this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Ever heard of a concept called "Radio Silence" ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_silence#Military
Why can everything else can be turned off when needed but not this? Surely "the pilot ejected" would be a good moment to start knowing what's going on with the plane
Because putting a beacon on a stealth aircraft is like installing a flashlight onto an invisible car.
Even if people can't see the rest of the invisible car, they'll see the flashlight and track that instead. At a minimum, such a feature would be 'default off', and never default on.
A stealth aircrafts literal design is to be invisible to enemy radio waves. The last thing you wanna do is you know... Emit a radio beacon.
Stealth aircraft spend a lot more time flying training missions over friendly territory than combat missions over enemy territory. They use transponders on training missions, such as this one, because they want to be easily visible to other military and civilian pilots.