Slashdot Mirror
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."
I was thinking something a bit more directional: ie. same principle as the parachute flare; but with some mechanism for the operator to designate a target or area to be illuminated before launch, so that the blindingly-light-of-a-false-noon would only apply to your opponents(and their now thoroughly freaked-out night sight gear)...
Parachute flares, if memory serves, substantially predate armored vehicles, possibly even internal combustion vehicles of any sort; so I was curious about anything developed in the contemporary 'highly sensitive optical instruments on expensive but extremely dangerous armor' period... With modern vehicles in the multiple millions a pop, I imagine that selective-illumination systems in the hundreds or thousands per shot might be seen as viable, and that kind of budget might give you room for things more interesting than magnesium-on-a-string.