One of the main engines of research is the army. For example, the invisibility cloaks we dream of and armies are already buying.
But invisibility cloaks and metamaterials are not the only novelty in military camouflage. In fact, many of the advances that they have been used as camouflage for years, today they sound like science fiction or at least to futuristic technology. And it is that between the military secrecy and the little coverage that there is in the news and newspapers about scientific and technological advances, one ends up thinking that armies still battle with armor.
Camouflage has gone from being an advantage on the battlefield to being a key player in the strategy of any army as wars get further and further away from the classic style of army against army in an open field and the last one standing wins. So now that we know that we are missing a lot, we are going to get into the matter and tell what at the moment you can know.
Camouflage of the future: From the classic style to the invisibility cloak
Camouflage is the most primitive attempt to become invisible. It is this aspect that has always been sought has been to try to imitate the techniques of certain animals that become invisible by being confused with the environment in which they are found. From this arises the military camouflage that from time to time becomes fashionable, which has gone evolving into pixelated camouflage about which we have already spoken before.
But you have to keep looking further and moving forward what seems impossible: invisibility. For this there are several techniques that we can divide into two groups: redirect the light so that it follows the same path as if there was nothing in between; and the other is to project an exact copy of what is behind the object so that when someone looks at you, what they see is the projection of what you have behind and from the feeling that you are not there.
Going invisible in camouflage has been a reality for years
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It seems that even today it is impossible to become invisible and disappear from the sight of a camera or a person, but the reality is that It is possible even since 2011, as you can see in the video under these lines. In this case the tank we see becomes invisible in the infrared band, which means that night vision cameras that work seeing the heat they are not able to see said tank.
This is very useful also for dodge thermal missiles that follow hot targets. The trick (or ingenuity) of this magic is in the coating that the tanks carry. This coating is made of Peltier plates, which can change its temperature quickly. This along with some thermal cameras that are dedicated to making a map of the environment that then Peltier plates replicate to achieve invisibility.
This is much easier with heat than with light, because it is much cheaper to produce heat and because infrared cameras are less accurate than optical cameras. This tank that we see in the video is in production and testing process, with a plan to mass produce and export it in 2018. The irony of history? This time it’s the Poles the ones who are building the most advanced tanks in the world.
