- Volcanic minerals could allow ordinary drones to evade advanced radar detection systems
- Spray-on stealth coatings could eliminate expensive composite panels from military drone manufacturing
- Radar networks become less effective as drones return with significantly weaker electronic signatures
A small Turkish defense research company says it has developed a spray-applied radar-absorbing coating that can reduce drone visibility compared to modern detection systems.
The project, led by Turkish researcher Yunus İnce, centers around a material called Kürşat 3.0, developed over a seven-year engineering effort.
According to technical details, the coating is applied directly to aircraft surfaces instead of relying on expensive stealth composite panels or complex structural modifications.
Volcanic material could change how low-cost drones avoid radar detection
Kürşat 3.0 uses basalt and pumice, two volcanic rocks, as base ingredients rather than exotic synthetic compounds.
Recent tests reportedly produced an attenuation of 43.2 decibels (dB), a dramatic reduction in the strength of a radar signal reflected back to the receiver.
Concretely, this means that the radar echo from the coated drone is approximately 20,000 to 40,000 times weaker than that of an uncoated object of the same size and shape.
An attenuation figure of 43.2 decibels would put this material in truly competitive territory if independently confirmed.
Academic literature generally reports effective absorption of broadband radars in the range of 20 to 30 decibels under standardized conditions.
Pushing significantly beyond this threshold while retaining the simplicity of spray application would represent a significant improvement over commercially available products.
With 43.2 dB, a drone that should be visible several kilometers away with a strong and traceable return signature would either disappear from the radar screen entirely or only appear at such a close distance that the defense system would have virtually no time to react.
In military terms, this reduces the detection and engagement envelope from a comfortable buffer zone to a frantic last-second warning.
Radar stealth typically requires either carefully formed airframes or expensive composite panels glued together by specialists.
This material works differently by exploiting the microscopic pore structures found in basalt and pumice.
These natural cavities trap incoming electromagnetic waves and convert them to heat instead of reflecting the energy back to the radar receiver.
The underlying scientific principle has attracted the attention of academics for more than a decade, making the approach plausible rather than fanciful.
A sprayable formula eliminates the seams and roof gaps that plague traditional composite panel installations on complex curved surfaces.
Why do we need drones with very low detection?
The war in Ukraine has shown that drones costing a few thousand dollars can destroy armored vehicles and disrupt supply lines on a large scale.
Defenders have responded by developing radar networks and electronic warfare systems specifically designed to detect and kill these drones.
Reducing a drone’s radar signature complicates each step in this detection chain, and doing so with a coating that adds negligible weight would make stealth accessible to operators using commercial equipment.
The Turkish defense industry has already proven with the Bayraktar TB2 that affordable unmanned systems can reshape battlefields before Western analysts fully appreciate this change.
However, at the time of writing, no independent testing has verified this technology and the relevant radar frequency bands for operational use remain unspecified.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and a single attenuation figure from unpublished testing does not yet meet that standard.
The volcanic materials themselves are inexpensive and abundant, which is scientifically reasonable.
But laboratory measurements rarely survive translation to field conditions with variations in real-world vibration, weather, and radar frequency.
Until independent verification emerges on the operationally relevant tapes, Kürşat 3.0 remains an intriguing research result rather than a military breakthrough.
Via Defense Blog
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