For years, Americans without healthcare have been able to reassure themselves that although they may be denied life-saving cancer treatment, at least their country had fighter jets and aircraft carriers that could reduce cities to rubble.
This is known as “optronics” in military applications, FWIW. I don’t know if anyone is using it for target discovery yet, but optronic guidance to a known target is a thing.
Radar is nice in that it and works under all kinds of conditions (like through clouds) and can have very long range, but there definitely are other sensors that are making their way onto the battlefield. Passive audio sensors have been a huge success in Ukraine, for example. Sending out an radar pulse also draws all the wrong kind of attention.
6th gen fighters probably won’t bother with anything except hiding at this rate, and the battlefield might be so transparent by then nobody will make a 7th. The “blue skies” will just be where various unmanned projectiles pass through.
This is known as “optronics” in military applications, FWIW. I don’t know if anyone is using it for target discovery yet, but optronic guidance to a known target is a thing.
Radar is nice in that it and works under all kinds of conditions (like through clouds) and can have very long range, but there definitely are other sensors that are making their way onto the battlefield. Passive audio sensors have been a huge success in Ukraine, for example. Sending out an radar pulse also draws all the wrong kind of attention.
6th gen fighters probably won’t bother with anything except hiding at this rate, and the battlefield might be so transparent by then nobody will make a 7th. The “blue skies” will just be where various unmanned projectiles pass through.