Stealth-Maneuver Generation for Non-Stealth Aircraft: A Control Barrier Function Approach

Aiming to address the vulnerability of non-stealth aircraft to radar detection due to inherent design limitations, this paper proposes a method to generate maneuvers that reduce an aircraft’s radar cross-section (RCS) value below a specified threshold. The proposed method employs control barrier functions and leverages the relationship between control inputs and the RCS. Due to confidentiality concerns, the required RCS database for the F-16 aircraft was generated through analyses performed using the created geometry. The results are compared with a virtual path that excludes RCS constraints and does not alter the aircraft’s attitude. Simulations reveal that (Formula presented.) of the cases using the proposed method achieve a mean RCS value below the threshold, compared to only (Formula presented.) for the virtual path. Moreover, the ratio of the time during which the RCS constraint is successfully met to the total simulation time averages over (Formula presented.) across all simulations, demonstrating the method’s effectiveness in reducing the RCS value below the specified threshold.