No aircraft can achieve full band stealth, and the B-2 and B-21 are no exception. The fundamental value of stealth technology is to greatly increase the sensor resources required to fight each aircraft.
China and Russia in 2021 have different resources from the fry in 1991.
It is unrealistic to expect that China or Russia cannot detect B2. Both China and Russia have a perfect system for detecting stealth aircraft.
Meter wave radar and passive radar are common, and China even has quantum radar.
Russia
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No aircraft can achieve full band stealth? This might be the case with jet fighters, but B-2A Spirit is a different beast and was designed to be stealthy across all bands from the get-go.
Geometric shaping of B-2A is a nearly perfect radar waves deflecting mechanism and VLO in true sense of the word because even the fuselage and tail fins are eliminated altogether. B-2A also features substantial amount of radar waves absorbing materials within the frame. Even the engines are completely buried within the frame and exhaust systems are located on the top. Sheer size of the aircraft provided sufficient room to accommodate incredible stealthy characteristics. B-2A ticks all the boxes of frustrating detection possibilities with a radar system irrespective of the bands in use because its returns are too weak to figure out much even in the Mie or Rayleigh region where resonance effects are more pronounced. The upcoming B-21 Raider expands on this incredible design yet further, and to what extent would be an understatement.
Not all stealthy combat aircraft are created equal. B-2A costed 2 billion USD per piece.
Yugoslavia is mentioned because it was up against a significant onslaught of American stealthy combat aircraft in Operation Allied Force, and it is the only country in the world to have shot down a stealthy combat aircraft in a war and its technologies and tactics are/were instructive in this regard.
Source: Clean Bombs and Dirty Wars: Air Power in Kosovo and Libya
Soviet P-18 Spoon Rest (or Russian 1RL131 Terek) operates in the VHF band and its Chinese derivative is called YLC-8A. Yugoslavians networked P-18 Spoon Rest with additional Russian-origin radar systems operating across I/D/G/H/VHF bands as a collective to create an IMAD setup more complex than in the 2nd photo shared by you.
So how the Yugoslavian IMAD setup fared against different types of stealthy combat aircraft in real-time conditions? Let us see.
F-117 (Sortie – Engaged – Loss) ratio over Yugoslavia in 1999 = 743 – 2 – 1
F-117 = 2nd generation stealthy bomber in American terms with
limited sensor systems and
without EW capabilities
The F-117 which was successfully engaged and shot down over Yugoslavia was not provided EW cover by an EA-6B Prowler at the time. On the flip side, it managed to penetrate Yugoslavian airspace and could be engaged when it was operating very close to one of the Yugoslavian IMAD setups on the surface (refer to the textual photo above). It is unclear how many sorties F-117 completed over Yugoslavia on its own merits.
B-2A (Sortie – Engaged – Loss) ratio over Yugoslavia in 1999 = 49 – 0 – 0
B-2A = 4th generation stealthy bomber in American terms
with significant sensor systems and EW capabilities
B-2A was never detected and completed every sortie on its own merits.
B-2A is capable of penetrating sophisticated and dense air-defence shields. It creates following effect on an IMAD setup while passing through:
Source is a book (I will try to retrace it).
Modern Russian and/or Chinese radar setups are built upon similar principles as witnessed in Yugoslavia in 1999 but with more capable radar systems introduced in the mix but can WE quantify these advances in any way or form? I think not.
As far as the quantum entanglement approach is concerned, photons have the tendency to break free of their quantum entanglement at long distances (decoherence). Quantum entanglement approach is effective up to 11 KM mark as per published accounts.
The radar systems on the ground are sitting ducks for ‘any’ American bomber in any case.
If the USA has a sufficient number of B2 & B21 and reliable electronic reconnaissance to saturate China's air defense system, it may indeed succeed, but it didn't. B2 needs to avoid the satellite cycle take-off, and then look for the anti stealth radar shutdown period or other loopholes according to the intelligence obtained from electronic investigation, and then avoid ordinary radar and patrol fighters by constantly changing the flight angle and direction. Finally, it need to find a suitable time to open the cabin door and use JASAM, otherwise it will not be able to return safely. B2 needs electronic investigation throughout the operation. If there is no electronic reconnaissance, B2 meeting any fighter will only lead to the failure of the operation.
Err… When did USA
attempt to saturate Chinese Air Defense system? This never happened because USA and China have not a fought a war since the 1950s.
Modern Chinese Air Defense system is not battle-tested to begin with. China did provide radar systems to Syria including a YJ-27 variant, but these tools did not help against Israel. Surface defenses are never sufficient to tackle airborne threats by themselves.
WE are discussing a
hypothetical scenario in this thread in which B-2A will be called into action to strike at Chinese infrastructure and Air Defense System.
You need to understand what B-2A is capable of, how it is utilized in war, and why it is a far more capable penetrating system than the F-117.
B-2A is stealthy across Infrared, Acoustic, Electromagnetic, Visual and Radar Signatures. It is utilized in nighttime conditions because its blackish texture blends with said conditions to minimize Optical/Visual detection. Satellites cannot track this aircraft in near real-time, particularly in nighttime conditions.
B-2A can be used to strike at surface targets with standoff munitions. There is no need to use dumb bombs to engage difficult-to-reach targets.
B-2A can process a huge amount of information and feature a sophisticated Defensive Management System (DMS) which provides a rich view of airborne and surface threats to pilots and how to navigate through them. And I haven’t touched upon the EW aspect of B-2A yet. Do you know that B-2A have 2 x powerful AESA radar systems among other EW components?
Chinese jet fighters can be scrambled to search for and intercept a B-2A with sufficient early warning and near real-time tracking of its movements which won’t be possible in view of how it affects IMAD setups (see above), and radar systems in general. B-2A is among the most difficult combat aircraft to detect, intercept and engage in view of its incredible capabilities.
Now - I do not underestimate China. It is a large and powerful country and capable of surprises as well. Modern wars are difficult to fight and miscalculations are possible. China might manage to intercept B-2A in unknown conditions (I am
not ruling out the possibility).
But it is
not impractical for USA to attack and destroy Chinese shipyards among other important assets with some of the best combat aircraft and standoff munitions at its disposal. Americans have fought in many wars, defined modern methods of warfare on many counts, and have vast operational experience courtesy of the Cold War. One can (and should) expect results from USA in conventional methods of warfare.
Irrespective of rhetorics of some in the forum, Americans have successfully concluded a large number of military operations. But wars are not necessarily fought to exterminate and/or annex a country. USA have no incentive to conquer distant countries in Asia for which it shall bomb it to oblivion. WE live in different times now in which international borders are to be respected.
