Y Cet. pam a ae prema |COVER STORY Russians Admit Testing F-117 Lost in Yugoslavia DAVID A FULGHUM and ROBERT WALL/MOSCOW ond ZHUKOVSKY, RUSSIA Mystery surrounded the ultimate fate of the aircraft. Now it has resurfaced as a research tool for missile designers en rede coer ECR sms ve cel ha ning inh rte See re eee ees Ge 80 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECIINOLOGYIOCTORER 8, 2001 SrpeebeeeNseslererProminently on display at the Moscow cir show were low-frequency, long renge sur- valance radars, induding this lneup, os well the latest surface-to-ir missile designs. now locate low-signature targets at some- thing near 60 mi, a range great enough fo be “eacially woeful Ths would ine dicate cha the new generation of air de- fense misiles could defend high-va sites against cruise missiles and long-range ‘weapons, but not against stealth aircraft launching long-range seand-off missiles. ‘lthogh Ress har felded » Fll- ‘up, stealth aircraft that could be used in tests of its improved air-to-air and sground-launched air defense missile sys- tems, industry officials said the Russian air force has modified and significantly decreased the radar cross section of at least two tactical aircraft. The “special airerah” with reduced radar reflectivity hhave been made available for the aero space industry’s stealeh and ancistealth development programs Researchers have been testing several ‘components of their air defense systems against those secret rest assets, including the radio-fequency seekers on suface-t air missiles and proximity fuzes. Similar ‘st are being un against the F-117scom- ponents. Data from both is then fed into ‘huge databanks to be used in simulations of clth targets, Using the lying est beds, developers say they have been able to de- tect reduced signacure aitcrafi. The ces data are being ase to produce improved Sensors with increased detection ranges. However, there is a major obstacle ro accelerating development of defense against stealth sizrate and missiles. "We have to simeltecogagerene gine stealth (vehicles}” the first offical sai “Using areal stealth targecand destroying ic is too expensive. We are doing flying ests [agains the modified fighters), bur we not doing firing testing.” ‘Another limitation the researchers are encountering is thatthe test aircraft can ‘only ly a subsonic speeds. While tha per- formance is adequate tobe able to assess an sir-defensesysems performance againsc an F117 or B2, ie work suffice forthe more modern stealth aircraft, such as the F-22, ‘which can fy at more than Mach 2. © ‘y |