STEALTH NOUN (WAR AND WEAPONRY)

A branch of military technology in the US concerned with making aircraft and weapons hard for the enemy to detect by radar or other sensing systems; usually used attributively, in Stealth aircraft, Stealth bomber, Stealth technology, etc. Etymology: A specialized use of an old sense of stealth 'furtive or underhand action, an act accomplished by eluding observation or discovery' (a sense which survives in modern English mainly in the phrase by stealth). History and Usage: The development of Stealth technology (known more formally as low observable technology) first gained official backing in the US in the second half of the seventies. Its most famous example, the Stealth bomber or B2 bomber, was developed amid great secrecy during the eighties and was first seen in operation by the general public during the Gulf War of January-February 1991. Detection is avoided by the use of a shape with proportions and angles that are not easily visible on radar, materials which evade infrared sensing, etc. Key technologies that have been identified are the following: Stealth technology. Engines and fuels. Avionics. Aviation Week & Space Technology 29 Jan. 1979, p. 121 Microprose produced an F-19 simulation on the PC at a time when the B2 stealth bomber hadn't even been glimpsed. CU Amiga Apr. 1990, p. 12