Northrop Grumman Has Patented A Kinetic Missile Defense System For Stealth Aircraft

Interesting. NG has just been granted a patent for a concealable air to air missile defense system that would work for a stealth bomber. Heck they even included a cranked kite airframe in the descriptions. Right now, the bombers are basically on their own and have little help once detected unless in the range of friendly jamming aircraft etc. My question is would such a system offer a high off boresight engagement envelope?

www.thedrive.com...

a reply to: FredT

As long as they have the capability to turn, and lock onto the incoming missile there's no reason that they couldn't be used in a HOBS situation.

a reply to: FredT

I would suggest that if the enemy is able to engage a stealth aircraft then the stealth aircraft is no longer sufficiently stealthy and then becomes an easy target.

Russian answer to perplexing problem ... fire one more missile than they have interceptors.

Drink vodka after kill.

Perhaps the people who design these aircraft know that stealth abilities are not going to cut it for very much longer.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

You don't think that they should plan for all eventualities, and be able to stop something unexpected? Prior to Vega 31 being shot down everyone knew that stealth was virtually unstoppable.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yes they should plan but when the day comes that stealth is no longer viable, what we are left with is aircraft that only do one thing really well ... stealth.

Why would anyone approve a patent for a mini missile that is basically like all the other missiles ... only smaller.

It would not surprise me if they take a current missile (such as from a manpad) and sex it up a little.

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a reply to: pheonix358

They've been working on systems like this for years. It's for far more than just the B-21. It's also nothing like other missiles. Other missiles target large targets, this is designed to target missiles. That's a lot harder to do. It's also designed to do it by impact. The system mentioned is designed for the B-21, but it'll end up on a lot more.

We're still a long way from stealth being obsolete. It has a lot of room to grow left, and is just coming into some fields.

originally posted by: pheonix358


Perhaps the people who design these aircraft know that stealth abilities are not going to cut it for very much longer.

P

nah i just means they didnt get access to the visible cloaking device and had to come up with something different

Stealth or not, an unknown SAM threat unexpectedly going active or a fighter Jet with decent Mark 1 capabilities in the wrong place at the wrong time could ruin anyones day.

Active anti missile defense systems are a great idea and have been long time coming.
Two years ago Orbital ATK tested an active protection system for helicopters, similar to APS mounted on tanks:
defence-blog.com...

Incidentally Northrop just bought Orbital ATK for $7.8 billion... i think its very likley this system is already in use on the RQ-180 for a long time...

a reply to: Zaphod58

We're still a long way from stealth being obsolete. It has a lot of room to grow left, and is just coming into some fields.

True ... all the way to invisibility in fact.

Just to make a point to think about ...

Battle Ships and Dreadnoughts still had a long way to go ... but aircraft killed them all in a matter of a few short years ... one war in fact. Consider what a Dreadnought would be like now. Nuclear power, railguns, missiles.

We are only one new power source away from a complete re-work of the military. That is ... one single invention.

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a reply to: pheonix358

And every year we hear all about how stealth is already obsolete, and it's useless against this, that, and the other thing.

Stealth isn't a dreadnought or a battleship. And it's not going away because someone comes up with some invention tomorrow.

I thought stealth was somewhat obsolete because of satellite and high altitude platforms with down facing radar. Stealth is designed against upward and forward radar.

a reply to: TamtammyMacx

See.

It's a lot harder to track an aircraft from a satellite than its made out to be. Satellite radar is much better with non moving targets, like the ground.

a reply to: FredT Hmmm projectile defense systems....Sigh I dont know how we are in this field of technology. We were designing a tank APS called Quick Kill but yet we ditched that for Trophy. Oh well lets see the project unfold. It better be worth my tax payer money

This sounds like the old Pyewacket concept, but with hit-to-kill capability.
a reply to: Zaphod58

Its a wonder why they didnt go for the Proximity Frag warhead that Russia does..

a reply to: Zaphod58

If anything, I'd say stealth has a slight advantage on the invention front (metamaterials, plasmonics, etc...)

a reply to: Tajlakz

There is some really interesting stuff rumored that will give stealth an even bigger advantage.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You'd need something relatively stationary and close to the earth to get a space-based stealth sniffer to work. LEO sats have too little time over the target to be useful for monitoring/tracking something, and to do it from GSO would take an AESA the size of a MENTOR/ORION, which is something that no military short of the US's could afford.

Now, you might be able to pull something off using a Molnya orbit or something similar, but you'd still need a big bird to pull it off.

a reply to: Barnalby

At one point the best way to do it was an airborne transmitter, and ground based receivers that can receive the signal coming at any angle. That would have worked against the F-117, but newer designs trap more energy than reflect at different angles.

It would probably still work, but not as well as against other designs.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah, I'm guessing you'd need something with beam power on the level of PAVE PAWS or something similar to resolve a modern RAM-coated aircraft-sized target from space.

In-atmosphere, I bet you could do good things with an ultra high-altitude loitering platform. Could be a 90,000' cruising flying wing, could be an LTA platform.

Too bad, again, that only the US really has the resources to make that happen, while nobody else has stealth platforms that are even halfway worth dedicating those sorts of resources to detecting.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You gotta wonder how much of this bleeding edge stuff is actually fielded though. Beyond the team with a lot of Spirit my knowledge is pretty limited.