Plasma Cloaking Patent??

theski · Post by **theski** » 2005-11-22 10:15am

Am I reading this right??? I maybe stupid

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2005-11-22 11:25am

Plasmas absorb practically all electromagnetic radiation below a certain frequency, which would definitely have uses for stealth. If it can be confined in significant density around the object, of course. There was a thread about this a while ago; I think Admiral Valdemar mentioned the system was actually tested in aircraft.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-11-22 11:32am

Yes, this is old news. While limited in application with many aircraft, it does, apparently, lower the RCS of certain Russian fighters that otherwise would be radar magnets. A similar idea has been proposedn by the USAF in a white paper, I believe, along with the possibility of using hyerpsonic plasmas from aircraft fuselage to power weapon systems.

Cold plasmas would also be good at stopping cosmic rays of certain types and acting as heat shields in more advanced models if confined via tuned EM fields. They're also used as atmospheric separators in various physics experiments with superfluids or rare gases.

drachefly · Post by **drachefly** » 2005-11-22 11:47am

Wouldn't a cosmic ray be above the plasma frequency, though?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2005-11-22 11:51am

The idea for plasma stealth on aircraft has been around ever since man first went into space; and we discovered that we couldn’t radio communicate with a spacecraft during reentry. However no one has yet made it work and Western expects have said that it is probably at least 50 years away from being reality, though the Russians have persistently climbed to have it with absolutely zero proof of any form. They also claim to have invented the machine gun, sliced bread and sex.

Anyway, plasma stealth creates a double blind, which means anyone using it can’t use there own radio or radar. I’ll take passive stealth thank you very much.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-11-22 11:52am

That depends on what plasma you're using. It has been proposed, though I'll have to find the paper. I'm assuming technology a way off yet since the best stuff today is used for radar or simply containing gases. There is also the idea of using strong EM fields for use when in high radiation areas to take care of most of the stray particles, though you'd need meds for the rest.

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Anyway, plasma stealth creates a double blind, which means anyone using it can’t use there own radio or radar. I’ll take passive stealth thank you very much.

You have to admit, with many sci-fi cloaking devices, this is the usual gist of it, that you lose something as well as gain something. To be totally invisible that way would be a bonus so long as you were willing to use IRST instead and didn't need to call help or squawk for your own forces' IFF.

It would be interesting to see their apparatus and if it could work on even the most cumbersome and large RCS fighter.

wilfulton · Post by **wilfulton** » 2005-11-22 10:43pm

The Schlock Mercenary answer is that if you plasma cannon the opposition into oblivion first, you have no need for stealth.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2005-11-23 02:18pm

I've seen it proposed for use on satellites and spacecraft as well - it would protect them from low energy radiation (laser attacks for the former, sloar radiation in the latter)

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2005-11-24 07:16am

If something uses plasma cloaking, how big would its IR signature be?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-11-24 10:17am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:If something uses plasma cloaking, how big would its IR signature be?

I'm thinking not very big, since the plasma will be at room temperature. Or do you fall for that silly brainbug that all plasmas = hotter than the sun?

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2005-11-24 10:23am

No. Whatever cold plasma is, I know the Ruskies weren't encasing their stuff in superheated gas. I just thought that it tended to have a high IR signature, since it... well... did some stuff...

LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2005-11-24 12:20pm

Sea Skimmer wrote: Anyway, plasma stealth creates a double blind, which means anyone using it can’t use there own radio or radar. I’ll take passive stealth thank you very much.

I think the are clever enough to keep their own radar emitters uncovered and have the radio antenna outside of that field. just a problem of shaping the field correctly.

The radar in the nosecone,the one in the tail, and one antenna on the top and one antenna on the bottom left uncovered - voila little uncovered profile (made in passive stealth design) and the rest under plasma-stealth.

You will need a helluva Radar&an demi-god operator to find this thingy.

LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2005-11-24 12:31pm

Sea Skimmer wrote: Anyway, plasma stealth creates a double blind, which means anyone using it can’t use there own radio or radar. I’ll take passive stealth thank you very much.

I think the are clever enough to keep their own radar emitters uncovered and have the radio antenna outside of that field. just a problem of shaping the field correctly.

The radar in the nosecone,the one in the tail, and one antenna on the top and one antenna on the bottom left uncovered - voila!

Only a small uncovered area (plane will still be made in passive stealth design, since the system could fail) and the rest under plasma-stealth.

You will need a very good Radar & an demi-god operator to find this thingy.

A "normal" stealt is nearly unfindable, exept for multi-tracking, where a radar station is coupled with another, and they cross-check their results.

Since passive stealth only minimizes reflection back to the sender (it also utilizes special paint to dampen the reflections, but this only reduces the radar profile by a small percentage, it doesn't soak the radar waves up) , it is still visible for a different station, if they are linked to work together. Since it is visible on the recieving station, but not on the sending, you know that this is a stealth plane flying around. Its hard to do, but you can get past passive stealth with this technique.

A plasma-cloak won't be visible in mult-tracking, since it rally "soaks up" the radarwaves. The exposed areas would be to small to be visiblewhen the plane is build with stealth-desibgn.

Its really invisible on radar screens - frightening....

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-11-24 01:12pm

If your radar is active, they don't need to search for you. You'll be drawing a big bullseye on your craft which, paradoxically, you're trying to keep stealthy too. Using the radar and remaining undetectable are mutually exclusive. Passive sensors are a must like IRST, and they work through plasma anyway.