[PIF]

the rest of the story:
USAF F-35As Flew First-Ever Combat Strikes With Radar Reflectors And Sidewinders Fitted
The F-35As flew in a less than stealthy configuration as the aircraft's low observable capabilities weren't needed - at least not yet.
By Tyler Rogoway April 30, 2019

"The aircraft are clearly seen fitted with AIM-9X air-to-air missiles on their wingtip pylons and radar reflectors bolted on atop and below their fuselages. This gives them a large radar signature, which makes sense as they are operating over areas like Iraq where low-observability isn't an advantage as air superiority is largely assured."

[Vision]

That refueling style seems difficult to pull off. The old basket style makes more sense to me but what do I know about these things.

[Robert A Cook PE]

On the othrr hand, artificially INCREASING a near-stealth aircraft’s radar signature with bolt-on hardware when you don’t need full stealth , but the enemy can see you and the tanker, means you can unholy it quickly .

Didn’t think the usaf could think ahead that way.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"...radar reflectors bolted on atop and below their fuselages."

That sent me looking and I found a Business Insider article from May 2017 that said this this:

The notches, which are called Luneberg reflectors, serve a purpose. The reflectors increase the F-35's radar signature several hundred times over so that a plane that would normally be nearly impossible for civilian air traffic controllers to spot would give off a big, safe blip.

In addition to helping friendly nations spot the stealth jet, the markers on the F-35 may serve another, more military purpose.

In October 2015, days after Russia began its air campaign to bolster Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, national security writer Dave Majumdar wrote in War Is Boring that Russia may have been using its anti-air systems to gather intelligence on the F-22, another US stealth aircraft operating in Syria.

"While it appears the Russians are following their standard doctrine with regard to the deployment/employment of their ground and air assets, it's certainly not out of the question to use their newer air-to-air assets as a form of 'operational testing' in the real-world environment," one senior US Air Force intelligence official told Majumdar at the time. "In a sense, we're doing the same thing with our F-22s."

Russia operates the same ground and air assets in Syria as it does in eastern Europe, near Estonia, where the F-35 recently appeared wearing the radar reflectors.

With the reflectors throwing off and exaggerating the radar cross section of the F-35, the US could be preventing Russia from testing its defenses against the US's newest weapons system.

Interesting..."de-stealth" the plane to prevent the Russkies from reverse-engineering our stealth capabilities and features. Why would we have to do that if President Trump is a Russian Agent? Wouldn't he have given them the designs already? (/s in case you didn't get it)

It's amazing that those tiny protuberances increase the radar visibility HUNDREDS of times.

Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed" tells of the original development of stealth on the A-12, the SR-71 and the F-117. They learned that the smallest hiccup on the surface (like a single rivet protruding too high) of the aircraft was a huge radar reflector.

[Chode]

making it nothing more than a dog and pony show...