Become a TechRadar Insider
- Volcanic minerals may 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 when drones return with dramatically weaker electronic signatures
A small Turkish defense research company claims it developed a spray-applied radar-absorbing coating capable of reducing drone visibility against modern detection systems.
The project, led by Turkish researcher Yunus İnce, centers around a material called Kürşat 3.0, developed during a seven-year engineering effort.
According to technical details, the coating applies directly onto aircraft surfaces instead of relying upon expensive composite stealth panels or complex structural modifications.
Volcanic materials may change how low-cost drones avoid radar detection
Kürşat 3.0 uses basalt and pumice, both volcanic rocks, as its core ingredients rather than exotic synthetic compounds.
Recent testing reportedly produced an attenuation of 43.2 decibels (dB), a dramatic reduction in the strength of a radar signal reflected to the receiver.
In practical terms, this means the radar echo from the coated drone is approximately 20,000 to 40,000 times weaker than that from an uncoated object of the same size and shape.
An attenuation figure of 43.2 decibels would place this material in genuinely competitive territory if confirmed independently.
Academic literature typically reports effective broadband radar absorption in the range of 20 to 30 decibels under standardized conditions.
Pushing substantially beyond that threshold while maintaining the simplicity of a spray application would represent a meaningful advance over commercially available products.
With 43.2dB, a drone that should be visible at several kilometers with a strong, trackable return signature would either disappear entirely from the radar screen or appear only at such close range that the defending system has virtually no time to react.
In military terms, this shrinks the detection and engagement envelope from a comfortable buffer zone down to a frantic last-second warning.
Radar stealth conventionally requires either carefully shaped airframes or expensive composite panels bonded by specialists.
This material works differently by exploiting the microscopic pore structures found in basalt and pumice.
Those natural cavities trap incoming electromagnetic waves and convert them into heat instead of reflecting energy toward the radar receiver.
The underlying scientific principle has attracted academic attention for over a decade, making the approach plausible rather than fanciful.
A sprayable formula eliminates the seams and coverage 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 at scale.
Defenders have responded by expanding radar networks and electronic warfare systems specifically designed to find and kill those drones.
Reducing a drone's radar signature complicates every stage of that detection chain, and doing so with a coating that adds negligible weight would make stealth accessible to operators using commercial hardware.
Turkey's defense industry has already proved with the Bayraktar TB2 that affordable unmanned systems can reshape battlefields before Western analysts fully appreciate the shift.
However, at the time of writing, no independent testing 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 vibration, weather, and real-world radar frequency variations.
Until independent verification appears across operationally relevant bands, Kürşat 3.0 remains an intriguing research outcome rather than a military breakthrough.
Via Defence Blog
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.
