[JimRed]

Bingo! Stealth technology is not that difficult, and may have been retrofitted on older aircraft (a skin of radar absorbent material, diffusion screens over turbine blades, etc.). You'd still get them on radar eventually, they'd just get a whole lot closer, maybe within cruise missile range.

[JimRed]

Assuming, that is, that the information is accurate.

[mad_as_he$$]

No way a Tu-160 is stealthy in any way. It has a RCS of a billboard. Those counter rotating props would light up my radar detector in my SUV!

[Zhangliqun]

Bingo! Stealth technology is not that difficult, and may have been retrofitted on older aircraft (a skin of radar absorbent material, diffusion screens over turbine blades, etc.). You'd still get them on radar eventually, they'd just get a whole lot closer, maybe within cruise missile range.

There's more to stealth technology than just the material. The shape of the plane matters a lot too. Note how angular and awkward the stealth planes like the F-117 and to a lesser degree, the F-22 are. Their surfaces are designed to not be round to guarantee that the radar signals are deflected away from the source.

Besides, retrofitting a Bear with stealth material would make it so heavy that it probably wouldn't even have the range to do this, at least not with any worthwhile payload.

For stealth technology to work effectively, the plane has to be built from the ground up as a stealth plane.