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Nanotech Paints For Military
pmacwill wrote to us with a recent article on Pennet in regards to the U.S. military's proposed use of nanotech paints. Actually, it goes beyond proposal -- and beyond paint, as it would allow vehicles to change camo patterns very easily, and would also repair micro-cracks and fractures without the need for service.
Army researchers eye nanomachine-based 'smart' paints for combat vehicles
by John Keller
PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. -- U.S. Army experts are trying to embed microscopic electromechanical machines in paint that could detect and heal cracks and corrosion in the bodies of combat vehicles, as well as give vehicles the chameleon-like quality of rapidly altering camouflage to blend in with changing operating environments.
Officials of the Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (TACOM-ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., are working with scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, N.J., to develop nanotechnology-based "smart" coatings for Army vehicles and other materiel.
Unlike today's paint coatings on battlefield vehicles, Army experts seek to develop paints with the ability to self-correct because of changing circumstances and tell the user of potential anomalies such as corrosion or adhesion problems.
Today's conventional paints are labor intensive to apply, and potentially hazardous to the people working with them, Army officials say. In addition, most of these coatings need to be touched-up by hand, which can hide damage to the metal or other substrate material.
As a result, Army leaders estimate the total cost for U.S. Department of Defense corrosion-related problems at $10 billion per year -- $2 billion of which is related to painting and paint-scraping operations.
To rectify these problems experts from Picatinny and the New Jersey Institute of Technology plan to develop a prototype paint with nanomachine powders consisting of tiny machines that act as gears, motors, and electronic switches at the atomic level.
These "smart" paints should be able to alert maintenance technicians of potential problems with the coating, in addition to modifying their physical characteristics on command.
These future "smart" coatings will involve far more, however, than simply brushing on paint from a can, points out Joe Agento, program integration manager at the TACOM-ARDEC Industrial Ecology Center at Picatinny Arsenal.
"Rather than paints, we are talking about coatings, which could be electroplated, or put on with physical vapor deposition qualities. We are talking about more things than paints. They could be metallic or have other qualities," Agento says.
"We're trying to prototype a coating to replace the primers and top coats we use today, and develop a one-system coating that incorporates nanomachines within the coating itself," says Laura Battista, environmental engineer at the Industrial Ecology Center.
"Now we are looking at the first stage -- a coating with nanomachines," Battista says. "We want to determine what the nanomachines are that we need; we still have to determine what that nanomachine would be -- switches, motors, or gears -- to allow the coating to change on command."
Vehicle operators might quickly change the camouflage paint scheme on vehicles with "smart" coatings with an electrical impulse, Battista explains. "What we hope this coating can do is amazing. We're also looking at making it seem invisible."
Researchers will begin by determining what the properties of a "smart" coating would be. Later, researchers would develop a prototype, before applying the coating to a tank or other Army vehicle, Battista says.
A prototype "smart" coating may be developed as early as 2005, she says. "Once you already have the properties of the coating, such as the camouflage properties, we hope that changing the camouflage is as simple as changing pixels in the coating; it shouldn't be that difficult," she says.
Assuming that researchers receive the necessary funding, Battista speculates that "smart" coatings might be deployed with active combat forces sometime between 2005 and 2009.
Military & Aerospace Electronics October, 2002
Author(s) : John Keller
John
I'd be more interested in the medical uses ... fix cracks and clogs in the ole arteries, etc.
I'm waiting for nanotech tattoo ink. Illustrated Man, here we come.
Needless to say, I was rather befuddled on the benefits of really small pants to the Army.
That just adds more headaches for me and the other mechanics in the Army
If there is nothing left worth living, what are you willing to die for?
would also repair micro-cracks and fractures without the need for service
...? Does this sound... not right? I meen, yes, cosmeticly it would be repaired. But it would create structual week points. This could be a big danger to those inside under millitary conditions.
And that's half way along the path to nano-coatings which blend in with the scenery behind you...
...or is is a cloaked Klingon Warbird?
"Is that you or is it just a blurry lamppost?"
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
What I hope the Playstation 3 can do is amazing. However, that means exactly jack shit in terms of reality. I really wish we could get news of some real advancements, rather than PR announcements of new research projects.
All Your Memory Are Belong To Java
But what about the automotive industry? Where planned obsolesence will no longer work if this technology is introduced? Sure it's military technology now, but in a few years, it'll trickle into the main stream... and then what? Are the cars of the future going to come with a monthly service fee? Cuz right now planned obsolesence is what keeps them in the black... If I could buy a car that would fix itself for years to come, I would. Why buy a new one every 3-5 years as we're required to now since all the damn parts break...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
He is on the executive board of this project at Rice University over in the United States.
They're working on similar studies and experiments, and have been doing so since the late 1990s. From what I hear, it's going quite well and the funding is just extraordinary these days now that Republicans are in control of U.S. government policies these days.
Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada, B3H 3J5
Ok, pure speculation here. Wouldn't a military vehicle buzzing with nanomachines likely give off some sort of electroic signature that would be easy to detect? Just a question. I'm sure there are ways around it.
tcd004
What would you do with your own Oil company?
Now I can run red-lights! And you'll never see me!!! Muahahaa!
Why the army would want microscopic pants is beyond me..
Mix this in with fiberoptics or cameras, and you can have your the paint display what is on the opposite side of the vehicle. You will effectively see through the vehicle.
It's the dream of every geek and habitual speeder out there: car paint jobs that change at the tap of a button.
;-)
If the paint is active as well, I'd like to see how well it does combating rust 24/7.
Imagine...driving along and you decide you want a red car...or maybe a black car...or how about zebra stripes.
Or maybe a lot of huge rust spots, for when you're asking for money
...
This article is 10 times more amusing if you replace "paints" with pants. Try it, you'll see. Nanotechnology pants for all! I am so drunk.
Your paranoia is about as subtle as the alien probe in your neck.
Roll up tank camo?
That if I steal a hummer from the Army and run-away changing the camo patterns, they won't be able to find me?
I call that one over there!
We will be more interested on how clouds of nanomites can liquify a human in seconds than a hairline crack repairing coat of paint.
If it is as good at filling cracks as they say, Phyllis Diller could certainly use some.
Trolling is a art,
I was in the Army for three years as a mechanized infantryman (grunt). Anyhow, every Monday we were forced to perform 3.5 hours of 'preventative maintenance'. You wouldn't believe how much preventative maintenance actually would caause more harm than good. Good ol' Joe would try and test that fuel line and pull just a bit too hard...you get the picture. As it is now, I don't think the military can afford this expense. Sure, the initial costs can probably be quickly absorbed, but they tend to forget that, like many things, the initial shock of cost is usually outweighed by maintenance. But, I will admit, I am curious....
"This food is problematic."
before they decide it's a great weapon too and start spraying drab olive goo over other parts of the world?
That's the sound of your tax dollars being flushed right down the crapper. I hope they had the decency to wipe first. ;)
Still... it sounds cool. But then Star Wars sounds pretty fly as well. Can't they just come up with something that kills everybody instantly and be done with it? Oh wait...
What is music when you despise all sound?
This teacher has intimate knowlege of nanotechnology.
If you read the article, you'd see that it mentions the problems to the "user"...discression as to what to do after that would countless use many trees of regulations.
What's this Submit thingy do?
Of course, there's always the danger than an enemy might be able to "hack" the smart paints by zapping vehicles with electrical impulses of their own.
"What's going on, Sarge? The color of our tank just changed to hot pink! Mayday! Mayday!"
Having been in the military and ground units on the R&D side of the house, its goes with out saying anything that is of an increased technical difficulty is more prone to failure and less likely to be repaired in a combat environment. Second what to say that this technology couldnt be easily detected over a regular paint job. We're assuming that sensors are dealing with the visible light spectrum, I'm sure these gems would send off thier own display of some sort. Given that maybe this is the answer to friendly fire?
...should you choose to accept it, is to come up with an application/product combining nanotech paints, Organic LEDs, and Light-Emitting Silicon.
Any suggestions? I'm stumped.
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
...backed by both environmentalists and auto makers would require recyclement of cars older than X years.
Environmentalists would like it, to reduce pollution. It would also force development of effecient recycling of complex devices, or development of easier-to-recycle devices.
Auto makers would like it, to gaurantee sales every so often.
What's this Submit thingy do?
I am pretty sure that a physical vapor deposition machine would harm living tissue...
If they're electrically powered, then, yes, there'd be EM radiation.
If they're chemically powered, the only people who could see them would be environmentalists.
What's this Submit thingy do?
"As a result, Army leaders estimate the total cost for U.S. Department of Defense corrosion-related problems at $10 billion per year -- $2 billion of which is related to painting and paint-scraping operations. "
Thankfully, the research, development, and manufacturing of nanotech robots for the first deployment will only cost $40 billion, thus saving the DOD... uh, well, nevermind.
______________
Soon we will have transformer type vehicules that I have dreamed about
Of course, if these machines could be hacked, just imagine all the fun and mayhem that could be caused...
"Soldier, look at your tank, that's not camoflauge!"
soldier turns and reads on the now hot pink armour: "you've been H4x0red by Cowboy Neal"
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits
...if this is another case of concept plagiarism. We know of the concept before being stolen from Radix. I get the feeling some R&D guy got stoned and played Metal Gear Solid.
Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
homeless areas could look good thanks to the self-repair process
Homeless people don't have houses, so what's to repair? And even if you meant low-income areas, they couldn't afford the paint to begin with. I'm betting the cost to paint a tank with this stuff would be equal to the cost of providing aluminum siding for an entire block.
Heaven help the crew of the first tank to have its nano-tech coating go BSOD.
They even ADMIT that it'll STILL be vaporware in a few years!
Karma: NaN
...the first nanoluddite.
This isn't going to be a cool trend.
What's this Submit thingy do?
I know, I'll let people upload pictures to the web and have them display as the shell of my car. Because when the cops pull you over you can just flip a switch.
Or better yet....
I'll make a "license plate" that nano-tech changes to whatever I want. Then I can go to a parking lot and "steal" the plates off of some undercover cop car that matches the make and model of mine and never get pulled over!
Or better yet... advertise!
Oh wait... I got it... Bumpersticker of the Month/Day/Hour/Minute !!!!
Turn signals will be obsolete... I'll just flash a portion of my car!
Who needs brake lights? Just turn the whole back of your car into a giant stop sign!
I could go on...
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
Of course...I believe the Army has the same motto...save for the global search and replace of Green for Gray
duct tape and cuddlefish
Okay...four but who's counting?
iastor
"Remember your weapon was made by the lowest bidder."
And suddenly the expression "It's as fun as watching paint dry" takes on a whole new meaning.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Another toy for the military to spend millions of dollars on while people remain unemployed, homeless, or just plain poor here.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
This is what happens when you increase defense spending by a huge amount - they don't know what to do with it, so at that point, crazy little applications like smart paint start getting approved.
How about worrying about improving the 50% chance that the National Missile Defense program has of intercepting an incoming nuke? And even THAT's assuming that the missile follows a plain vanilla trajectory with no fancy moves.
Flame me if you want, but this is what you get when you put a kiddish idiot who likes to play with guns in the white house.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
My God, people, *we* *have* *gone* *too* *far*.
"[...] it shouldn't be that difficult," she says.
Famous last words.
Well, the Navy's current favourite paint-replacement is the applique, basically like a plastic wallpaper for planes and ships. Pretty easy to apply, very good weight advantages (paint can account for 800 lbs. on an average fighter because of all the repaints). 'Course, they haven't figured out how to get it off completely yet...the last I saw the scheme was to use lasers and dry ice to alternately heat and cool the applique until it basically flaked off.
Humph. Lasers and dry ice. Throw in a couple of dancers and you could sell tickets."What we hope this coating can do is amazing. We're also looking at making it seem invisible." . . . A prototype "smart" coating may be developed as early as 2005, she says.
I'm always unimpressed with this sort of "news". Of course what they hope it can do is amazing! And a lot of things "may" happen as early as 2005. But is there anything that indicates that they're making real progress? This is like a not-very-detailed grant proposal, in press release form.
To hear about cool things that one might do with nanotech, you're better off browsing the science fiction section of your local bookstore.
"I am sure I put it somewhere over here." CLUNK! "Ohw!"
All of those operations are performed by 'lowly' soldiers. ;)
Actually, they aren't anymore. Army vehicles must be painted with CARC (Chemical Agent Resistant Coating) paint, which is very hazardous to apply and generally is only applied by contractors or at the depot (like the one where I work). Big, special sealed paint booths are required to CARC paint a vehicle. This is why painting stuff is so expensive.
Of course, this could mean labor problems at the depot and with contractors, but that only affects civilians.
Unless they work up a nanopaint formula that's meant to be applied to rocks in the company area, soldiers will have plenty of painting to do for the forseeable future.
I know this because Tyler knows this.
Could this possibly be true or just a hyper-inflated figure to help sell/make the idea of bleeding-edge tech coatings seem realistic and feasible?
I mean, come on... $2 billion a year just for painting and paint removal? What are they doing? Hiring only the most intelligent and beautiful virginal labourers to paint tanks with paint made from elements only found in asteroids, using fine, #10 ultra-sable brushes, gently scraping paint off with custom made, solid gold, diamond tipped scrapers?
jeez...
RTFM; please, I beg you.
There have been rumors milling around that during WWII the US military was playing around with under-wing/fuselage lighting to camoflage bombers during daytime. It was considered useless at the time, but recently (I think the 80's?) there was a project that combined lighting with photoreceptors (CCD's maybe) where they were able to make a drone virtually invisible above a certain altitude. Rumor is it was classified after a few tests. Anyone heard anything like this?
A long time ago (1986 or so) I worked for a summer at the Night Vision Electro-optics lab at Ft. Belvoir, Maryland. The topic of study was infrared camouflage.
Visual camouflage works by fooling your eye into thinking the object is part of the background. This is done by breaking up profile, matching background colors, and various other tricks.
The same problem exists in the infrared, except you have the additional wrinkle of controlling IR emission (just like carrying around a flashlight blows visual camouflage).
IR happens to be a useful wavelength for detection, because it readily propagates through the atmosphere without loss (over 99% transmission, with exception of two frequencies near 2500 and 25000 where water absorbs and another absorbion band for CO2), and because most objects radiate it (e.g., people, sunlight on the hood of a vehicle, engines, leading edges on wingtips. etc.).
In the 2500 - 25000 nanometer range, to match up with the forested/vegetation background in Maryland, we needed to duplicate the chlorophyl curve, which is the dominant background emission spectra. And, pretty much, they were able to do so, with some expensive nets and other mechanisms. They were trying for an integrated visual/IR/radar camouflage system (the radar folks worked in the same lab).
It's very interesting to read about these paints, since this appears to be the first reasonably viable mechanism for achieving this. They would need a chlorophyl pattern for vegetated regions, a desert pattern for deserts, etc. They would also still need to baffle and reduce IR exhaust, since paint won't help camouflage heated air or hot gun barrels.
The mechanisms previewed so far in the literature (electromechanical gears, electroptical properties) wouldn't likely generate much signature, if any. However, there might be some operation characteristic (e.g., power on) that could be detected with a SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device). However, the SQUID would pick up the spark plugs in the tank long before the electronic signals to the paint.
--Adam
"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent." --Sun Tzu
You buy a new car every 3-5 years? Dude, the bubble burst... You shouldn't be buying a car less than 3 years old in the first place. Going $30k into debt every few years isn't REALLY helping the economy. HONEST.
But to address your point... Yes, the auto industry does make a mint on after-market touch-up paints. This is why they use yellow plastic on all dark cars, and black plastic on all light colored cars... So when the paint chips, it's obvious, and you have to go and drop either $30k on a new car, or at least $5 on a bottle of nail polish for your bumpers. It's quite literally, highway robbery.
As for perpetually self-repairing cars, I'm sure Ford is talking to Monsanto right now, about making nano-paint with a patented "terminator" gene. Don't worry. Your contribution to the well-being of the economy will not be made obsolete in the near future.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
At least in military R&D, enough research is done so that fundamental breakthroughs are accomplished. yes, it's true that the weapons systems may not work as promised, but, the important thing is that the fundamental research is done, and we get the benefit of it.
SO that is why I hope the military spending is angled more toward biological weaponry and bio-defenses--the resulting R&D could trigger breakthroughs in biology, which could help all of us live longer. Corporate funding has been aimed to this area as well, but it goes for the low-lying fruit; plus, it never goes far enough to generate breakthroughs; only goes far enough to generate executive bonuses...
Back to the good old days of the cold war, I say.
That will also mean the draft, and more jobs and more money for us old guys....
Sig:
Navy nuke sub lifestyle?
Well, "trying" sounds like they're actually doing stuff. If you look a little farther down on the article, it looks like they haven't finished brainstorming what they want to do with smart paints that don't even exist yet. This sounds to me like they are about to convene a committee that will put out a document title "Neat Things We Could Do With Smart Paint." It's not like this stuff is even close to being anything other than vaporware, even in a lab setting.
At the moment, this stuff is about as mature a technology as replicators from Star Trek.
I want my car to have something like solid snake's stealth camo. *whine*
See, therein lies the problem. The paradigm has changed, and the military needs to change with it.
Who cares if your chobham armour can shrug off 120 mm rounds, if the attack isn't coming from a T-80, but rather from a child who is willing to sacrifice their life to smuggle a small container of nerve gas into your bivouac?
Or, put another way, ask the Soviets how much help their tank armour was when they invaded Afghanistan.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Like have a rear facing camera which projects what it sees on the front end of the vehicle. It wouldn't be perfect, im sure there'd be quite a bit of distortion and the like, but surely better than just a mottled paint job.
-
The sci-fi books have little bloodwork nanobots, star-trek-like replicators, and other, well, sci-fi uses. The only Real World application I've heard of before this was arrays of nanomirrors on microscopic rotors, and I don't know if that made it past the prototype stage.
This is real work. The army likes to throw money at a technology problem until it is solved. That probably means a real solution will come of this. And that's why this is News for Nerds, etc, and not just another sci-fi proposal.
John
Yeah the crack repair thing was mentioned, but according to the article the main goal seems to be chameleon-like camouflage for ground vehicles. Various high-tech sensing technologies keep moving closer to making visual recon obsolete. That and the time-frame mentioned, 2009 or so, makes me think this technology is aimed at battling low-tech opponents on their own turf, i.e. conquering the 3rd world.
Prototype by 2005? I doubt that. They admit to not even knowing what types of nanotech "gears and switches" they are going to need, let alone how to hook it all up to make the paint do what they want. How will they address individual pixels? How will they power it? Nanotech isn't magic, folks. As far as the military already having this technology, I doubt that too. Creating a coating with radar absorbing qualities is one thing, creating one that thinks and moves in a combat environment is entirely different.
Sounds like they've been smoking that "gotta spend our increased budget or lose it" crack.
One way to make color changing paint would be to create a grid of fins that could be moved closer together or farther apart. A butterflies wings are colored not with pigments, but with particles that have a gap sized to create interference cancelling out all but a specific wavelength of light. By adjusting the gap, maybe mechanically, maybe electrically, you could adjust the color.
Another way would be balls, with say 6 different spots of color on different sides. Rotate the ball to get different colors.
Another way would be pigment sacks, like a cuttlefish uses.
Now try to think about how to address all the pixels on, say, a tank, with any of those systems. Then think about how you would go about making a system like that self-repairing.
I would bet that by 2005 they have a prototype that looks bad, changes color slowly, fades quickly in sunlight, breaks down often, and doesn't self repair. They may have a working color changing paint by 2009, but I doubt they will get the self repairing bit down that soon.
Just thought about it a bit more. They may develop a self repairing undercoating which could fix small cracks in the metal or undercoating by reacting to oxidation and releasing a sealer or catalyst that would bond paint or metal It's making the color changing bit itself self repairing that sounds hard to me.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I can't believe you'd think of cars... You've obviously never had your wife do any painting.
I'd love to just have all the woodwork looking like wood again at the touch of a button.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Ever hear of DARPA? Ever use any of their inventions? (Hint: think Al Gore.)
John
other then the whole camo-stealth thing doesn't it sound like skin? self healing with micro fissures (cuts and bruises anyone) sounds very bio to me. do we need to feed it something other then petroleum products now?
Unless they work up a nanopaint formula that's meant to be applied to rocks in the company area
;-)
For anyone who doubts him, this comment alone proves he is genuinely involved with the military.
Anyelse else who thinks it would be rather cool to have military personnel who were able to on-the-fly merge themselves with the backdrop due to nano-camoflague jackets.
:-)
Well actually, I really just want one for myself, to heck with the military.
New Requisition for: 143,000,000,000 nanotech machine mechanics.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Actually, while Navy culture seems to focus heavily on maintaining the paint jobs on their vessels, the Army has no congruent urge to paint things. The closest match you'd get in the Army would be "if it moves, salute it, if it doesn't, don't", which isn't nearly as interesting.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
First requisition one pint of nanotech paint, splash it on your ream of paper.. then you can program it to display your requisition without needing a printer.
No, I never used Al Gore. They should have worked on him some more before releasing him.
If the nanotech that will be repairing the cracks is anything like the self-healing plastic, I really hope they find a way to make the repairing particles a different color, or maybe add some dye or something. If you've got a bunch of cracks in an area, and all the fixing particles are currently in use, you've got an area that can no longer fix itself. If the fixing particles are the same color as the stuff they're healing, you'd have no idea that it got damaged in the first place. You wouldn't want to go into battle with a tank that's unknowingly damaged.
Imagine connecting the nontech-based paint job to the vehicle's speedometer. As the vehicle moves, the camo pattern could scroll at the same speed in the opposite direction. In the proper environment, this could make the vehicle difficult to spot when moving, since the observer's eyes would be presented with data not normally present in nature.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
There are current, actual uses for nanotechnology, mostly in the realm of sensors so far. However, you are correct that this is the one of the first macroscopic uses granted funding by the government... I'm sure there have been classified projects receiving funding in nanotechnology before now.
But I agree with the parent post... this is not news, this is a notice that there may be news sometime in the future, that the army hopes there will be news if they throw enough money at the problem, and they are detailing what they hope the news will be several years from now.
Hope and speculation... not news.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
Hmm - I can just see it - enemy hackers attach US military by compromising their tactical networks and command all ordanence to change to international orange.
Or reprogram the nanotechs to start eating whatever they are painted on.
Not to mention 'future war' syndrome where people inhale nanotech particles emitted when dislodged by bullets and turn up green in more ways than one.
So you've got your nanotech computing surface paint, why not put it to work? The processors are presumably a lot slower than modern CPUs, but so what, they don't have much better to do other than decide what color to be (What color is a chameleon in a mirror?) So give it some solar power source and let it compute things in its spare time.
The other problem is what kind of computation a system like that would do "Why am I here?" "How do I get somewhere else that nobody will shoot at me?" "I smell paint remover! Run away! Run away!"
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
No, in the Army we only salute people that we want snipers to hit. And it seems that people who want salutes are the ones we already want to salute...
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
Tomorrow - Engage the cloaking device!
First Falcon-1 to orbit, then Falcon-9. Then I can die a happy man.
And if the "paint" means not having to tape M-8 paper to things any more, that's awesome.
And I agree with you... this is not news, this is a notice that there may be news sometime in the future, that the army hopes there will be news if they throw enough money at the problem, and they are hoping for public support for their funding. Surprised?
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
1. The U.S. Army is so ferocious that cell-based terror attacks are the only way to fight America. The Army has obsoleted itself in a sense. A good sense, because nobody even bothers dreaming about invading New Jersey anymore.
2. Nationalism has made it impossible to occupy a hostile country. Sure you can smear their army, but a hostile, sullen populace will make the occupation cost more than whatever you gain from conquest. Only genocidal maniacs can benefit from territorial conquest anymore.
This reminds me of the mask used by Rorschach in "Watchmen". It is supposed to be liquid ink between sheets of plastic.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Oooo. Invisible paint. For billions of dollars.
Can I sell anyone an $800 hammer before some dumb little kid says, "Look Mommy! That tank isn't wearing any paint!"
~Idarubicin
"Actually, it goes beyond proposal -- and beyond paint, as it would allow vehicles to change camo patterns very easily, and would also repair micro-cracks and fractures without the need for service."
And crabs won't be the only thing our boys will have to worry about when overseas!
"Don't ride on top of that tank son or you'll be ichin' lick crazy tonight. You'll wake up with one hell of a tattoo and your butt sowed shut."
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
Quick puzzle - let's say this nano-machine laden paint is developed, is economical, and can change camaflouge automatically - or, even a step better, render the tank effectively invisible. Now let's say this tank is invading Iraq (or any other country) - don't you think it would kick up a fair amount of dust driving cross country? So we'd have these invisible tanks kicking up huge clouds of dust or plumes of mud or....don't think it would take a genius to figure out where the tank is, even if you can't see it:)
Quack!Quack!.....QUACK!!
At least in military R&D, enough research is done so that fundamental breakthroughs are accomplished
At least corporate R&D doesn't use my tax dollars.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
You should look into getting some road vehicle stealth technology, dude.
http://www.blinder.dk/
Note that I'm a lazy slob and not a four-star general. ;-)
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
When you drive a Suzuki Hayabusa (like I do), not speeding is not an option. :-)
And for those of you who were curious, this does explain the occasional gray admiral...
I wonder just how many things we use in the Real World(tm) came about because someone was reading SF, thought 'That would be really useful to have' or something similar, and went out and found a way to do it. Let's see... water beds, waldoes, artificial satellites... William Keith's Warstrider series are the books I've read most recently that incorporate nanoflage on military vehicles. I think that perhaps this project depended more on the salesmanship of some SF reader seeing the potential to turn SF into reality than on the military command structure itself having the vision to come up with an idea like this on its own.
Yes, nanotubes (and even C-60 buckyballs) are seeing real world applications. But those are not "smart" or "machines", those are just useful and conviently shaped tiny tiny particles.
I hadn't really considered self-cleaning glass a nanomachine, but I guess now I agree with you. According to the PPG web site, UV light provides the "energy" required to clean it (it doesn't work at night), so there must be some "mechanism" at work (although the web site mentions only a transparent coating of titanium dioxide.)
John
Sci-fi is a great motivator! Without dreams of wonderful gadgets, no one would create them.
John