[2OEH8eoCRo0]

How else do you release bombs? I believe that even modern stealth aircraft are more vulnerable when releasing missiles or bombs.

The thing is if the aircraft gets to the point of releasing bombs or missiles it has pretty much done its job. You won't get that far without being stealthy.

[KMag]

The GP is suggesting the doors should have had zig-zag edges.

However, from what I've read, it sounds like radar reflectons from the doors themselves are dwarfed by radar signals bouncing off the upper bulkhead of the bomb bay. If they made the side bulkheads of the bomb bay at 90 degrees to the upper bulkhead, then an incoming radio wave bouncing off both the upper and side bulkheads will leave anti-parallel to its incoming direction... right back at the sending radar. (This geometric identity is used on the laser reflectors left on the moon. They send the laser right back at the sender without having to track the Earth.)

Though, maybe the reporting I've read is just imprecise, and maybe the doors do have a larger radar cross-section than the bomb bays themselves.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

The GP is asserting, without any evidence at all, that the designers simply did not think about the radar return from the bomb bay opening. That's a rather absurd position to take, vs the more banal explanation that engineering always involves tradeoffs.

[zerkten]

You can only reduce the window that the aircraft is vulnerable, or deploy some kind of countermeasure to provide additional cover.

Only in the worst kind of situation is it acceptable to lose an aircraft like this, especially when you have control of the airspace. In most cases, stealth aircraft should be detected so late that you can't mount an initial defense, or an effective counter attack while the aircraft is returning to base.

[pastrami_panda]

From the top of my head using a hatch that folds up into an empty space seems like could reduce the radar signature significantly. I guess better yet a sliding door if avoiding empty space is paramount. I'm no expert but it just seems odd to expose several right angles when it seems it could be easily avoided?

[spockz]

The doors could recess and roll away? I’m not an aeronautical engineer so no idea what that would do with the radar profile nor the flight characteristics of the plane.

[lostdog]

The bombs could be ejected at high speed along with the outer hatch door, kind of like a magazine, and then a secondary inner hatch closes to cover the hole.

...but I'm also not an aircraft designer.