F-117 Secrets & Colors
00jeg...@bsuvc.bsu.edu
F-117 Nighthawk. Two questions which were talked around, but never
addressed directly:
1) The Nighthawk was kept secret for about eight years (an amazing
accomplishment, IMHO) before it was officially revealed. I'm sure
most readers of this group had heard rumors and/or seen pictures
before this, though. But my question is, what prompted the USAF to
finally admit it was flying a stealth aircraft?
2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
potential of _that_ one!
Thanks in advance for any help.
- Grover
jcun...@delphi.com
>1) The Nighthawk was kept secret for about eight years (an amazing
>accomplishment, IMHO) before it was officially revealed. I'm sure
>most readers of this group had heard rumors and/or seen pictures
>before this, though. But my question is, what prompted the USAF to
>finally admit it was flying a stealth aircraft?
* They wanted to start daytime flying, and it would be seen anyway.
* There was some question about the night-flight safety. The two mid-80s
crashes they mentioned were due in part to both the night-only flying and
the highly-classified nature of the program. Stuff I've read over the
years indicated that the pilots were doing large amounts of staff work--
things that other people would do in normal units. In the desire to keep
the program "black" staff was much leaner, meaning more pilot work. It
is thought that the additional work contributed to pilot fatigue, strongly
suspected in at least one of the crashes.
* You can only keep things secret for so long under the best of conditions,
anyway. During the second crash in the 80s, which ocurred on public land,
the USAF immediately sealed the area off, causing all sorts of speculation
and attracting media attention.
* There was, IMHO, a need to declassify they F-117 simply to make it
more usable. Research I've done indicates that the pressing need to keep the
plane secret kept it being used on at least one mission which it would
have been perfect for. But doing so would have made too many people in
the military aware of its existance, so it wasn't used. Also, in keeping
it black it was impossible to integrate the F-117 into the normal
planning structures. I believe that keeping the beast secret at the
expense of not using it for what it was designed for was a bit silly...
but that's just my opinion.
* There were numerous security breaches about the plane, including a
case in which a worker smuggled out drawings in a newspaper to impress
his wife, ex-wife, or girlfriend (can't remember which it was at the
moment). She turned him in :) but who knows who else showed off the
plane... and to whom.
* There were health lawsuits underway about toxics used in the manufacturing
process... in the RAM, I believe. The powers that be weren't sure how
much would be revealed in the proceedings, and the threat to withhold
information due to classification might have had a variety of legal/
security/ethical problems.
Those are some of the reasons that come to mind offhand... there are a
variety of excellent books and articles out there on the F-117,
most notably the book by Bill Sweetman with all sorts of nifty stories.
Jim C.
Jefferson W Steel
wrote:
> 1) The Nighthawk was kept secret for about eight years (an amazing
> accomplishment, IMHO) before it was officially revealed. I'm sure
> most readers of this group had heard rumors and/or seen pictures
> before this, though. But my question is, what prompted the USAF to
> finally admit it was flying a stealth aircraft?
"To integrate it into full tactical training and operations." It would
be kind of hard to do otherwise, since all warfare doesn't stop during
daylight hours. :)
Cheers!
._)eff
Michael Brunk
>2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
>which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
>USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
>familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
>color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
>pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
>read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
>periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
>the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
>potential of _that_ one!
Good question... I just flipped through a book called "Flying Colours"
which is essentially an entire book dedicated to military markings and
colorings from WWI to the '80s.
It says that first, finish is more important than color, i.e. a polished
surface reflects moonlight making detection easier. It then goes on to
say that prior to WWII the British used a grey-green shade called "Nivo"
for night flying. This was changed to a "light absorbing velvety black"
during WWII (also used by the Germans).
Unfortunately the book doesn't mention any post-WWII research into colors
for use at night so we'll have to speculate unless someone who has a
definative answer is reading.
On the subject of pink aircraft, it may be a possibility. The same book
DOES have pictures of British aircraft painted pink used in the
photoreconnaissance role. This particular illustration is of Spitfire PR
X (MD194) as it was painted while assigned to Nos 541 and 542 squadrons,
Benson, Oxon, 1945. Why pink it does not say!
--
=-=-=-=-| Michael E. Brunk * Seattle, WA * mbr...@cyberspace.com |-=-=-=-=-=
Home Page http://www.cyberspace.com/mbrunk
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Mike Campbell
> 2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
> which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
> USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
> familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
> color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
> pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
> read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
> periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
> the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
> potential of _that_ one!
Night operation a/c in WWII used GLOSS black for low visiblility. the
Commonwealth started with matte black. The switch was made because
gloss reflects any light stiking it in many directions, so very little
is reflected towards any one observer, whereas matte absorbs the
light, and the lack of reflection was more noticable, esp in
searchlight beams. (all from memory of reading it somewhere)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mike Campbell, + A cuspide corona
Christchurch, + -From the spear [comes] a crown
New Zealand +
mi...@aloysius.equinox.gen.nz + (Latin proverb)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Urban Fredriksson
>00jeg...@bsuvc.bsu.edu wrote:
>>2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
>>which the narration said was designed for night operations.
I've seen a picture of a grey F-117, and it seemed to be a
single colour (at least the top side).
>>The
>>USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
>>familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
>>color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
>>pastel aircraft."
And for daylight, black is the best *anti*-camouflage
colour.
> It then goes on to
>say that prior to WWII the British used a grey-green shade called "Nivo"
>for night flying. This was changed to a "light absorbing velvety black"
>during WWII (also used by the Germans).
NIVO = Night Invisible Varnish Orfordness, which I think was
invented before 1918. (There were lots of specialised camouflages
during the 1914-18 war, for example a purple to be used at dawn and
dusk.
The "light absorbing" black was intended to counter
searchlights on the ground, top sides were grey and green
on RAF night fighters and grey on Luftwaffe night fighters,
because that was the best camouflage colours at night.
>On the subject of pink aircraft, it may be a possibility. The same book
>DOES have pictures of British aircraft painted pink used in the
>photoreconnaissance role.
The PRU Pink was used on low level flights during overcast
conditions. Sometimes two Spitfires were dispatched, one
blue, one pink, and conditions at the target determined
which would make the photo run, and at what altitude.
One way to go would be to paint the aircraft black, to make
it high visibility during training and overpaint it with
the proper colour for the mission. Another is to make it
some kind of grey, which will be acceptable for practically
all missions.
--
Urban Fredriksson u...@icl.se To get rid of an enemy, make him a friend.
Paul Michael Keller
>F-117 Nighthawk. Two questions which were talked around, but never
>addressed directly:
>
>1) The Nighthawk was kept secret for about eight years (an amazing
>accomplishment, IMHO) before it was officially revealed. I'm sure
>most readers of this group had heard rumors and/or seen pictures
>before this, though. But my question is, what prompted the USAF to
>finally admit it was flying a stealth aircraft?
In addition to Jim C.'s list of reasons, recall that USAF acknow-
ledged the existance of the F-117 immediately before the B-2 rollout.
According to AvLeak, USAF admitted at the time that with the impending
rollout of the more advanced B-2, there was little remaining reason
to keep the earlier generation stealth of F-117 under wraps.
>2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
>which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
>USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
>familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
>color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
>pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
>read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
>periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
>the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
>potential of _that_ one!
According to AvLeak, USAF experimented with comouflage schemes on
the F-117 in order to give it daylight capability. They found
that the distinctive shape of the F-117 made it just too visible,
and since, once it was visually observed it was a sitting duck,
they gave up on it, and it became a night-only platform.
Paul Keller
pke...@engin.umich.edu
brian varine
On Tue, 3 Jan 1995, Urban Fredriksson wrote:
> >On the subject of pink aircraft, it may be a possibility. The same book
> >DOES have pictures of British aircraft painted pink used in the
> >photoreconnaissance role.
>
> The PRU Pink was used on low level flights during overcast
> conditions. Sometimes two Spitfires were dispatched, one
> blue, one pink, and conditions at the target determined
> which would make the photo run, and at what altitude.
The Brits have pink helocopters and pink refueling Nimrods in the
desert. I recall hearing that pink is very good camoflage for the desert.
I think they even call it "desert pink". It must work because they've
painted a few aircraft that way.
Chris Maxfield
: On the subject of pink aircraft, it may be a possibility. The same book
: photoreconnaissance role. This particular illustration is of Spitfire PR
: X (MD194) as it was painted while assigned to Nos 541 and 542 squadrons,
: Benson, Oxon, 1945. Why pink it does not say!
Pink aircraft were also used in desert operations. The Air Force museum
even has a B-24 that is painted pink and appropriatly named "The
Strawberry Bitch."
d...@apache.edu
::2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
::which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
::USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
::familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
::color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
::pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
::read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
::periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
::the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
::potential of _that_ one!
I think they were refering to the colors/camo pattern used by
the Have Blue planes....There is a black and white photo
of the Have blue design with this pattern included with the F117
listing in Pilot Jane's demo tool out on the WEB.
Also, the "pastels" I think are two shades of light/powder blue,
black and while. This pattern was used widely on ships during WWII.
In fact a movie, title escapes me (Murphy's War???), anyways,
A German U-Uboat is painted in this patterm. Apparently, from
a distace, the pattern confuses the eye because it blurs the
shape.
My brain is too fried to remember, but there was a NOVA special
on camoflage several years ago. I forget what this type is called.
If my memory serves me correctly, an artist discovered this technique.
Dan
--
_____/ ______/ _____/ Dan McKenney (d...@iti-oh.com)
_/ _/ _/ International TechneGroup Inc.
_/ _/ _/ 5303 DuPont Circle, Milford, Ohio 45150
_____/ _/ _____/ voice:(800) 783-9199 fax: (513)576-3994
steve hix
:
:Night operation a/c in WWII used GLOSS black for low visiblility. the
:gloss reflects any light stiking it in many directions, so very little
:is reflected towards any one observer, whereas matte absorbs the
:light, and the lack of reflection was more noticable, esp in
:searchlight beams. (all from memory of reading it somewhere)
The matte black tended to scatter whatever light it didn't absorb, while
the glossy finish tended to make more specular reflections.
The matte-finished ones showed a greyish outline of the aircraft against
the dark sky when they were caught in the beams of searchlights.
The glossy ones showed occasional sparkles of light...much harder to see.
Mike Campbell
In WWII the Long Range Desert Group painted their trucks rose-pink and
olive green, which the SAS later adopted. Apparently it made them
near invisible against airborne obsevation.
Conrad P. Drake
>00jeg...@bsuvc.bsu.edu wrote:
>>2) At one point, the show displayed a four(?)-tone gray camoflage,
>>which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
>>USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
>>familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
>>color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
>>pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
>>read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
>>periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
>>the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
>>potential of _that_ one!
>Good question... I just flipped through a book called "Flying Colours"
>which is essentially an entire book dedicated to military markings and
>colorings from WWI to the '80s.
>It says that first, finish is more important than color, i.e. a polished
>surface reflects moonlight making detection easier.
[ more info snipped ]
In Shaw's book on ACM he discusses camoflage in on chapter.
He made the following points regarding colours for a-a detection.
- use a matt finish
- use a non contrasting colour
- use a non outstandinding (ie insipid) colour
So pastel pinks and blue - greys would be great colours for high flying
A/C. Look at the colour of the horizon, esp. near dawn or dusk
Conrad Drake
DeNatale
Kevin Au <k...@haas.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>In article <3ecd2m$2...@ns.oar.net>, d...@iti-oh.com <d...@iti-oh.com> wrote:
>>00jeg...@bsuvc.bsu.edu wrote:
>The first F-117 prototype was also painted in the grey disruptive
>camouflage similar to the Have Blue
For good info on the early F-117 camoflage and colors you HAVE to check
out the current World Airpower Journal. They have a color photo of the Have
Blue, and a color painting of the prototype in camo.
Lots of other good stuff on the F-117 as well.
Rick DeNatale
brian varine
On Wed, 4 Jan 1995, Urban Fredriksson wrote:
> brian varine <var...@ece.orst.edu> writes:
>
> >The Brits have pink helocopters and pink refueling Nimrods in the
> >desert.
>
> The Nimrods are ELINT or maritime reconnaissance and not
> pink but rather Hemp and Camouflage Grey, aren't they?
>
> I can't recall they painting any large aircraft pink during
> Operation Granby, but a couple of years earlier I think
> there was a pink Hercules, as a trial. (Or am I confusing
> it with those they painted different shades of grey to see
> which worked best against a background of concrete?)
Yes the Nimrod is for ASW, but, there is a refueling A/C that looks like one
I just can't remeber the nickname. It was pink and it was in the gulf
when I saw it (just before Desert Storm). There were also a few helo's
flying around that were pink. I can't remeber the type of those either
but they weren't Lynx. I'll go out on a limb and say a Super Puma type of
helo. I'm going to go through my pictures and try to dig some up.
Urban Fredriksson
>The Brits have pink helocopters and pink refueling Nimrods in the
>desert.
The Nimrods are ELINT or maritime reconnaissance and not
pink but rather Hemp and Camouflage Grey, aren't they?
I can't recall they painting any large aircraft pink during
Operation Granby, but a couple of years earlier I think
there was a pink Hercules, as a trial. (Or am I confusing
it with those they painted different shades of grey to see
which worked best against a background of concrete?)
Kevin Au
The British painted many, many of their planes used in Operation Granby
"Desert Pink". Even two of the Tristar tankers were painted pink.
Practically all of their helicopters, (Army Lynxes, Chinooks, Pumas, Sea
Kings) were painted pink also. All their Tornado IDS, Jaguars, and
Buccaneers were painted pink also. There was also a pink C-130.
Aircraft in the Hemp scheme (Victors, VC-10s, Nimrods) remained in that
scheme. The two pink Tristars were nicknamed Pinky and Perky.
Kevin Au
>00jeg...@bsuvc.bsu.edu wrote:
>
>the Have Blue planes....There is a black and white photo
>of the Have blue design with this pattern included with the F117
>listing in Pilot Jane's demo tool out on the WEB.
>
The first F-117 prototype was also painted in the grey disruptive
camouflage similar to the Have Blue's.
>Also, the "pastels" I think are two shades of light/powder blue,
>black and while. This pattern was used widely on ships during WWII.
The scheme consists of four or five shades of brownish grey to blue grey
of the types commonly used on Navy Aggressor planes.
T.M.Haddock
>00jeg...@bsuvc.bsu.edu wrote:
[snip]
>Also, the "pastels" I think are two shades of light/powder blue,
>black and while. This pattern was used widely on ships during WWII.
>In fact a movie, title escapes me (Murphy's War???), anyways,
>A German U-Uboat is painted in this patterm. Apparently, from
>a distace, the pattern confuses the eye because it blurs the shape.
Also helps to distort perceived distance to hamper target ranging.
TRAVIS
David Marritt
> In WWII the Long Range Desert Group painted their trucks rose-pink and
> olive green, which the SAS later adopted. Apparently it made them
> near invisible against airborne obsevation.
I think they discovered by accident that pink undercoat paint was an
effective camo. The SAS paint(ed) landrovers this colour, these were
vehicles were known as pink panthers. When the Jaguars began deploying
to the gulf one of their pilots appeared on a news bulletin and
referred to their colour scheme as 'pink panther'.
David Marritt
d...@hind.demon.co.uk
DANA-CHRISTENE UMANETZ
>::which the narration said was designed for night operations. The
>::USAF asked that this be changed to the all-black scheme we are all
>::familiar with. An interviewee said, "Of course this is not the best
>::color for remaining undetected at night, but real men do not fly
>::pastel aircraft." So, what _is_ the best color? Pastel? I have
>::read several accounts of US submarines having the tops of their
>::periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
>::the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
>::potential of _that_ one!
>I think they were refering to the colors/camo pattern used by
>the Have Blue planes....There is a black and white photo
>of the Have blue design with this pattern included with the F117
>listing in Pilot Jane's demo tool out on the WEB.
>In fact a movie, title escapes me (Murphy's War???), anyways,
>A German U-Uboat is painted in this patterm. Apparently, from
>a distace, the pattern confuses the eye because it blurs the
>shape.
>My brain is too fried to remember, but there was a NOVA special
>on camoflage several years ago. I forget what this type is called.
>If my memory serves me correctly, an artist discovered this technique.
Is it possible that the "pastel" motive could be an experiment implementing a
design by Keith Ferris on a paint scheme to cause altitude deception. The
design features two colours which meet in a sawtooth pattern [difficult to
show with a keyboard but look at this W and you get an idea of the demarcation
lines. Why this would be applied to the F-117 is beyond me because if it has
to dogfight it's likely a dead duck anyway. Maybe they wanted to explore every
possible advantage.
Troy "Corsair" Fokker
co Dana Umanetz the incredible typist [who would refuse to ever agree with
anything I would think whether it was correct or not]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dana-Christene Umanetz duma...@calumet.yorku.ca yu13...@yorku.ca
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I waited all day. you waited all day.. but you left before sunset..
and I just wanted to tell you, the moment was beautiful.
Just wanted to dance to bad music, drive bad cars..watch bad TV..
should have stayed for the sunset... if not for me. -E.V-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: i don't speak for york university & they don't speak for me..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
DANA-CHRISTENE UMANETZ
>>periscopes painted pink during WWII to reduce visibility. Could
>>the ideal have been a _pink_ F-117? The mind reals at the joke
>>potential of _that_ one!
>On the subject of pink aircraft, it may be a possibility. The same book
>DOES have pictures of British aircraft painted pink used in the
>photoreconnaissance role. This particular illustration is of Spitfire PR
>X (MD194) as it was painted while assigned to Nos 541 and 542 squadrons,
>Benson, Oxon, 1945. Why pink it does not say!
On the subject of pink aircraft I may have the reasoning of this. I could also
be very wrong but here goes. I saw a PBS special on camo. It discussed the
importance of a certain level of brightness to literally wash the aircraft
into the sky. What sub-killing planes used to do was fly with lights attached
to various parts of the plane where feasible. The lights had a particular
intensity that matched the sky. In other words, Captain U-Boat would look up
in the sky but not see the black spot in the sky. All of a sudden, suprise
"death from above."
I know this sounds like I'm on crack but they showed a demonstration. They
showed a tank parked on a hill against the sky. Yes, I could see it clearly,
even from a distance. Then they errected a grid with many of these lights on
it in front of the vehicle [crude just for demonstration purposes]. The lights
didn't make it disappear, but from the same great distance it was difficult to
pick up. If I was scanning the area unaware of its presence I may have missed
it.
It's difficult to mount these lights on a high-performace fighter so maybe
this shade of pink was found to have the same wash-out intesity of the lights.
This would also apply to the submarine periscopes. Like the tank I saw, it
would possibly blend into the sky [and maybe the sea as well since it would be
reflecting the light from the sky].
Troy "Corsair" Fokker
co Dana Umanetz the incredible typist [who would never endorse my opinions
even if I offered her cash]
Ralph Jones
>On the subject of pink aircraft I may have the reasoning of this. I could also
>be very wrong but here goes. I saw a PBS special on camo. It discussed the
>importance of a certain level of brightness to literally wash the aircraft
>into the sky. What sub-killing planes used to do was fly with lights attached
>to various parts of the plane where feasible. The lights had a particular
>intensity that matched the sky. In other words, Captain U-Boat would look up
>in the sky but not see the black spot in the sky. All of a sudden, suprise
>"death from above."
That was called Project Yehudi, after a big-band tune called "Who's Yehudi?"
which dealt with a little man who wasn't there. The demo was very convincing
indeed. Presumably it would only work when the angular size of the aircraft
was less than the resolution of the eye; I don't know if it actually produced
operational results. rj
John Black
Mike Campbell <mi...@aloysius.equinox.gen.nz> wrote:
>
>In WWII the Long Range Desert Group painted their trucks rose-pink and
>olive green, which the SAS later adopted. Apparently it made them
>near invisible against airborne obsevation.
>
>
The story I heard (could be apocryphal) how it was discovered that pink is a good
desert camouflage is as follows. In WWII during desert operations a plane crashed
Pilots operating over the desert used this as a land mark to navigate by.
Then one day the plane apparently vanished. This perplexed people and a patrol
was sent out to investigate. They found the plane, but discovered that the
outer most coat of paint had been eroded away (presumably by the action of sand
in sand storms). This had left the undercoat, which was pink.
It was realised that pink was good desert camouflage, and the rest is history.
John Black.
d...@apache.edu
::On the subject of pink aircraft I may have the reasoning of this. I could also
::be very wrong but here goes. I saw a PBS special on camo. It discussed the
::importance of a certain level of brightness to literally wash the aircraft
::into the sky. What sub-killing planes used to do was fly with lights attached
::to various parts of the plane where feasible. The lights had a particular
::intensity that matched the sky. In other words, Captain U-Boat would look up
::in the sky but not see the black spot in the sky. All of a sudden, suprise
::"death from above."
::I know this sounds like I'm on crack but they showed a demonstration. They
::showed a tank parked on a hill against the sky. Yes, I could see it clearly,
::even from a distance. Then they errected a grid with many of these lights on
::it in front of the vehicle [crude just for demonstration purposes]. The lights
::didn't make it disappear, but from the same great distance it was difficult to
::pick up. If I was scanning the area unaware of its presence I may have missed
::it.
::It's difficult to mount these lights on a high-performace fighter so maybe
::this shade of pink was found to have the same wash-out intesity of the lights.
::This would also apply to the submarine periscopes. Like the tank I saw, it
::would possibly blend into the sky [and maybe the sea as well since it would be
::reflecting the light from the sky].
I saw that too! That was amazing....That program is also where I saw
the pastel color patterns . A real neat program.
-- Dan
brian varine
On 11 Jan 1995, Alvin Law wrote:
> In article <thomsonaD...@netcom.com> thom...@netcom.com (Allen Thomson) writes:
>
> > Quite true. The easiest stealth at optical or radar wavelengths
> > is reflective stealth, as witness the F-117 and its sea-going
> > counterpart, the Sea Shadow. Absorptive stealth is hard to do, at least
> > in bulk, without leaving an annoying diffusely reflecting component.
> > Reflective-over-absorptive is, as they figured out 50 years ago,
> > probably the best combination.
>
> Speaking of the stealth ship, is that beast radar-stealth,
> sonar-stealth, or both?
>
> --
> "And this is all I have to say about that..." - F. Gump
Well it's built on a SWATH (Small Water Area, Twin Hull) platform. Only
two parts of the ship are under water and they are small parts. The
advantage is its quiet anSWATH platform. They're pretty quiet and a real
stable. So, it's pretty stealth for Sonar apps. Ever hear of
Prarie/Masker? Most Navy comabatants have it. It puts little bubbles out
that kind of shield the hull from water. Those ships are REAL quiet. It
also blows bubbles out through the props.