US stealth fighter jet can’t evade Russian radars: Report

The US’s newly developed radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be able to escape Russian radars.

“The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter… is not, in fact, stealthy in the eyes of a growing number of Russian and Chinese radars,” the Aviation Week said.

It said the jet, which the Pentagon hopes would be stealthy, is “having all sorts of shortcomings.”

The report said the jet is not even effective in “jamming enemy radar”, adding the US Defense Department is spending “hundreds of billions of dollars” for a “fighter that will need the help of specialized jamming aircraft.”

It said the F-35 is even “susceptible to detection by radars operating in the VHF bands of the spectrum.”

The report said Russian armed forces have been armed with a “highly counterstealth radar system” – unveiled at an air show near Moscow last August – that is able to “track small targets once the VHF radar has detected them.”

The F-35 has not been equipped with “onboard jamming,” the report said.

“Had the JSF requirements been tightened by one iota since the program started, its advocates would be blaming that for the delays and overruns,” it said.
The new US fighter’s “jamming is mostly confined to the X-band,” the report said.

Speculation about the US fighter comes at a time US President Barack Obama is apparently set to turn the ongoing crisis in Ukraine into a war with Russia.

Tensions between Moscow and the West mounted after Crimea separated from Ukraine and requested to join Russia after a referendum on March 16, in which nearly 97 percent of the participants voted for rejoining Russia. Moscow subsequently accepted Crimea’s request.