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Posted

When the B2 bomber opens up its bomb doors, does it become more visible to radar? 

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Posted (edited)

Yes, the radar cross section is MUCH larger, briefly, not long enough for something like an S400 to lock and and acquire. Not that Iran HAS any more AAA batteries or anything other than light caliber slug throwers, useless at the altitude a B2 would be flying, and no radars left capable of pinging it during that brief moment of "HI!".

The earliest they would likely notice would be, "Abdullah, stop that whistling!"
"But I am not whistling!"
"Then what is making that...uh oh."

Edited by Dapper Dave
oops spelling - I was doing my briefing report at the same time...
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Posted (edited)
47 minutes ago, Dapper Dave said:

Yes, the radar cross section is MUCH larger, briefly, not long enough for something like an S400 to lock and and acquire. Not that Iran HAS any more AAA batteries or anything other than light caliber slug throwers, useless at the altitude a B2 would be flying, and no radars left capable of pinging it during that briefing moment of "HI!".

The earliest they would likely notice would be, "Abdullah, stop that whistling!"
"But I am not whistling!"
"Then what is making that...uh oh."

 

That made me smile :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Buckshot Bear
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Posted

i get the humer of the french surrender , been doing it a long time but there was a time when they were a force to be reconned with , those were times before our american revolution tho , 

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Posted
17 minutes ago, watab kid said:

i get the humer of the french surrender , been doing it a long time but there was a time when they were a force to be reconned with , those were times before our american revolution tho , 

Yep without their assistance there might have been a different outcome to our Revolutionary War. We owe them Gratitude for that. 

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Posted
38 minutes ago, watab kid said:

i get the humer of the french surrender , been doing it a long time

 

It's a completely unearned reputation,  in my opinion,  but still a bit humorous. 

 

It dates only to their collapse in WWII.   And that was combination of French command decision to prepare to refight WWI and rely on fixed fortifications and the German command saying,  "Thank you!" and sucker punching France by simply going around it, through Belgium and the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes.   Grossly over simplified,  but good in the broad strokes. 

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Posted
38 minutes ago, Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L said:

Yep without their assistance there might have been a different outcome to our Revolutionary War. We owe them Gratitude for that. 

my thinking as well , as well as the war of 1812 cin a lesser way , they were an adversary to be retconned with in the pre independence french and indian wars with canada - the indians were more the threat tho , 

 

sadly thats not been the case in later centuries tho , two world wars that they just rolled over in - their resistance forces were good tho  in WWII , 

 

and they can have their statue back if they come get it - i dont care what party is in control - come get it 

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Posted
8 hours ago, watab kid said:

sadly thats not been the case in later centuries tho , two world wars that they just rolled over in - their resistance forces were good tho  in WWII , 

 

 

Sorry, I don't find that remotely fair to France, they lost 4.3 % of their entire population during WWI, twice as much as Great Britain.  The United States lost 0.1 %.  We were and are fortunate to have two large oceans between us and our enemies, preventing us from dealing with the horrors of what our European allies went through.

 

As for WWII the real failure was in their civilian and military leadership and being just as unprepared  as every other Allied country.  I've come across references to French soldiers fighting the Germans and not retreating, knowing they would lose, to cover the evacuation from Dunkirk

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

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Posted
10 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I was looking for a place to put this!

 

Screenshot_20250618_200827_Instagram.thumb.jpg.2ed18fd1b48096bfe80e589a2d750473.jpg

 

One thing I noticed in the pictures from Iran is that ALL of the cars that are identifiable are of French manufacture...and they aren't that old.

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Posted
15 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

When the B2 bomber opens up its bomb doors, does it become more visible to radar? 

And the 509th could win the war...again!  If any nuclear material is left available, it could be turned into a "dirty bomb" smuggled to associated agents who could use it against anybody, anywhere in the world! Just sayin'... Sometimes it is necessary to defacate or abdicate! :unsure:

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Posted
32 minutes ago, Trailrider #896 said:

And the 509th could win the war...again!  If any nuclear material is left available, it could be turned into a "dirty bomb" smuggled to associated agents who could use it against anybody, anywhere in the world! Just sayin'... Sometimes it is necessary to defacate or abdicate! :unsure:

 

I'm actually surprised that a "dirty bomb" hasn't been already deployed.

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Posted

Twelve Iranians died and eighteen were injured today a stampede at a Tehran bingo hall.

Caller yelled out B 2 and everyone ran for the exits.:ph34r:

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Posted

A lot of the book Skunk Works is about the development of the F-117.  During trials they did fly-overs using every piece of radar equipment we had to determine what the radar cross-section looked like.  The thing was pretty much invisible to radar.

 

One day the thing lit up on the radar like it never had before.  Everyone was head scratching.  Back on the ground they found a screw for one of the maintenance panels wasn't seated completely.

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Posted
14 hours ago, Chantry said:

 

Sorry, I don't find that remotely fair to France, they lost 4.3 % of their entire population during WWI, twice as much as Great Britain.  The United States lost 0.1 %.  We were and are fortunate to have two large oceans between us and our enemies, preventing us from dealing with the horrors of what our European allies went through.

 

As for WWII the real failure was in their civilian and military leadership and being just as unprepared  as every other Allied country.  I've come across references to French soldiers fighting the Germans and not retreating, knowing they would lose, to cover the evacuation from Dunkirk

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

ill not argue , i knew i was painting with a broad brush , im not going to bavk away from the actualities of the history , but ill add that none of europe was prepared for hitlers plan , his tactics overwhelmed most anywhere he wanted to go , france could not have been any better prepared than any of the others and i doubt most of europe was thinking t=o revisit the teens that soon , 

 

dunkirk resulted in the activation of the mkV rifles [i had one of they that was complete and matching - 1/20000 originals but 1/very few that were complete originals] that was a perfect example of what i just said - no one was prepared , 

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Posted
17 hours ago, Stump Water said:

A lot of the book Skunk Works is about the development of the F-117.  During trials they did fly-overs using every piece of radar equipment we had to determine what the radar cross-section looked like.  The thing was pretty much invisible to radar.

 

One day the thing lit up on the radar like it never had before.  Everyone was head scratching.  Back on the ground they found a screw for one of the maintenance panels wasn't seated completely.

I am not an expert on radar, but I worked on the B-2, YF-23 and several classified programs having to do with "stealth". As I understand it, radars are changing as fast as stealth. 40 years ago (Damn it doesn't seem like that long ago!) our radar folks were worried about "phased array" radars. Radars that could change frequencies so fast that it could find a frequency that would defeat the stealth ability, even slightly, so the enemy radar was more effective. I retired in 2000, but my company kept my clearance active and I did some work on the F-35 and the B-21 for a few years. It's been about 10 years since I totally left the "Stealth" community and I am sure thing have changed a lot.

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Posted

B-2's headed west toward Guam, apparently to strike... Oops, wait a minute, seven more headed east to strike the designated targets. Aerial tankers refueled them on the way, and apparently some F-22's and F-35's also escorted them.  Of course, we are NOT AT WAR. But the 509th is still winning! :ph34r: And all that was done in almost complete secrecy! :D

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Posted
On 6/20/2025 at 7:05 AM, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

I am not an expert on radar, but I worked on the B-2, YF-23 and several classified programs having to do with "stealth". As I understand it, radars are changing as fast as stealth. 40 years ago (Damn it doesn't seem like that long ago!) our radar folks were worried about "phased array" radars. Radars that could change frequencies so fast that it could find a frequency that would defeat the stealth ability, even slightly, so the enemy radar was more effective. I retired in 2000, but my company kept my clearance active and I did some work on the F-35 and the B-21 for a few years. It's been about 10 years since I totally left the "Stealth" community and I am sure thing have changed a lot.

The frequency hopping and random scanning phased array radar is to defeat electronic jamming.  Frequency hopping is used to counter jamming of RF command & control.  Ukraine uses it in their drones because Russia uses jamming pods to counter Ukraine's RF controlled drones.  The Ukrainians and Russians also use fiber optic comms which can't be jammed.

P.S. Russian S-300 & S-400 radar systems include VHF (looks like 2 meter band) for long range target detection.  These are the ones that have large rotating flat array of folded dipoles in front of a screen. 

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Posted

Bravo to the pilots. 

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Posted

I don't know a thing about radar. Apparently, neither do the Iranians. 

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Posted (edited)

In the late 90’s I had the opportunity to fly the full-motion B-2 simulator at Whiteman AFB. These are used to train and qualify pilots as the airplane is outrageously expensive to fly. Inside the simulator you can’t tell you’re not in the actual plane as the sounds and sensations of flight are the same. The view out the windscreen even had moving vehicles on the aprons.
 

With an instructor pilot looking over my shoulder, I successfully took off and landed. best video game EVER!  😊

 

 

Edited by Abilene Slim SASS 81783
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Posted

Now THAT would have been cool...and probably highly classified, but cool!

Posted
On 6/18/2025 at 11:08 PM, watab kid said:

i get the humer of the french surrender , been doing it a long time but there was a time when they were a force to be reconned with , those were times before our american revolution tho , 

 

As far as WWII is concerned, the average French soldier was no less brave than any other allied soldier. The problem is that their government sold them out. After being abandoned by their leadership, Free French troops fought side by side with other Allied troops. 

 

Significantly more Frenchmen fought with the Allies than for the Axis. 

 

The French Resistance did a lot of damage to the German war machine. Their actions leading up to and during the D-Day landings were critical to the Allied success.

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Posted
9 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

As far as WWII is concerned, the average French soldier was no less brave than any other allied soldier. The problem is that their government sold them out. After being abandoned by their leadership, Free French troops fought side by side with other Allied troops. 

 

Significantly more Frenchmen fought with the Allies than for the Axis. 

 

The French Resistance did a lot of damage to the German war machine. Their actions leading up to and during the D-Day landings were critical to the Allied success.

ill give you both and again i painted with a broad-brush based on the things ive read - i did not live in those times , i do know that the french resistance was nothing to scoff at , they did a great job of behind the scenes subversion , i apoligize for that broad brush statement - to be honest my roots on my mothers ide are  Alsace-Lorraine , they considered themselves german but we always knew there was french infuence , its  why my my grandfather was low german and my grandmother was high german - all about where you were born back them , im mostly scott but i was raised to revere all for who they are today , 

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