Stealth under fire: How modern missiles challenge the F‑35
The Houthis have threatened an American F-35 aircraft, compelling its pilot to manoeuvre to avoid an anti-aircraft missile. F-16 aircraft have also been targeted, with the risk of these planes being shot down assessed as high.
Why is it that aircraft, touted by both manufacturers and users as difficult to detect, fail to provide American pilots with full operational freedom? The Aviationist service seeks to explain how the F-35 was attacked.
The explanation may lie in the Houthis' use of modern anti-aircraft missiles with thermal guidance, such as the Piorun missile. These missiles' warheads detect heat sources—like engines, particularly exhaust nozzles—which the missile then targets.
This guidance can be disrupted using flares—pyrotechnic charges ejected from the aircraft that burn at high temperatures, potentially confusing the missile's sensor.
How can a stealth aircraft be detected?
A solution that reduces the effectiveness of flares and might have been used by the Houthis are missiles equipped with guidance sensors that operate like thermal imaging cameras.
Such missiles "see" not only point heat sources but also their shape. This enables tracking the silhouette of the aircraft against the sky and ignoring flares.
This technology was likely employed in the Iranian Saqr-1 missiles supplied to the Houthis. However, due to their low speed, different types of missiles were probably used to attack the aircraft.
IRST – a heat-detecting sensor
Fifth-generation aircraft, including the F-35, are designed with stealth technology, which means reduced radar and thermal signatures due to features like additional shielding of engine nozzles or cooling of exhaust gases. Completely eliminating heat or hiding hot elements of the aircraft is impossible, allowing for potential detection.
Thus, a sensor that detects heat sources can supplement radar systems. IRST sensors (infrared search and track) are installed on many Russian and European aircraft, as well as some American ones.
IRST allows for entirely passive detection of heat sources in the sky—without emitting signals that reveal presence—which under optimal conditions enables detection of aircraft from distances of tens of kilometres.
