Jeb wrote:

It would seem to me to be likely that a simple software code
modification would allow an Aegis system to detect smaller, slower
returns (I would expect that right now, those get filtered out so that
seabirds don't cause spurious readings on the radar scopes).

I doubt that very much. If radar systems have great difficulty in
detecting and tracking stealthy aircraft like the F-117, B-2 and so on
- big objects with lots of metal in them - they are going to find it
vastly more difficult to pick up a very small, mostly plastic object
which has also been designed to be as stealthy as possible. If that
could be remedied by tweaking the software, then all of the money spent
on stealth aircraft has been wasted.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk