These devices are installed on the aircraft on the ground are used whenever the aircraft don’t need to evade the radars: during ferry flights when the aircraft use also the transponder in a cooperative way with the ATC (Air Traffic Control) agencies during training or operative missions that do not require stealthiness or, more importantly, when the aircraft operate close to the enemy whose ground or flying radars, intelligence gathering sensors. Stealth aircraft, such as the F-22 Raptor or the F-35 Lightning II 5th generation jets are equipped with Luneburg (or Luneberg) lenses: radar reflectors used to make the LO (Low Observable) aircraft (consciously) visible to radars. Here’s what radar reflectors are, as explained in a previous article posted here at The Aviationist in 2018: The aircraft is not equipped with RCS Enhancers.
RADAR REFLECTOR FULL
The aircraft are flying this way with their lowest radar “signature”, taking full advantage of their low-observable capabilities. It must then not come as a surprise, although it’s a first for the exercise, that some of the F-35s taking part in Falcon Strike 2022 are also flying without the usual RCS (Radar Cross Section) enhancers/radar reflectors normally installed during peacetime and training operations. The objective is in fact to prepare the participants for the high-end fight, combining great power competition-level threat complexities with the joint interoperability necessary to succeed in future combat scenarios. Large-scale exercises like the renowned Red Flag are also integrating F-35s as adversary aircraft, as happened last summer with the participation of F-35s assigned to the 65th Aggressor Squadron during the 22-3 edition.
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