Posted on 01/05/2002 4:14:44 PM PST by knak
UNITED STATES defence chiefs may have to review their strategy for phase 2 of the war after it emerged that Baghdad could have acquired a radar system capable of detecting America's multi-billion-pound fleet of stealth bombers.
The radar is believed to be the same Czech-built type used by Serb forces to shoot down a US F117 Nighthawk stealth bomber and seriously damage another during the war in Kosovo in 1999.
US intelligence chiefs believe that Iraqi generals attempted to buy a system for £176 million from the Czech Republic in 1997 but the deal collapsed after it was exposed by the CIA.
The Telegraph, however, has learnt that after the closure of the Czech defence company Tesla-Pardubice in 1998, two of its Tamara radar systems, which Iraq wanted to acquire, "disappeared", and might have been acquired by rogue arms traders working for Baghdad.
A former employee of the company said last night: "Tesla-Pardubice closed in 1998. It had two radar systems that had not been sold but they have disappeared. Nobody knows where they are."
Rob Hewson, the editor of Jane's Air Launched Weapons, said the weight of circumstantial evidence indicated that Iraq had probably acquired a radar system capable of "seeing" stealth bombers.
He said: "The Pentagon is faced with the prospect that Iraq may have a system that can see stealth bombers and they are very, very worried."
The disclosure is likely to affect the next stages of the war against terrorism and influence whether the US decides to carry out a full-scale attack against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Last week it emerged that stocks of US air-launched cruise missiles had been virtually exhausted after attacks on Kosovo and Sudan, further hampering Pentagon plans for an attack against Iraq.
The B2 stealth bomber and the F117 stealth fighter both played vital roles in the Kosovan and Afghan wars and, together with the mass use of cruise missiles, they are part of a crucial first phase of US attack plans.
Such is the sensitivity surrounding stealth aircraft that even the mere suggestion that an enemy power may have the capability to detect or shoot one down is enough to ground the 20-strong fleet.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defence, said: "It stands to reason that Iraq would want to get its hands on a radar system capable of detecting stealth bombers.
" In the Gulf war, it was the early F117 attacks that put most of their air defence systems out of commission. But we don't know whether they have such a system at the moment."
The Czech radar system uses passive detection to pick up electronic emissions from stealth aircraft.
A spokesman for the Czech Embassy confirmed that when the company went bankrupt in 1998 it still had at least two Tamara systems, but he refused to comment on whether they had disappeared.
The B2 stealth aircraft is painted with a substance that absorbs radar waves, producing an image on a radar screen the size of a large marble. The Serb forces, however, demonstrated what can be achieved by being able to detect stealth aircraft.
During the Kosovo conflict, the Serbs are believed to have plugged powerful computers into their air-defence radar system that help to reveal the flight paths from the faint stealth radar signatures.
When a stealth bomber was suspected to be flying through their area they saturated the sky with missile and heavy machine-gun fire and managed to shoot one down.
Osama bin Laden has been named Iraq's Man of The Year, according to the official Iraqi press, because of the way in which he has "raised the image of Islam and defied the might of the USA".
They should call it the B-117 or something! ;)
I am sure the penalty in France for that is assignment to a desk and access to more intel.
The F-117 was most likely downed by an SA-3, not AAA. The British successfully tracked F-117's using low band search radar on their ships in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm. The F-117 has always been able to be detected by low band radars.
That would be the United States Air Force mission planners in Aviano.
Belgrade got NATO attack plans from Russian spy
Stealth fighter was downed by meticulous Serb ambush after allied secrets were sold
"A SPY within NATO's command structure passed on top secret information about the organization's military operations during the war in Kosovo to Russian intelligence services, NATO sources have told The Scotsman.
The leaked information was passed direct to Belgrade. It included detailed flight plans for a bombing raid by United States air force stealth fighter-bombers over Serbia, which allowed the Yugoslav forces to intercept and shoot down one of them.
The F-117A Nighthawk was ambushed in the first days of the allied air campaign in March. It was the first NATO aircraft lost in the conflict and a propaganda coup for President Milosevic's regime.
According to a senior NATO official, the operational details of the mission were given to Russian intelligence services by a military officer attached to NATO. The Russians passed them on to Belgrade, giving details of the target, the defence research base at Budjanovci, north-west of Belgrade.
The agent responsible for the leak is not the French army major arrested last October for suspected spying offences at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He was released without charge earlier this week.
It is understood that NATO officers arrested the second military officer, also attached to the organization, shortly after the F-117A was shot down. He is still being detained although his arrest has remained secret and is believed to be subject to rules of military law.
[snip]
They ended up in a laboratory in Russia.
AvWeek: Russians Admit Testing F-117 Lost in Yugoslavia
By David A. Fulghum and Robert Wall/Aviation Week & Space Technology
05-Oct-2001 2:36 PM U.S. EDT
MOSCOW and ZHUKOVSKY, RUSSIA -- Russian officials admit for the first time they are using remains from the U.S. Air Force stealth fighter shot down over Yugoslavia to improve the ability of their air defense systems to detect and kill stealth aircraft.
Also as part of the effort, designers say a small number of Russian tactical aircraft have been upgraded with locally produced, low-observable modifications to further test and improve their surface-to-air missile (SAM) designs.
Acknowledging that researchers had access to the remains of the F-117 strike aircraft shot down in 1999 during the Kosovo air campaign, a senior Russian aerospace official said, "Yes, of course. We've been able to test our system against the broken pieces."
BUT THE FIND IS PROVING somewhat less than a Rosetta stone to unlocking the secret of targeting stealthy aircraft. Because only sections of the F-117 survived intact, "we haven't been able to model the entire [low-observable bomber]," the official conceded. "It's not the same as testing against an undamaged F-117. You provide us with a complete stealth aircraft and then we'll tell you how effective we are against it."
One of the problems engineers face with having the F-117 parts is that they can't accurately determine how radar energy is dissipated over the entire aircraft.
Furthermore, the faceted stealth design of the F-117 won't necessarily provide many clues to how best to defeat the stealth designs on the B-2 or the F-22. These aircraft use different materials and handle radar energy differently.
Even so, the F-117 analysis represents only a portion of Russia's antistealth efforts. Experts also have been pursuing other ways to fine-tune their air defense missile systems to stop attacks by small stealthy cruise missiles (a problem that also has riveted U.S. researchers and military planners) and stealth aircraft.
A second prominent Russian expert said that his project development team can now locate low-signature targets at something near 60 mi., a range great enough to be "tactically useful." That would indicate that the new generation of air defense missiles could defend high-value sites against cruise missiles and long-range weapons, but not against stealth aircraft launching long-range stand-off missiles.
Although Russia hasn't fielded a full-up, stealth aircraft that could be used in tests of its improved air-to-air and ground-launched air defense missile systems, industry officials said the Russian air force has modified and significantly decreased the radar cross section of at least two tactical aircraft. The "special aircraft" with reduced radar reflectivity have been made available for the aerospace industry's stealth and antistealth development programs.
Researchers have been testing several components of their air defense systems against those secret test assets, including the radio-frequency seekers on surface-to-air missiles and proximity fuzes. Similar tests are being run against the F-117's components. Data from both is then fed into huge databanks to be used in simulations of stealth targets. Using the flying test beds, developers say they have been able to detect reduced signature aircraft. The test data are being used to produce improved sensors with increased detection ranges.
However, there is a major obstacle to accelerating development of defense against stealth aircraft and missiles. "We have to simulate engagements against stealth [vehicles]," the first official said. "Using a real stealth target and destroying it is too expensive. We are doing flying tests [against the modified fighters], but we not doing firing testing."
Another limitation the researchers are encountering is that the test aircraft can only fly at subsonic speeds.
While that performance is adequate to be able to assess an air-defense system's performance against an F-117 or B-2, it won't suffice for the more modern stealth aircraft, such as the F-22, which can fly at more than Mach 2.
Aviation Week & Space Technology is a publication of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Copyright 2002 ©AviationNow.com All Rights Reserved.
Except when it is actually dropping its bombs. The open bomb bay and the bomb itself are a big radar signature that seemingly appears from nowhere. If it is true that they were flying the same route night after night then the missile crews could wait for this indicator and nail it at that point.
Not so. The B-2 is a subsonic plane. The B-1 can fly faster.
Flight path repeated or not this passive radar has a good chance to succeed from all that is known about Tamara.
They really made their bones tank plinking during the Gulf war.
I had heard something about them being fazed out.
Is this true?
He said: "The Pentagon is faced with the prospect that Iraq may have a system that can see stealth bombers and they are very, very worried."Oh, yeah. I'm sure they're panicking at the Pentagon. Hiding beneath their desks or dashing willy-nilly through the corridors. Yelling. Shrieking. Gibbering unintelligibly. Tearing at their suits and uniforms. Tossing files and papers and binders into the air. That sort of thing.
Try long shot...if the operators do not know "where" and more importantly [for their own survival] "when" to look...
...they have no chance at all.
Then simultaneously to the bombing campaign... dump MILLIONS of dollars into training the insurgents to the north and south... and put out a reward for the leadership.. dead or alive... apply the tourniquet to their supply lines.. and invade at about 8 weeks. This time use tactical nukes on all resistance... to make sure that the killers watching from the other nations get the message.
The USA is terrible and merciless in warfare... and great, kind and boundless in mercy on those who seek peace and freedom. Apply the proceedure consistantly for 50 years and birth a pax americana, for the next millenium. God will thank us for it. So will our fellow man.
bye bye sadaam. time to meet Jesus.
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