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Comment by milspec | Hacker News Reader

Sure there is.

Stealth capability isn't a boolean property. Intermittent detection isn't enough to target an aircraft. Being able to track from the ground, with numerous antennas and supercomputers, is much easier than tracking from the limited-diameter head of a radar-guided missile.

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Really?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_F-117A_shootdown

as the joke goes, these missiles were very old - they were produced when there were no stealth planes, and thus they didn't know that that plane was supposed to be invisible to them.

Some IRCM systems have historically encountered this same problem in their development. Modern missiles were defeated, but very old missiles were actually attracted.

It isn't really a joke so much as a humorous way to describe a nasty reality.

Yes, really. Did you read the article?

I'm curious: Can modern missiles just rely on ground-based radar?

Obviously SAMs can, some Air to Air missiles could in theory if you have a nearby ground station guide them. However, the missiles that are guided by the plane have less range, requiring that ground station to be conveniently close by. Thats if were not including ground based radar just providing info to the plane itself.

It can be decidedly unhealthy to be broadcasting a radar signal when the enemy might have SEAD aircraft with radar-homing missiles.

Having to keep the radar on though-out the missile's entire flight would be a good example of a possibly life-shortening exercise for the sender of the missile.

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