A Novel Method for RCS Reduction of a Complex Shaped Aircraft Using Partial RAM Coating

In this paper, a novel method of partial coating to reduce the Radar Cross Section (RCS) of a complex shaped perfectly electrically conducting (PEC) aircraft, of electrically large size, is proposed. The physical optics (PO) method is used to identify the hot spots of the PEC aircraft. An empirical procedure is then proposed to coat partial contiguous areas with Radar Absorbent Material (RAM). The PO is then modified to compute the RCS reduction of the partially coated aircraft. The level of coating can be adjusted so as to obtain the required reduction in RCS. It is shown that, with an appropriate choice of the partial coating level, the RCS can be reduced to the same level as that of a fully coated aircraft, over a wide frequency range. The weight, volume and thus cost reduction through the proposed partial coating techniques are also quantified. Index Terms RCS (Radar Cross Section), PO (Physical Optics), RAM (Radar Absorbing Material), PEC (Perfectly Electrically Conducting), Partial Coating.