANA and JAL. JAL are all Boeing. ANA could be the one – but they’ve went down the large twin route so far – scrapping a proposed A380 buy due to weak passenger numbers.

Maybe if the Europeans would allow more Japanese car imports……..hmmmm.

Ye reckon?