As the US faces issues with aging radar-absorbent materials, China has turned to traditional methods for its advanced solutions.

As U.S. stealth aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor face issues with peeling radar-absorbing materials—a problem compared to "shedding cicada wings"—China says it has discovered an age-old fix for its fifth-generation planes.

New disclosures from defense sector scientists indicate that advanced stealth technology may be technology aboard China's smooth-skinned stealth fighters Its durability might be attributed to a 3,000-year-old textile advancement: the craft of silk jacquard weaving.

Modern stealth airplanes, including the F-22 and F-35 Relies on multi-layered coatings to bounce back radar waves. However, these materials break down quickly when subjected to strain.

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U.S. maintenance records indicate that even small scratches caused by high-speed flights or dust storms in desert environments can significantly reduce stealth effectiveness, necessitating repeated applications of protective coatings. radar-absorbent materials (RAM) approximately every three weeks, with expenses surpassing $60,000 per flight hour, as reported by certain US media outlets.

Plus, in regions like Florida, humidity exacerbates bonding issues, while corrosion near coastal bases further compromises performance.

Chinese aerospace engineers have frequently criticized these temporary fixes. Rather, they aimed for a fundamental solution—one integrated into the very fabric of the materials themselves.

As reported in a study released last month in the Chinese scholarly magazine Knitting Industries, the solution is found in a two-tier combined material modeled after Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) Jacquard looms – a weaving method for silk that originated around 200 BC.

By incorporating conductive threads into a warp-knit "double-faced jacquard" design, scientists from the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) along with Tiangong University developed a fabric that absorbs up to 90.6 percent of radar waves within the 8-26 GHz range, surpassing traditional coating methods.

According to Professor Jiang Qian’s research team, this material represents a “fusion of traditional patterns with contemporary electromagnetism.”

Like traditional jacquard weavers - who used punch-card-like "flower books" to encode intricate designs - Jiang and her colleagues embedded radar-defeating geometries directly into the textile's matrix. Quartz fibres form a dielectric base layer, while stainless steel yarns create resonant circuits that dissipate electromagnetic energy as heat.

Each conductive thread is carefully positioned to direct and capture signals, similar to how ancient weavers would arrange silk strands to illustrate dragons or clouds, as stated by the researchers .

The laboratory tests highlighted significant mechanical benefits. It was discovered that the composite can endure up to 93.5 megapascals of longitudinal tensile stress—over tenfold compared to conventional coatings. This exceptional resilience is due to the knitted material’s anisotropic design, wherein the load-carrying threads run parallel to the direction of force. aircraft's stress vectors, reflecting the axial strength found in Han Dynasty textiles.

The Smith Chart, used for electromagnetic analysis, also demonstrated nearly perfect impedance matching in the longitudinal direction, enabling radar waves to penetrate rather than reflect, according to the study.

Archaeologists trace jacquard's origins to Shang dynasty (1600-1046BC) looms, on which artisans wove geometric patterns using manual "multi-heddle" systems. By the Han era, these had evolved into sophisticated machines with up to 120 heddle rods - a technology preserved in the world's first jacquard weaving machine unearthed at Chengdu's Laoguanshan Tombs.

"Those Han looms weren't just for luxury," said a Beijing-based science historian, who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the technology.

Much like early binary computers that stored weaving codes in physical memory, today’s military engineers appear to have rediscovered this approach.

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The article initially appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), which is the premier source for news coverage of China and Asia.

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