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Coming soon, the not-so-stealthy bomber heading for a TV near you

By Barry Fox

31 August 2002

FOR most of us, TV interference means nothing worse than a few blips on the screen. But for the US Air Force it has become a billion-dollar problem. That’s because the USAF’s flagship aircraft, the stealth bomber, could soon be announcing its supposedly secret arrival in war zones on ordinary TV sets.

According to the military journal Jane’s Defence Weekly, the radar systems on board the USAF’s B-2 stealth bombers will interfere with satellite-based communications services that are being planned for the end of the decade. The bombers’ radar signals are so powerful they could even fry civilian electronics.

The…

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