Unique technologies have long existed in Russia, with the help of which the "visibility" of any moving objects, from an airplane to a car, can be significantly reduced.
It's all about the plasma generators, which, enveloping the cloaked object, makes it invisible for the radiation of radars. Even the oldest and cheapest fighter equipped with a plasma generator will leave behind the much-publicized and insanely expensive American F-117 and B-2 aircraft.
“We made a decision to make“invisibles”using technologies based on fundamentally different physical principles,” said the director of the V. I. Keldysh Anatoly Koroteev. According to him, if a plasma screen is created near the aircraft, the aircraft becomes invisible to radars.
Here's a simple example: if you throw a tennis ball at the wall, it will bounce and come back. Likewise, the radar signal is reflected from the aircraft and returned to the receiving antenna. The plane was found. If the wall has angular edges and they are inclined in different directions, then the ball will bounce anywhere, but will not return back. Signal lost. American stealth is based on this principle. If you cover the wall with soft mats and throw a ball at them, then it will simply flop on it, lose energy and fall next to the wall. Likewise, the plasma formation absorbs the energy of radio waves. The aircraft becomes invisible to radars.
Based on this principle, it was decided to create a compact plasma generator that can be placed on an aircraft. The design is small and light. The plasma installation created powerful electron beams. The air was ionized and a plasma with the required characteristics was formed. "It was necessary to achieve compatibility of the plasma generator with all systems of a modern aircraft," says Andrey Golovin, an employee of the Keldysh Center., the installation has successfully passed state tests."
This technology gives the best results when used specifically on aircraft, especially at high altitudes. It is at least as effective as the American methods of reducing radio signature used on the notorious F-117. A significant advantage of plasma generators is that they can be installed on any moving device that needs to be hidden from the radar, including old samples. At the same time, the flight performance of the aircraft does not suffer. They are able to actively maneuver in air battles and perform aerobatics, in which the F-117 is extremely weak. In some cases, it can be used on ground vehicles, even on production vehicles.
Non-equilibrium plasma generators successfully passed government tests more than fifteen years ago. However, in times of transition, the introduction of the installation in aviation was significantly slowed down. “Perhaps there is some fault in this from the leadership of the institute, - continues Anatoly Koroteev. - We did not actively promote it in life. It was a difficult time. Funding was reduced, the military theme was slowed down.”And now experiments in the field of radio invisibility at the Center. Keldysh is not being actively pursued. The same funding is still lacking. However, there are no analogues to non-equilibrium plasma generators abroad. Bye. Indeed, in the late nineties, similar work began in the United States."
