Humble Beginnings:
When the Wright Brothers first took to the air in 1903, aeroplanes became a novelty, a testbed for crazed inventors to try new things. Fast forward eleven years, add the shadow of the deadliest conflict to have ever happened till that time, and military planners began to see the usefulness of the aeroplane. At first, it was the unarmed aircraft spotting enemy movements from above, then somebody thought of bringing guns aboard and shooting at the enemy aircraft. Thus began a technological revolution that would change the nature of war forever.
While the talk of the aeroplane taking the lead in future conflicts was rife after the end of the First World War, it wasn’t until its sequel that the generals and admirals of the world truly realised the potential possessed by the new technology. Until the closing years of the war, aviation was treated as a support arm to conventional land and naval forces. During the war, British and American air power levelled entire cities, took out strategic objectives well outside the combat radius of any land or sea forces, and powered technological advancement at a pace never seen before in history, the latter being a trend that would continue well into the cold war, and even into the modern day.
Radars and How to Counter Them:
One of the innovations fuelled by the rapid adoption of aviation in combat was RADio Detection And Ranging, or Radar, which bounced electromagnetic waves off of aircraft to track their positions. As the technology grew more sophisticated, it developed the capability to track their movements, gauge their size, and was then used at a variety of ranges and altitudes. In the 1910s, aircraft could only be identified visually; in the 1960s, major powers had much of their airspace under constant watch for intruders. Things only got more advanced, with the major powers throwing massive amounts of money into developing better aircraft and more powerful radars. In the 1970s, however, events at the secretive Groom Lake airfield (better known as Area 51) would change the dynamics of warfare once again.
Skunk Works, the secretive research arm of American defense giant Lockheed, built a mockup of a new fighter, designed around the idea that radar signatures of aircraft can be reduced by making the radio waves reflect in certain ways. The team of engineers was shocked to see that the mock-up, placed atop a pole, was not detected by their sophisticated radar systems. The project eventually culminated in the world’s first ‘stealth’ aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk. Invisible to all but the naked eye, this new aircraft would be used extensively in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, penetrating Iraq’s heavily defended skies undetected and unopposed. The Nighthawk flew combat missions till the early 2000s, retiring in 2008 with only one airframe lost in combat—a lucky kill over Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The Chessboard at Present:
In the 2010s, America reigned supreme as far as advanced aircraft go, with the successors of the F-117 taking centre stage. The F-35 Lightning II and the F-22 Raptor cemented America’s place as the stealth superpower. The Raptor, an air superiority fighter with a primary mission to shoot enemy aircraft out of the sky, is perhaps the most capable aircraft being fielded by any nation today, and it’s available exclusively to the United States Air Force. The Lighting, a multirole cousin of the Raptor, can be armed for a variety of different missions such as ground attack, naval aviation, and aerial combat. The Lighting was also developed in coordination with key NATO allies, who were given the option to purchase airframes. It is currently operated by several US allies in Europe, the Far East, and Israel; the fighter is proving exceptionally popular with European air forces looking to upgrade their fleets in the face of a resurgent Russian threat. The United States has also equipped its air force with stealth bombers, massive payload-carrying aircraft such as the B-2 and B-21 that have intercontinental ranges and stealth capabilities, allowing America to bomb military targets anywhere in the world without being seen.
It is worth noting that while the West has gained an upper hand in stealth aircraft technology, Eastern powers have made similar attempts. The Sukhoi Su-57, Russia’s first operational attempt at a stealth aircraft. As per Russian reports, the aircraft has seen combat in the Syrian theatre, and continues to be utilised in anti-air and anti-ground roles in Ukraine. The Su-57 has also been displayed at airshows to foreign guests, leading to speculation about future export potential, though the aircraft’s limited production and lack of expressed interest say otherwise.
The Chinese have, in recent years, seemingly overtaken Russia as the world’s second military power. This is equally true in the area of stealth aircraft, where China’s J-20 Mighty Dragon and J-35 Gyrfalcon are considered direct competitors of the F-22 and F-35, respectively. Indigenously developed by the Chengdu and Shenyang Aircraft Corporations, details about these aircraft are sparse, but the J-20 has already been inducted into the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), and the J-35 is currently undergoing trials, after which it is expected to become the workhorse of Chinese Naval Aviation. True to its Western counterpart, the J-35 has received export orders, including one from Pakistan, which seems to have beaten India in the race to stealth. Türkiye and South Korea have prototype stealth fighters currently undergoing tests, while there are concentrated efforts in the United States, Europe, and Russia to create a ‘sixth generation’ fighter (stealth aircraft are considered the fifth generation).
Future Developments:
In December of 2024, a grey triangular craft appeared over Chinese skies in Chengdu. The unidentified jet was escorted by J-20 fighters and appeared to be somewhat larger than them. While next to nothing is known about this aircraft, speculations as to its nature have included its role as an attack aircraft or medium bomber; parallels have been drawn between the tailless design of the B-2 and this mysterious aeroplane. There has also been talk of the aircraft being the first operational sixth-generation fighter; what that might entail is unclear. The only sure thing is that military minds the world over, in Delhi, London, Washington, Tokyo, and other major capitals, are trying to figure out what this development might mean and how they can gain an advantage over their adversaries.