Tanks Test Infrared Camouflage Cloak

LibRT writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "Tanks could soon get night-time invisibility thanks to a cloaking device that masks their infrared signature. Developed by BAE Systems, the Adaptiv technology allows vehicles to mimic the temperature of their surroundings. It can also make a tank look like other objects, such as a cow or car, when seen through heat-sensitive 'scopes. The hi-tech camouflage uses hexagonal panels, or pixels, made of a material that can change temperature very quickly. About 1,000 pixel panels, each of which is 14cm across, are needed to cover a small tank. The panels are driven by on-board thermal cameras that constantly image the ambient temperature of the tank's surroundings. This is projected on to the panels to make it harder to spot. The cameras can also work when the tank is moving."

Comments

How do they cool them that much?

[khasim]

Tanks produce a LOT of heat.

That excess heat has to go somewhere. Otherwise you'll see very HOT cows moving towards you at 40 mph.

Yet checking TFA produces:

Its developers would not discuss exactly how the panels are heated and cooled.

I'm thinking that this will later be shown to be extremely limited by the amount of freon carried by the tank.

Re:And presumably this can be defeated by...

[petermgreen]

Using a searchlight is far more likely to tell the enemy your position than to tell you the enemy's position because any searchlight will leak some light off-axis and it takes far less light to spot a light source than to use a light source to spot a target.