Unlocking the Secrets of the Super Hornet: Why the F-18 Is Way Stealthier Than You Thought

let's take a look at how the Super Hornet may be more stealthy than you think and why it's actually an effective Hunter of stealth aircraft there's no disputing it the Boeing fa-18 Super Hornet is the Navy's all-encompassing multi-role tactical aircraft a true Workhorse that serves as a fighter attack reconnaissance and even refueling tanker platform what most people don't realize however is that the Super Hornet arguably makes use of the most extensive radar cross section or RCS reduction measures of any contemporary fighter right after the low observable F-22 Raptor and F-35 lightning making it more stealthy than you might think again I'm not saying the F-18 is as stealthy as an F-35 or F-22 but in certain configurations a Super Hornet can go a long way in reducing its radar signature for example a clean reconnaissance Loadout could be used to employ the Super Hornet as a forward screen to detect stealth Fighters or other Airborne threats at long ranges more on that later and while removing pylons and Ordnance does help lower the RCs somewhat the F-18 actually incorporates Design Elements to reduce its RC just dramatically especially in the forward quarter let's dive in at the most basic level the Super Hornet makes considerable use of panel joint serration and Edge alignment close inspection of the aircraft shows considerable attention is paid to removal or filing of unnecessary surface join gaps and resonant cavities even during routine carrier operations furthermore the previous or Legacy Hornet used grills to cover various accessory Inlet and ducts while the F-18 enf Super Hornets use micro or sedimetric band opaque perforated panels along with this careful attention has been paid to the alignment of many panel boundaries and edges this serves to scatter radar waves away from the aircraft's bore sight another effort that has been made to lower the RCs of the Super Hornet can be found in the air intakes these have been optimized to reduce the RCs by use of s-shaped ducts which lead to the engines by using this curved piping to the turbines the fan blades are hidden from view turbine fan blades represent one of the most prohibitive penalties to RCS as they are nearly perpendicular to the direction of travel of the aircraft Additionally the edge alignment of the inlet leading edges are designed to scatter radiation to the sides reducing the amount of radar emissions that are returned to the interrogating system and in a similar way to the F-117 Nighthawk the Super Hornet uses a fixed intake reflecting structure in the inlet tunnel which keeps microwave illumination off the rotating fan blades many of these design features have been incorporated into the latest version of the Super Hornet the advanced Super Hornet or better known as the block 3 Series block 3 also adds a way for the Super Hornet to carry external stores while still reducing its RCS this is done by using enclosed weapon pods or ewps where one ewp can carry six small diameter bombs two medium range a120 amra missiles or an equivalent Loadout of up to 2 600 pounds per pod before we go any further today's video is brought to you by War Thunder War Thunder is the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made and allows you to play more than 2 000 tanks planes helicopters and ships while battling in Dynamic combined arms battles against other players each vehicle is superbly detailed and modeled down to their individual components offering you a highly immersive combat experience the collection of vehicles in War Thunder is amazing spanning over 100 Years of development from the 1920s through today no matter your skill level or experience War Thunder offers intense PVP battles at various immersion levels for all play Styles and you don't need any special Hardware or expensive controls you can fly any aircraft using nothing more than a mouse and keyboard thanks to the game's intuitive Mouse aim mode you can control interesting Vehicles such as the m42 and I think you'll enjoy seeing and operating these historical vehicles in action the graphics are outstanding especially the fire and smoke effects along with the vehicle details so play War Thunder now and PC Playstation or Xbox when you register using my link you'll get a large free bonus pack that includes multiple premium Vehicles a premium account boosters and more now back to the Super Hornet with all of these RCS lowering features block 3 super Hornets claim a 50 reduction in overall frontal RCS there is also speculation that additional radar absorbing materials or Ram Coatings can be applied for certain Mission profiles but that is classified for obvious reasons along with these significant RCS reductions the block 3 super Hornets take things a step further that make the hornet sting even more deadly the ability to better detect and even track 5th generation stealth Fighters This is done in three major ways first according to Boeing the new infrared search and track or irst pods on the Block 3 Hornets can detect gliders as well as f-117s b2s f-22s and f-35s even in their forward quarter at well over 100 miles this Center Line mounted sensor offers better visibility than other irst platforms that are traditionally mounted in the nose and has understandably been referred to as a stealth equalizer secondly is the newly installed distributed targeting processor networked or dtp n computer which exponentially increases the super Hornet's processing power some estimates claim that the new computer has 17 times more processing power than previous Hornet examples and is said to contain real-time machine learning algorithms so that the mission computer can identify new threats or emissions and catalog them for use by other friendly aircraft and assets this takes us to our third reason the high-speed high bandwidth high throughput and anti-jam Internet Protocol based tactical targeting Network Technology or ttnt datalink this Advanced data link brings 5th generation Communications and Sensor Fusion capabilities to the Super Hornet when these three assets are combined together a pair of block 3 super Hornets can then detect track and lock enemy stealth aircraft well beyond the range of their onboard an EPG 79 Radars the way this would work is as follows a single Super Hornet using irst could detect a stealth aircraft by seeing a hotspot at range but it would just provide a line of sight bearing not the exact range to the Target so the pilot would know the stealth aircraft is out there but would not have a weapons quality track however if we bring in a second block 3 Super Hornet that works with its flight lead these two aircraft can create what is known as a fusion algorithm essentially two lines of bearing from two different sources the advanced computational power of the dtp N can then compute a weapons quality track on the Bandit and fire a long-range air-to-air missile added all while remaining outside the stealth aircraft's detection Zone remember that part of maintaining stealth is to keep Radars in a passive mode so it would be possible that the enemy stealth fighter would not be aware of the super Hornets that are 100 miles out remember that apg-79 radar that the superhorn it uses it turns out that Raytheon The Radars manufacturer has developed a new gallium nitride or Gan based version of the apg-79 known as the apg-79v4 gallium nitride based Radars run much cooler which in turn allow for more electrical power to be run through the radar more power equates to longer range and better tracking so it is possible that the new V4 Radars along with the aforementioned block 3 upgrades will give the Super Hornet an even greater striking power and detection range by using a combination of the extended range of the Gan based radar and the irst sensors stealth aircraft like the Chinese j-20 or Russian su-57 could be detected and tracked at much farther ranges than previously thought possible and lastly structural changes have been Incorporated to give the block 3 Super Hornet an incredible planned service life of 10 000 hours remember that the Navy uses super Hornets in virtually every tactical and even some support roles so those airframes get a lot of wear and tear on them in punishing carrier operations at Sea these new structural changes will allow the super Hornets to operate for decades to come keeping the tip of the spear sharp until the fax or next Generation air dominance or engad fighter becomes operational thanks again to today's sponsor War Thunder play now on PC Playstation or Xbox when you register using MyLink you'll get a large free bonus pack that includes multiple premium Vehicles a premium account boosters and more if you're a fan of the Super Hornet and want to learn how it evolved from the Legacy Hornet I've created an entire playlist of videos all about the F-18 from its humble beginnings as the yf-17 Cobra through today click or tap the thumbnail now to watch the first video in the series now you know

Channel: PilotPhotog

Views: 206,830

Keywords: aviation, flying, photography, aviator, fly, airplane, plane, planes, pilotphotog, avgeek, avgeeks, f-18 hornet, super hornet, block iii, stealth, apg-79, gallium nitride, gan radar, IRST, stealth equalizer, Tactical Targeting Network Technology, ttnt, datalink, 4th generation, 5th generation, Su-57, Russia, China, J-20, mighty dragon, Distributed Targeting Processor-Networked, passive, detection, antistealth, Navy, carrier, service life, airframe, next generation air dominance, YF-17 cobra, development

Id: D3uamsXfzIE

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023