The various weapons and cameras on a Manta have a rough front-aspect size order. Going from biggest to smallest.

• Rocket Pod
• Torpedo
• OBS Camera
• Heavy Bomb
• Fuel tank
• 20mm gun
• Medium / Light Bomb
• 30mm gimbal gun
• AA missile
• Laser missile
• TV missile

A “clean” AA armed manta

Unclean pod + rocket + torp manta

I’d say all of those big surfaces make it 2-3x more visible from the front aspect.

RCS modelling?

The above has got me thinking, and this is all too early to consider putting into v1.2 yet, but is worth throwing around for fun.

Rather than pure distance, maybe we should model RCS, give each aircraft a base RCS rating, and increase it based on the kinds of weapons are fitted.

For the Petrel and Razorbill, their RCS will be huge because of their rotors, so it wont make any difference there, but the Manta and Albatross? maybe.

The above isn’t a Manta, it’s an X-47b US carrier launched drone prototype. Looks pretty familiar.

The X-47b has been designed as a low observability airframe. I’d say this is pretty small compared to an F-18, so perhaps Revolution could model this as the basis for stealth when flying clean?