Boeing’s announcement March 17 that it is exploring the concept of a “stealthy” F-15 Silent Eagle model with a level of stealthiness has raised some skeptical eyebrows in the industry. Asked for comment, a Lockheed Martin spokesman said, “The experience of the aerospace community to date is that very low-observable stealth, as possessed by the F-22 and F-35”—both of which Lockheed has the lead in producing—“can be achieved only when it is incorporated into an aircraft’s design from the outset.” Strap-on measures like “treatments and shapes generally achieve a relatively minor radar signature reduction” when tried with fourth-generation fighters (such as the F-15 and F-16), continued the Lockheed official. Boeing did not disclose how it would reduce the radar signature of the engine fan blades on the Silent Eagle; they are a huge radar reflector. Brad Jones, the company’s F-15 Future Fighters program manager, said there are ancillary measures such as fan blade blockers and radar-absorbent treatments of the engine intakes. But, he would not discuss the main solution, saying only, “stealth technology has come a long way” over the last 20 years.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…