The Adaptiv cloak consists of a sheet of hexagonal hand-sized patches, or as BAE calls them, pixels. Their thermo electric material can switch temperatures quickly. On-board thermal cameras are what drive the panels, picking up whatever scenery is around and then showing that image on the vehicle. Around 1,000 of these panels can cover a small tank.
BAE field-tested its technology on a Swedish CV90 tank made to blend into the scenery without detection. Alternatively, the pixels can protect gear by manipulating their appearance. Tanks can be made to look like cars, large rocks, trucks,or cows, for example.
The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), helped fund BAE's project; use of the infra-red spectrum in warfare has been an important focus for them.
BAE estimates that the technology could be ready for production in two years. Later this month BAE will demonstrate the technology on a CV90 tank at the UK Defense and Security Equipment International exhibition from September 13 to 16. According to reports, research about the Adaptiv approach has been submitted to Britain’s Ministry of Defence.
Since the days when infantry men marched in confidence wearing helmets with hanging leaves, technology has come a long way and has a way to go in the use of camouflage in the face of modern weapons. BAE sees its Adaptiv technology as a breakthrough, however. Past attempts have entailed excessive power requirements and that's where Adaptiv stands out. Adaptiv project manager Pader Sjolund in a statement said Adaptiv panels in contrast consume relatively little power. "Our panels can be made so strong that they provide useful armor protection and consume relatively low levels of electricity," he said.
No doubt developments and ideas to address camouflage for warfare will continue in and outside BAE Systems. "Invisibility cloaks" is a topic of research that has been explored for some time. In 2006, Sir John Pendry at Imperial College London, led a group that focused on a "transformation optics" technique that involves the design of materials that steer light around objects, making them disappear from view.
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epsi00
5 / 5 (13) Sep 07, 2011axemaster
2.7 / 5 (7) Sep 07, 2011Wrong.
Dichotomy
4.3 / 5 (11) Sep 07, 2011P.S. No the solution is not shoot the child, but again not being a deployed veteran you wouldn't know that would you?
Isaacsname
1 / 5 (1) Sep 07, 2011NotAsleep
not rated yet Sep 07, 2011I guess someday there might be an enemy that would validate using this kind of technology but perhaps not today. It'll go the way of the F-22: funded and forgotten with zero combat missions after ten years of active service
Temple
3 / 5 (2) Sep 07, 2011Avoiding infrared targeting? Somehow that sounds doubtful.
Cooling panels would create *more* heat, and that heat is going to have to be put somewhere. A cool tank-shaped blob in the middle of a huge heat plume might just look suspicious. No matter how they manage to exhaust the heat or otherwise camouflage the overall heat signature, I'm sure tank gunners can be trained to identify it.
Sounds like an interesting technology (imagine the private uses!), but I doubt it will have much war-worthiness.
Burnerjack
2 / 5 (2) Sep 07, 2011mosahlah
not rated yet Sep 07, 2011StarGazer2011
3 / 5 (2) Sep 08, 2011Temple
5 / 5 (1) Sep 08, 2011Only two options for all the heat (extra heat with the cooling panels): store it or exhaust it.
Storing it would require a large vat of liquid coolant with extremely high heat capacity that was pre-chilled as cold as you could get it. Such a heat plant could, with a complex cooling system, absorb any heat generated by the tank. You could keep it cool via refrigeration (generating extra heat) while the tank is operating in normal mode, and when in heat-stealth mode, you'd start channelling your waste heat into the super cold coolant. Of course, you'd have to have a huge amount of that stuff or it wouldn't last very long.
That would work, it's even somewhat plausible, but obviously highly impractical.
The only real solution offered is to exhaust the heat. So, again, you've got a huge tank-scale heat signature and no tank (or a cool silhouette of a tank in the middle of it). Somehow I think tankers/airstrikers would figure out how to spot it.
NotAsleep
not rated yet Sep 08, 2011How about the tank's fuel?
jackofshadows
not rated yet Sep 08, 2011nizzim
5 / 5 (2) Sep 11, 2011http://www.popsci...-sensors
NotAsleep
not rated yet Sep 12, 2011