Portugal is developing a graphene-based material capable of significantly reducing the visibility of drones and military aircraft to radar, an innovation that could put Europe in the race for stealth technology.
The project is led by GTechPlasma (source in Portuguese), a spin-off from the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, which has created a plasma-based system to produce tailor-made, high-quality graphene materials.
"At the moment, we are very focused on developing coatings for radar and electromagnetic radiation absorption," explains Bruno Soares Gonçalves, co-founder of GTechPlasma, in an interview with Euronews.
The material has been developed to absorb electromagnetic radiation, including radar waves, an essential feature for stealth applications.
"The most obvious applications at the moment are in the defence sector, but there are many other areas where this type of material has potential for electromagnetic shielding, to reduce radiation. That is why we believe we have an extremely interesting material for radar-absorbent coatings," says the Instituto Superior Técnico researcher, stressing that similar solutions are rare and subject to strict international controls.
