Active Camouflage

[Darth Smiley]

There are a lot of instances of really cool pseudo-cloaking technology, and even a few interesting tech demos in real life. So, what does SD.net think? Standard Equipment for warriors of the future, or silly tech demo that has no semblance to real life?

[Vehrec]

Reliability of the stuff is going to be a nightmare. It's a very finely balanced system that updates itself every hundredth of a second or so. Expect it to be used very rarely, and seldom on any system that faces prolonged combat.

[Atavarius]

Reliability of the stuff is going to be a nightmare. It's a very finely balanced system that updates itself every hundredth of a second or so. Expect it to be used very rarely, and seldom on any system that faces prolonged combat.

In addition to reliability concerns, power supply will also b a limiting factor. Soldiers already have to lug around tons of gear, and any form of battery system will add to the load. I could see it being used in a very, very limited fashion, but nowhere near a standard issue system.

[Chris OFarrell]

There are possibilities for static systems, the modern equivalent of camouflage nets that take are able to hide whats under them or something. But a personal cloaking device with modern or near modern technology? Nah.

[Junghalli]

For a far future setting I think it could be appropriate (though it wouldn't be a personal cloaking device so much as simple adaptive camouflage. For the near future, see the objections already raised to it.

[Darth Smiley]

Hmm. So maybe a spec ops thing, 30-50 years from now?

[Ghost Rider]

Hmm. So maybe a spec ops thing, 30-50 years from now?

Because in 30-50 years we'll have small man portable power supplies that will keep up, to say nothing of easily hardened, cheap computers.

No. Shit like this is pure future wank unless it's for objects that can both spare the power, and computing for a reasonable cost.

[Aaron]

Even if we get a magical power supply this thing had better supress IR or it's going to be only useful against shitholeistan.

[Ghost Rider]

Even if we get a magical power supply this thing had better supress IR or it's going to be only useful against shitholeistan.

Hell that raises even a larger set of questions. Literally camo at this level is like Power Armor. In stories, it's fun. In current, or even near future technology it's both unfeasible and an amazing waste of resources for one solider.

[NetKnight]

Even if we get a magical power supply this thing had better supress IR or it's going to be only useful against shitholeistan.

And if you're fighting in shitholeistan, the computing and power storage tech involved would be better used to build a combat robot.

[Battlehymn Republic]

All I know is, I want this hypothetical future power supply for my blaster and assorted hand held laser weapons. It's fusion, isn't it?

[Junghalli]

Even if we get a magical power supply this thing had better supress IR or it's going to be only useful against shitholeistan.

That's a good point. This kind of thing only really becomes practical when FW 2020 style systems are around, and by that time it's sort of obsolete because any serious enemy infantry may have access to more sophisticated sensors than the Mk I eyeball. And I'd think surpressing IR would be a lot harder because it means the suit would have to retain all the soldier's body heat, plus all the heat from all the equipment he has active. It'll need a big heat sink or he'll quickly cook himself.

[defanatic]

Even if we get a magical power supply this thing had better supress IR or it's going to be only useful against shitholeistan.

That's a good point. This kind of thing only really becomes practical when FW 2020 style systems are around, and by that time it's sort of obsolete because any serious enemy infantry may have access to more sophisticated sensors than the Mk I eyeball. And I'd think surpressing IR would be a lot harder because it means the suit would have to retain all the soldier's body heat, plus all the heat from all the equipment he has active. It'll need a big heat sink or he'll quickly cook himself.

You could shoot technobabble heat rays at people, which is charged by using active camo. /sarcasm

[MJ12 Commando]

Suppressing IR would be possible via either a high capacity heat sink or radiating the stuff away from the person.

And I believe it should be noted that even in stuff like Ghost in the Shell, active camouflage is only used by counterterrorist forces for short periods of time. This is the optimal use for it actually, since terrorists are probably less likely than military guys to have heavy amounts of electronic sensing, a bullet from a sufficiently useful gun can still kill a guy in full gear with some impressive augmentation, and active camo only lasting thirty minutes doesn't matter if your assault on the hostage-takers takes ten minutes.

So again, it will likely be very useful. For SWAT teams, because, generally, all else being equal, invisible guys > not invisible guys when it comes to doing something without taking casualties.

[PeZook]

Suppressing IR would be possible via either a high capacity heat sink or radiating the stuff away from the person.

Radiating it away isn't really an option, since that's exactly what IR sensors pick up. And heat sinks emit heat too, which means that you could have a soldier that is "cool" to sensors on one side, and shines brilliantly on the other.

In other words, you can retain heat or release it. Retaining it is only an option for short bursts of activity (after which you still have to release it), releasing it shows you on sensors. There's really no other way.

Masking the heat signature may be enough to defeat automated sensors, though, but if a human watches the monitor, you will still get killed.

[MJ12 Commando]

By radiating it away I mean away from the sensors. If you have sufficient amounts of detection gear and electronics complex enough to figure out where the passive IR sensors are likely and how to radiate the waste heat away to not trigger them, in a more directed fashion.

And retaining waste heat wouldn't be much of a penalty at all for short duration ops like the ones shown in GitS... after all, after you've gotten behind cover, you can dump it without them seeing you.

Again, it doesn't matter if the waste heat from your operation causes hyperthermia in one hour if you use the thing in five minute bursts or the mission itself takes fifteen minutes from your kicking down the door. :p

[PeZook]

By radiating it away I mean away from the sensors. If you have sufficient amounts of detection gear and electronics complex enough to figure out where the passive IR sensors are likely and how to radiate the waste heat away to not trigger them, in a more directed fashion.

Except when the enemy places his sensors in an intelligent fashion, that is

For example, if they build the layer so any single spot is watched by three sensors, then have fun determining where to radiate the heat. Not to mention that if you miss even one heat sensor, you're boned.

Then you can have the network sprinkled with motion detectors and radar posts, mixed with IR. And sentries. At this point, you can just do it the old fashioned way, with mortars , helicopters and a company-sized attack force

Which, in fact, is how most "special operations" of this kind are done. It's more hit&run than sneak around.

And retaining waste heat wouldn't be much of a penalty at all for short duration ops like the ones shown in GitS... after all, after you've gotten behind cover, you can dump it without them seeing you.

Well, yeah, if all you're doing is storming a house with hostages, then it may be useful. Then again, it's not exactly field equipment then

Again, it doesn't matter if the waste heat from your operation causes hyperthermia in one hour if you use the thing in five minute bursts or the mission itself takes fifteen minutes from your kicking down the door. :p

I can agree with that.

[MJ12 Commando]

Except when the enemy places his sensors in an intelligent fashion, that is

For example, if they build the layer so any single spot is watched by three sensors, then have fun determining where to radiate the heat. Not to mention that if you miss even one heat sensor, you're boned.

This is a valid point. It is an option that can be useful in some situations but is probably dead weight in others. However, you've already most of what you need to use it, and the ability for your suit to pinpoint sensors is always useful, so you might as well have it.

Well, yeah, if all you're doing is storming a house with hostages, then it may be useful. Then again, it's not exactly field equipment then

Not always, but it can be useful. Again, high-grade active camouflage is almost definitely more the purview of SWAT guys and counterterrorists than Joe Army.

However, active camouflage can be useful for someone in the military. Future Force Warrior is looking at a camouflage suit that can change its pattern and coloration to blend in better with the environment-and if you're already investing heavily in your soldier you might as well give them something of this sort if you can cheaply print smart fabric (which we're working on).

[Admiral Valdemar]

You're going about it wrong. You don't use computers with many tiny cameras and polymer skin with photo ability. You use metamaterials that are tuned to affect visible spectrum wavelengths. You have the material function like a shape memory alloy, so when you want, at the flip of a switch, the structures that form on the skin at the micrometre level can be unformed and allow visibility again.

This sort of technology exists today for IR and radar. It is only a matter of time before our technology is able to refine the structures to bend optics at the traditional frequencies. There are suits today that can totally block IR signatures too, provided you don't mind getting a bit warm in the process.

[Peptuck]

I think the Starfist novels covered an interesting other problem with active camouflage like this: even if you're invisible to visual scanning, you're still going to leave identifying characteristics when you pass through an environment. Dusty or muddy footprints on the ground, displacing grass when moving through wooded or overgrown areas, etc. Its even worse when you get stuff on you, as dust, dirt, water, or shrapnel hits you, you become more visible.

One of the more face-slapping moments I've read in the books was when the supar invisibo Marines were walking through a field, and enemy rebels were waiting to ambush them, by tracking them based on the way they displaced the grass as they passed. Apparently, the Marines never paused to think "Hey, when we walk through this grass, you can see where we are...."

One or two people, or a small unit carrying such gear might be useful, but an entire army of invisible warriors would just make your enemy invest more in alternate sensors and training to spot hidden enemies.

[Junghalli]

I tend to think active camouflage for grunts would be more like modern camouflage clothing that can change color to quickly blend into a variety of environments. Would anything approaching real invisibility be practical, even for special forces?

[Peptuck]

I tend to think active camouflage for grunts would be more like modern camouflage clothing that can change color to quickly blend into a variety of environments. Would anything approaching real invisibility be practical, even for special forces?

It would be practical if its cost is low enough and the technology was reliable enough, which is going to be hard for the next few decades, bare minimum. So, I doubt that in our lifetime we'll ever see active camouflage used.

[Chardok]

could there be some sort of system that, say, for sniper, would radiate the heat into the ground? like...a hyperconductive metallic spike that channels the systems heat into it and bascially pumps it into the earth. This "spike" could be attached to the boot or driven into the ground underneath the chest of the in-position sniper and the heat. (Deeper for the sniper, so as to spread the heat out over a larger area, and thus dampen the "hot ground" IR effect)

[Zixinus]

All I know is, I want this hypothetical future power supply for my blaster and assorted hand held laser weapons. It's fusion, isn't it?

No. Even the smallest fusion unit I have heard of called Focus Fusion, will have a reactor about as big as a man and quite sensitive (it being in vacuum and all).

[Stuart]

There are a lot of instances of really cool pseudo-cloaking technology, and even a few interesting tech demos in real life. So, what does SD.net think? Standard Equipment for warriors of the future, or silly tech demo that has no semblance to real life?

On a macro-scale, there are already some examples of active camoflage. The most famous was the use of counter-lighting to eliminate shadows. This cropped up in WW2 when it was found that German submarines were spotting attacking aircraft in time to dive and avoid the attack. Investigation showed that the submarines weren't actually seeing the aircraft but were actually cued to it by its shadows (which allowed it to be spotted as a dark object against a bright sky). So, logic went, if we could eliminate the shadows, the aircraft would be harder to spot and so the number of successful attacks would rise. A test aircraft was fitted with an array of lights under its wings that counter-lit the shadows. Sure enough, the aircraft proved almost impossible to spot and could get pretty close to its target before it was seen. The downside was that the drag of the light array was so high that the performance of the aircraft was degraded severely. It was also found that simply painting the underside of the aircraft gloss white was almost as good as the counterlighting array.

The story doesn't end there. Although the technique wasn't effective on aircraft, it was believed that it might work on ships. The USS Eldridge was fitted with counter-lighting arrays (later, she became the Greek frigate Leon. When I visited her in 1988, most of the cabling for those arrays was still in place). Apparently, the counter-lighting worked quite well with the ship becoming almost invisible when the arrays were turned on. However, she was still easily tracked on radar. I always thought that the use of counterlighting ended with those trials but I have been told that the trick was used on some merchant ships on Arctic convoys. I cannot confirm that.

Another example is active acoustic camoflage. Modern submarines are very quiet, so quiet that its theoretically possible to track them by the black hole effect - the absence of sound from a specific area. Tracking by black hole has never been proven but a proposed counter-measure was to transmit tapes of sea noise to conceal said black hole. It's been rumored that provision for that technique was included in the SSN-21 Seawolf, again I cannot confirm that.

Reducing to a man-level though is going to be hard. One possibility is that fabrics could be impregated with dyes that change color when a slight electrical charge is passed through them (this requires the fabrics be conductive of course). Such dyes do exist and it would be possible (by mixing and matching them) to produce a camoflage BDU that can change color to match backgrounds. This isn't infinately variable of course, there would simply be a few settings for different situations (snow, woodland, meadow etc) The power there isn't excessive, a normal battery would do it.

I have no doubt that other dodges will arise (counter-lighting could re-appear for example using electro-luminescent composite panels) but I can't see them being that deployable at the infantry level.