US HAS BEEN FLYING VIRTUALLY INVISIBLE AIRCRAFT FOR OVER TWO YEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92B00478R000800340037-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 23, 2013
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: September 1, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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TO: (Name, office symbol, room number,
building, Agency/Post)
JB
1.
Initials
Date
2.
3.
4.
5.
iAction
File
Note and Return
Approval
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See Me
pomment
Investigate
Signature
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Justify
REMARKS
FYI: Schemmer noted with some glee that the other
leaks on the Stealth pgogram did not mention
tactical (fighters). However he changed his
tune a few days later when he was on the hot box. He
then said he should not have been given the
info in the first bp place.
STAT
DO NOT use this form as a RECORD of approvals, concurrences, disposals,
clearances, and similar actions
FROM: (Name, org. symbol, Agency/Post)
Room No.?Bldg.
Phone No.
5041402 OPTIONAL FORM 41 (Rev. 7-76)
Prescribed by GSA
IMAM (ILI CFR% 101-11.206
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US Has Been Flying Virtually Invisible Aircraft
for Over Two Years
Several Tactical Versions Are In Production: Senior DoD Official
Calls Program a "Breakthrough," Bigger Than Cruise Missile or Hi-Energy Laser
(Ity Benjamin F. Satemmer
SINCE EARLY 1978, the US has been
test flying several versions 7iFtt-171117i1177
Egible new airpland, both-imanned arid
_
un-Manned versions, in a highly clais-iffed
"tealih" program. Although hundreds of
millions of dollars a year are now being
spent on the program, only a few dozen
government officials have been privy to
details of it. Several different types of
the aircraft have been built. Scores of
flight test hours have been accumulated
on several prototypes, although only a
handful of pilots have flown the planes.
KThe_senior?Pentagon official expect;
tligiWithin ten years, roughly 10% of all
OS military-aireiaft Co-uld'be "stealth"
Defense Secretary Harold brown was
expected to make some details of the pro-
gram public soon after this issue of AFJ
comes off the press. Although he had
hoped to keep any news of it under wraps
for at least another year, or until well
after the new planes become operational,
several leaks about the program have
forced earlier disclosures.
All of the airplanes involved in the
itealth g-rain'are new designs,inot-hfodi-
fications of -existing-aircraft: Four or fiv?
:major defer& contractors are involved.in
(the program -at the "system" level,ithat
is, building or designing, the aircraft.
The planes are virtually invisible to air
defense radars, to infra-red or other elec-
tronic or acoustic detection systems.
Defense officials decline to discuss the
techniques used to make the planes vir-
tually undetectable?they modestly call
the new aircraft "reduced observablcs"
and say only that they are of "low" de-
tectability?but the complex technologies
involved meld a. variety of unusual air-
craft design and electronic technologies.
These include what one senior defense of-
ficial described to AFJ as "a powerful
systems approach." He would not elabo-
rate further, making clear that he was
unwilling to discuss any of the technology
involved.
But the general techniques apparently
involve special shaping or contouring of
the aircrafts' structure; non-metallic ma-
of potential military leverage," according
to one Pentagon senior official. He told
AFJ that the program could even be more
important than the cruise missile, which
the Administration characterizes as a rev-
olutionary technological innovation, and
more important than an operational hi-
energy laser weapon.
' terials that absorb electromagnetic energy While "several" of 'the riFv "?,iiilar7Fr
or cause sudh a weak return of it for jin pril_p-r_production,_no one_of" them is
the signal to be ambiguous or almost un- Eyet-operational,?AFr Has learn_ed. How-
detectable; infra-red shielding of an air- everrthe?PentafaiMo?oking at early
craft's engine exhaust and other "hot
spots," with exhaust nozzles, for instance,
ben't into directions that make infra-red
or heat-sensing detection difficult; special
paints to absorb, deflect and shroud signals
which might otherwise detect metallic
components, while also making visual de-
tection difficult; and electronic techniques
and countermeasures to 'generate false re-
turns which show a plane's position far
away from the plane's actual flight path
or which mute the energy and accuracy
of electromagnetic air defense acquisition
and tracking systems.
No one single technical "trick" is re-
sponsible for the breakthrough, one senior
Defense official emphasized to AFJ. He
scoffed at one rumor circulating in some
Washington circles that the Pentagon has
invented a "transparent" paint to make
airplanes invisible.
Major Breakthrough
Defense officials will not specify just
how successful the new aircraft have been,
except to acknowledge that they "pretty
much invalidate the whole, set of air de-
fense systems existing today." Both the-
oretical calculations and test data indicate
that' the "stealth" aircraft represents a
"breakthrough" which rates among the
"top three" in recent years and which
could "possibly [be] the first one in terms
7,1\
0.4.4
10Cs," AFJ has been told, meaning that
the new aircraft would have an "initial
operational capability" earlier than would
be expected under the Pentagon's normal
seven-to-ten year research and develop-
ment cycle for getting a new system into
the field.
Work on stealth technology has been
underway for several decades, with sig-
nificant efforts put into reducing the radar
cross section of aircraft and hiding their
infra-red detectible exhaust plumes and
hot spots. The present stealth program
apparently had its real genesis early in
1977 when Defense Secretary Harold
Brown and his newly appointed top tech-
nical advisors surveyed the Pentagon's so-
called "technology base" research and de-
velopment program to assess which new
technologies might be exploited to greatest
operational advantage during their tenure.
Brown, AFJ is told, "understood the
significance" the first time he was briefed
on the possibilities of flying entirely new
aircraft designs incorporating recent
stealth advances. At that time, only about
ten million dollars a year was being spent
on stealth technology out of the two billion
dollars a year invested in the "technology -
base."
BrTaii?arid'his'Under Secretary for Re:
srarchiand_Engincering,_Dr. WilIi?i
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"._ Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/12/23 : CIA-RDP92B00478R000800340037-7
Att. Declassified in in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/12/23: CIA-RDP92B00478R000800340037-7
Perry? subsequently ordered all of the
stealth work to be ,tightly "compartment-
ed"?thus, so closely held that until today,
Only a few dozen government officials have
been privy to it. The program was given
"the highest priority" Brown and Perry
".could assign.
Prototypes Flew in 1978.
In August of 1977, Brown and Perry
ordered the stealth effort increased by
what one official described to AFJ as an
"order of magnitude," implying at least
a ten-fold funding increase to a spending
level of a hundred millions dollars or more
a year.
rAt least one prototype was flying by
early 1978, within seven or eight months
of that decision.
Of the four or five different types of
planes involved, several are in flight test
status, others are soon to fly as prototypesti
and some others arc "still on the drawing
boards," AFJ is told. '
Bomber Decision in March?
One of the designs still on the drawing
boards is for a stealth version of a new
strategic bomber. Press speculation about
a stealth bomber triggered an August
flurry of press inquiries to the Pentagon
over its stealth program, and there have
been rut-oars that a "stealth penetrator"
is ,even under construction.
'A senior defense official told AFJ that
it will be next March before the Pentagon
finishes its evaluation of new bomber al-
ternatives and is able to recommend
whether or not to put a "stealth bomber"
into engineering development. At present,
he said, such an airplane is still in the
"design stage," although he acknowledged
that one might be developed fast enough
to meet a recent Congressional mandate
that a new "multi-role" bomber should
be operational "not later than 1987." The
Journal was told that work on the stealth
alternative is not far enough along to per-
mit an informed judgement on whether
or not it would be more effective than
a stretched version of SAC's FB-111 or
a derivative of the B-1. Even the stealth
program's most ardent advocates, AFJ was
told, are "not yet ready to make a case"
for a bomber version. Thus, the stealth
bomber issue is not likely to be exploited
or compromised by 1980 election year
rhetoric, as some press "leaks" have sug-
gested.
Press "Leaks"
Aviation Week, for instance, noted on
August 11th in its "Washington Roundup"
column a brief memo that recent Con-
gressional votes requiring the Pentagon
to develop a new manned bomber to be-
come operational by 1987 had led the
White House to "continue studies" of op-
tions ranging from a stretched version of
the General Dynamics FB-111 to a fixed
wing version of the Rockwell International
It "tip. nr1.2onveti tri-linolocv sivalth and increase the effectiveness of the nlancs
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Do the Russians ?
Have One?
WHEN SHE READ the first draft of
this article, AFJ's circulation manager,
Nancy Biglin, asked one editor:
"Let me ask you this: Do the Rus-
sians have one of these airplanes?
Our editor told her, "1 doubt it."
She asked us, "But how would we
know?if they can't be seen?"
A long silence followed.
AFJ's board of directors is now
thinking of having Nancy replace the
editor: He never asked the most in-
teresting question in this whole story.
ail, other than to note that "several in
he Senate contended that Dr. Perry
oversold the 'stealth' aircraft in order to
stop a Senate amendment for a new but
more conventional bomber."
Three days later, the Washington Post
noted on its front page that "President
Carter will commit himself to developing
a new strategic bomber" to "steal a
march" on his Republican opponents, and
mentioned that "Some Air Force enthu-
siasts have nicknamed this new bomber
'Stealth' because of its ghost-like qualities.
Technocrats explain Stealth presents a vir-
tually undetectable 'cross-section' to radar
beams searching for it. They call it the
High Technology Aircraft." The story
went on to quote one Carter campaign
official as saying, "You're going to hear
about these bomber breakthroughs sooner
or later in this campaign" and then quoted.
public Congressional testimony from
USAF "research chief" Lt. Gen. Kelly
H. Burke that "high on our list of hardware
explorations" in a new bomber effort "is
radar-absorbing material to reduce radar
cross-sections." The article later said that
a Defense Science Board study of new
bomber options had "reportedly discour-
aged the idea that a virtually 'invisible'
aircraft like Stealth could be built anytime
soon."
Neither the Post nor Aviation Week
articles made any mention of tactical
'stealth aircraft, such as those which have
been flying for over two years.
300-400 Planes by 1990
as "Force Multipliers"
A senior defense official told AFJ that
by the end of this decade, he expects
to see roughly one-tenth of the US mil-
itary air arm comprised of the new stealth
airplanes. That would mean that about
300 to 400 of the planes might be oper-
ational. He said that "We already have
this investment in conventional aircraft,
and we don't need to scrap it. The trick
is to use the new planes as 'force mul-
tipliers'?to perform their own functions
aircraft could be used to suppress enemy
air defenses without even being detected,
thus increasing the effectiveness of the
recently operational F-15 and F-16 air-
to-ground and air-to-air fighters im-
mensely.
A senior defense official was emphatic
in saying that the stealth breakthrough
renders present air defense systems almost
useless. The Soviets, he said, will now
be faced with a choice of trying to function
without air defense, or of spending tens
of billions of dollars to invent and field
new ones. ?
Although he declined to describe the
new aircraft in detail, the new planes,
he said, need not be "hot burners" because
"We don't believe they can be effectively
engaged." ?Thus, he said, the Pentagon's
secret three year, recent R&D program
has been aimed at "optimizing" them for
other characteristics, like payload and
range."
The new aircraft, he said, offer "enor-
mous leverage for a relatively low dollar
investment."
He compared their significance to the
pOssibility of an operational hi-energy laser
system this way:
"Even if we could achieve those goals,
it's not clear that we would build and
deploy one. The payoff just isn't that clear.
I consider this development more signifi-
cant than the hi-energy laser."
Without specifying which stealth planes
have been approved for production, the
defense official acknowledged that there
would be significant differences between
air-to-air or interceptor versions of the new
stealth systems and their air-to-ground and
reconnaissance counterparts. An air-to-
ground defense suppression vehicle, for
instance, would clearly need to have in-
ternal ordnance stations, something only
the F-111 has today, since stealth tech-
nology has not advanced to the point of
"hiding" bombs, which for their relatively
small size generate unusually high radar
returns.
No US allies have been briefed on or
have been privy to the stealth aircraft
program, AFJ has been told, and no de-
cision has been weighed on when or
whether to release the technology behind
the new planes for their consideration or
use.
Some sources refer to the revolutionary
new planes as the "phantom fighters" and
to one of the unmanned reconnaissance
versions as the "Shadow." IN*11
THE JOURNAL HAS KNOWN about
essential elements of the program for several
years, but has not revealed them following
a request by a senior Pentagon official in
mid-1978 that AFJ not print, on national
security grounds, a story AFJ had written
at that time about the the first "stealth"
A
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.A.P7.7.7?2_2 WASHINGTON POST
ON PAGE 28 August 1980
'Recipient of Leak
On 'Stealth' Calk.
It a Political Move
: -
The---:editor of a military affairs
magazine told a House panel yester -
day th'at' story about the Pentagon's -
reeentlY.- -disclosed -
-through. .v;?leaked to him by-a high-
leveLDele,useimartment official..
Benjamin
Benjamin Schemmer, editor of th
Armed Forces Journal, told-the_Housi
Armed _Services subconimittee on in.
vestigations that he-felt the.action wa?
'"a directed leak for political purpose
because I-can o ?no rea ? I
11 I le I I I - - II I
tagantkar! He also termed the action-
`?tatanSPasible'.'-' , - ? ? ----,-!-!''
.., Defense:-"Seaiet4ryliaioliitrOwp .7-
no.uriced last Friday that 'the-United'
States-had achieved a 'major techno-:
logical-. bre-akthr-ough,-dubb ed'
"Stealth,'-that -would prevent Soviet
radar- or -other sensors from spotting
American aircraft until it was too latedi
to knock them down.., .,1. .. ..
Schemiier said after the hearing--;
that-he was briefed by. a "senior del-7
, ferise.official," whom, he declined -16,
name, -at least .two days before' the -
full.:House, and Senate :Arnied Ser);-
ices committees w,ere informed of-the-
project.',..Committee -,in embers "were:
sworn to.ultra-secrecy while the maga-
zine was. at .press," he said ,later..-,.,:
' There:-Ehads been leaks: in otherv
?publications- 'about some7-1details-, of:
the project...-Schemmer: said he ..was:
giOnitiathe4rAmpFesstarraiNtehate.theivaBen,
fense Department
t b !`wantell,,4ke.starirl
, ecause ?I:A Tirevzous le .als abont ?
Stikall1Za,? -:: .- -
?
norlaccifipri in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/12/23 : CIA-RDP92B00478R000800340037-7
I on the episode in which eight U.S. service-F,..07,',7N7);.t17'
vietnamese camp at Son Tay in 1970.
11 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/12/23: CIA-RDP92B00478R000800340037-7
NEWSWEEK 1 SEPTEMBER 1980 (26 AUGUST) Pg. 23
Unveiling a Ghost Plane
The latest weapon in the U.S. defense arsenal isn't there
at all?at least as far as Soviet radar is concerned. Word leaked
out last week that the Pentagon has been developing new tech-
nology that would make aircraft virtually invisible to enemy
detection devices. "Stealth" planes, as they are known, involve
a variety of innovations including unconventional shape, radar-
absorbing materials?and electronic jamming devices to reduce
the "radar echo" aircraft normally give off. Defense analysts
said the stealth technology would foil Soviet air defenses that
are becoming so sophisticated that by the late 1980s they will
probably be able to stop most conventional aircraft. Several
experimental stealth planes have been built and flown, Pentagon
spokesmen said last week, indicating that at least one had
crashed during testing.
Disarray: Defense Secretary Harold Brown called the stealth
plane a "major technological advance" that "alters the military
balance significantly." In fact, the breakthrough has been de-
veloped over at least twenty years. Experts say it involves
contouring aircraft to eliminate radar-reflecting flat planes and
sharp corners (one plan envisions a plane shaped like a manta
ray) and repositioning radar-sensitive parts such as jet air in-
takes so that they scatter enemy radar waves into confusing
disarray. Defense technicians also have perfected lightweight
coating materials that absorb radar waves, and they are working
on designs that may prevent detection of a plane's heat-pro-
ducing jet engines by infra-red scanners. Eventually, stealth
technology can be applied to a whole range of manned and
unmanned aircraft, Defense officials said, and they may propose
plans for an advanced stealth bomber to Congress next March
as an alternative to the scuttled B-1.
Disclosures about the "invisible plane" coincided with an
Administration campaign to show that it is aware of U.S.
defense vulnerabilities?and is moving to correct them. Earlier
in the week, in a speech before the Naval War College, Brown
officially unveiled the new U.S. strategy for limited nuclear
exchanges with the Soviet Union (NEwswEEK, Aug. 18). The
limited war plan?actually in the works for years?calls for
CBS News
Invisible weapon: Artist's conception of a 'stealth' aircraft
targeting more U.S. missiles against Russian military instal-
lations in the event of a limited Soviet first strike. Brown
said that the Soviet potential for destroying land-based U.S.
strategic missiles already "has been realized?or close to it."
That reading was slightly more pessimistic than usual, but
insiders said it was based more on political factors?such as
building support for the proposed MX mobile missile?than
on any new intelligence about Soviet strategic breakthroughs.
Victory: Republican Sen. Jake Garn of Utah, a virulent
opponent of SALT II, called the timing of Brown's speech
"the most patently political use of one of the most sensitive
Presidential policy responsibilities I have ever witnessed." But
other critics of Carter defense policy seemed ? impressed. Paul
Nitze, a former Deputy Defense Secretary and SALT expert,
declared that the Administration "has recognized facts that
have always been there and has now done something about
the problem . . . The proposals are realistic." Coming from
such a prominent hawk, that was precisely the kind of strategic
victory the White House needs in this political year.
MELINDA BECK with WILLIAM J. COOK
and JOHN J. LINDSAY in Washin$ton
1-F
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