“Stealth” is better termed as “signature management”.
That signature, for the past history of A2A combat”, has been defined as RCS due to radar being the primary A2A sensor. For this reason RCS reduction techniques have been at the forefront of signature management work over the past few decades.
Now, radars of longer wavelengths (ie L-band, UHF, etc) are being deployed to counter RCS shaping efforts. To counter this, manufactures have turned to RAM that is specifically designed with these wavelengths in mind (see LM’s RAM US patents).
For the most part, the fight against detection has been a passive one, ie shaping and RAM. This may change as computing power catches up with the idea of active cancellation.
On the other end of the spectrum, optical sensors are touted as a solution to the RCS issue. The problem with these is that they are very limited in range and are heavily weather limited.
There is just so many different aspects of this issue, ie “signature management”, that it is impossible to cover them all here. What can be said, however, is that the airborne game of hide & seek will constantly swing back and forth as A hides from B then B gets a better sensor then A finds a way to blind the sensor, etc, etc.
The quest for better “signature management” will never go away, it will just take newer, more complex forms.
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