Lowlight Cameras Can't Beat Stealth [video]

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4 points·Topfi··4 comments

This is a poor analysis for several reasons. It’s possible to detect and track aircraft optically at surprisingly long distances. That’s the reason many surface-to-air missile systems are multi-sensor, with one of those being an electrooptical sensor.

Do you have a source that covers the range [0] discussed in the video?

What I found (admittedly limited research so happy for any sources on the topic) suggests an effective target detection range of about 10 km and an engagement range of about 6 km [0] for such sensors, which would validate OPs assertions considering the initial examples were at more than double the distance and went far beyond (50km/160000ft) by the end of the video.

[0] 50000ft

[1] https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of...

Sources are going to be questionable because detection range is something any military keeps secret. That said, try this:

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/su35-fourth-sensor... 90km range claimed

Also, consider why many surface to air missile systems have optical tracking capabilities. Surely those are effective or they wouldn’t keep adding them to new models, right? Even the F-35 itself uses cameras to search for and track targets at long range.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but that seems to cover an IR based solution, which is not what was covered by OP or suggested in the Egg/Tweet that lead to the videos creation.

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