The introduction to stealth aircraft was part luck and part trial and error and the geniuses who brought this technology to us, have boosted our Military Might 10-fold. Stealth has come a long way indeed, but it is not without issue, as there are ways to detect stealth aircraft. For instance there is some vulnerability of easy detection by cell phone wave disruption as the aircraft flies thru them.

Indeed at the time of this technology cell phones did not yet exist, as the stealth strategies in aircraft design were engineered for specific frequencies or groups of them. Older radar system technology from WWII can also slightly see stealth aircraft, but not very well, again these aircraft were designed for use with different newer radars of their day. We of course now know of many of the qualification needed to maintain stealth in the future of the battlespace in the net-centric era of warfare. But the Stealth such as our F-117s were our first real try and success.

Today the Stealth of the US Military is indeed substantially superior to all other attempts by mankind. Indeed in the middle of a war with decoy strategies, Electronic Attack, downed enemy communication while in complete chaos and fog of war, our current Stealth Strategies and enhanced designs are probably good enough in a war waged today. This is not to say that it will not be vulnerable in the near future and other strategies will need to compliment the use of stealth in the battlespace if we are to hope to have low loss rates, but it is our way to continually push ourselves to better our efforts with each new component of this technology.

We may find that the idea of the Navys latest skimmer supersonic or subsonic cruise missiles flying under the radars at high speed maybe the best option for first strike. Many a Pentagon war planner says; Gimme a boat load of those and lets see who reigns, China a super power my butt; shoot it, forget about it and shut up, no one ever saw it coming and mums the word. You know that such war planners are into winning as their primary objective. Once the war starts and you have adequately taken out the major SAM (surface-to-air missile) sites and specific ground radar units, then I say Stealth is a go but we need to stay reality based, and as you say they are expensive and I am always thinking Taxpayer. No sense in losing expensive stealth assets against a technologically advanced adversary and we want bang for our buck.

All this is fun discussion but in the end, when war breaks out; we go to war with what we have if we must. And since we got the skimmer missiles and stealth UAVs, send them in first, as we must use them as effectively as possible. This is an interesting conversation. Pick another topic.