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A Turkish researcher just shared details of a sprayable radar absorbent material (RAM) designed to be applied to drones and other small uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). According to the Defense Blog, Yunus İnce and their small defense research firm have been working on the material, called Kürşat 3.0, for more than seven years. İnce shared test footage of the product with the publication, showing the claimed 43dB signal attenuation. This is a greater reduction compared to broadband coatings tested by academic researchers in standardized test conditions. However, the company's claims must still be validated by a third-party expert to prove that it actually works and makes it harder to detect UAVs.
Drone warfare has exploded in recent years, with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started in 2022, showing how these cheap and tiny gadgets could effectively stop the advance of a multi-million-dollar tank column. Both sides of the conflict have wholeheartedly adopted UAVs as part of their military tactics, and militaries around the globe are devising cost-effective ways of taking down this new threat, like using lasers, microwaves, or good ol’ kinetic energy. Drone operators and manufacturers are not taking these threats lightly, with companies working to make them harder to detect via radar.
[...] A UAV’s advantage is its small size and low cost, making it cost-inefficient to produce specialized radar-deflecting designs. However, the Kürşat 3.0 could be a game-changer if other scientists can confirm that it really works. Many UAVs are so small that it’s difficult to detect them at longer distances — covering them with this “spray-on” RAM would only make it harder for defenders to detect and lock on to them using traditional radar sets.
This coating is not the be-all and end-all of drone stealth, though. That’s because most drones are built for efficiency and speed, not stealth, so they lack the required geometry to deflect radar signals. This is especially true for quadcopters, where the four exposed blades would easily reflect signals back to the radar transceiver. But because they’re often already tiny, covering them in Kürşat 3.0 spray would increase their survivability and make it harder for defenders to target them on their radar scopes.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday June 03, @02:11PM (1 child)
True true. But thats for skin painting pulse radar, like if it was glider. I imagine the doppler radar return of drone propellers must be amazing, the radar equivalent of a searchlight.
Maybe... that's the point of this secret military paint. Maybe this paint is usable on a propeller. I bet that no matter how carefully you spray it, you'll have to hand balance the prop afterward. I guess you could just spray a little more on the light side...
Apparently, stealth helicopters are a fairly hopeless concept according to these guys. But who knows, maybe this magic paint is for props, not fuselages, maybe it'll work for that.
https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/documents/DST-Group-TR-3481.pd [defence.gov.au]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 03, @02:26PM
Yeah, after I posted I had that "what about the props?" thought, and they have to be rather outstanding in the doppler signature as compared to the rest of the craft, but... if they are made of a radio-transparent composite? (Not carbon fiber, but glass fiber...)
I went through a similar exercise for laser/radar reflection from the front of my 1991 MX-5. It has the pop-up headlights, so putting them down is a big reduction, but then there's the turn signal indicator reflectors - smaller, but still significant, those can be replaced with much less reflective units, then you've got the intercooler/AC condenser/radiator stack and the fans behind them, they don't reflect much laser but they do reflect a lot of radar... Luckily, in a field of pickup trucks and SUVs, the MX-5 is a much smaller return, however I believe the "audio doppler" of speed measuring radars will return loud low frequency signals for the big stuff, and a quieter but distinctive higher frequency signal for smaller faster moving targets. And, at the end of it all, an officer who wants to write a ticket will just write the ticket for whatever speed they want regardless of what the instruments tell them. Once I was cited for exactly 15mph over on the last day of the month (fines jump at that exact threshold), when I went to pay the ticket at the courthouse on the last day before penalties started accruing, there was a person in line ahead of me and another in line behind me paying the exact same fine for the exact same 15-over violation issued by the exact same officer on the exact same day... what are the odds?
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]