Abstract
Radar technology development encourages each country to develop military aircraft with small Radar Cross Section (RCS) size to bring out stealth behaviour, so that it is not easily detected by the enemy. In designing an airplane, computational methods become one of the best solutions in simulating the behaviour of an aircraft geometry when illuminated by electromagnetic waves. On this study, a calculation simulation of the RCS value was performed using FEKO (FElding bei Körn mit beliebiger Oberfläche) EM Simulation software for unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV). Simulations are carried out in various conditions to find out factors affecting RCS value. These factors were analysed by varying radar frequency, material coating the plane, and methods of computational calculation. The results show that the greater the frequency, the greater the computational resources required as on higher number of mesh, more time needed to run the simulation, and required memory. However, the frequency is not directly proportional to the RCS value of the object. Methods of Momentum (MoM) and Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) perform computation calculations that are more detailed and more accurate comparedto Physical Optic (PO) full-ray tracing
Highlights
Radar is a technology that must be possessed by objects that have the need to detect other objects in their surroundings
From the results and analysis above it can be concluded that the Radar Cross Section (RCS) values of Northrop X- 47B unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) in general were affected by radar frequency radiated by the planewave radar and surface materials
Results from the second scenario showed that different surface materials will change the behaviour of object geometry illuminated by radar
Summary
Radar is a technology that must be possessed by objects that have the need to detect other objects in their surroundings. The history of radar began when a British physicist named James Clerk Maxwell developed the basics of the theory of electromagnetics in 1865. Radar technology developed rapidly triggered by the presence of war zones throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The lowest RCS value is claimed for F-22 aircraft with value of 0.0001 m2 This value is achieved by using geometry and Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM) that are very optimal. This research was performed to explore the effect of radar frequency, coating materials and the use of computational methods to the RCS values of a UCAV, and compared the results with those from references and previous studies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
