Computation of RCS from a flat plate covered with radar absorbing material

Since the early 1980s, the electromagnetic stealth technique has been developed for reducing the radar cross section (RCS) of aircraft based on two principal methods. One is to cover the aircraft with a radar absorbing material (RAM), the other is to modify the aircraft shape. The scattering from an arbitrary flat plate of electrically large dimensions and coated with a RAM is analysed by using the Maliuzhinets scattering solution of an impedance wedge and the concept of the equivalent edge current. The RCS of several typical coated plates are computed and compared with the data from the method of physical optics.