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BAE Systems
Defense contractor BAE Systems is working on an optical camouflage technology that will make tanks and other vehicles blend in with their surroundings.
Within a few years the Brits may deploy invisible armored tanks onto the battlefield, a breakthrough in stealth technology that Harry Potter would certainly applaud.
Defense contractor BAE Systems is working on the technology, which uses a "display system within the structure of the vehicle" to display images captured by cameras on one side of the vehicle on the opposite side so that the vehicle "blends in with the background scenery," company spokesman Mike Sweeney explained to me today.
"We also have a way to protect that structure from battle damage and that's obviously key," he added.
The images would be constantly updated, keeping the tank camouflaged as it rolls through the landscape.
Optical camouflage
The concept of wrapping a vehicle or person in real-time images of its surroundings has been worked on for years. An optical camouflage jacket developed by Susumu Tachi and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo, for example, made the Internet rounds in the mid-2000s.
"Pretty much all the systems that have been cooked up so far all use a projector that picks up the background," Sweeney said. "Where they differ is in how the image is then displayed."
He is tight-lipped on the details of BAE's display system, called eCamouflage, but said to think in terms of something like a flat screen television. This would make displays work relatively easily on flat surfaces, such as depicted in the concept image of the tank above. "I honestly don't know how we are doing it on other areas" such as the front of the tank, Sweeney added, though he noted that is indeed the plan.
Invisible subs?
When the invisible tanks start rolling on the battlefield, the Navy, too, may be deploying submarines outfitted with technology that makes them invisible to sonar, according to researchers at the University of Illinois. In the journal Physical Review Letters, they reported the successful testing of a prototype acoustic cloak.
The device is made up of a specially engineered material molded into a series of concentric rings that looks similar to a record or compact disc. When an object is placed in the center of the cloak and submerged under water, sound waves hit the cloak and travel around to the other side, completely bypassing the object.
"The acoustic wave will travel through the channels because it's easier to travel through there," mechanical engineer Nicolas Fang explained to Medill Reports. "So if we use an array of those channels, the moment sound hits the cylindrical structure, it will travel around the shell instead of traveling through."
The next step is to make this cloaking structure flexible — a fabric or even a paint that refracts sound waves. The paint could then be used to coat a submarine, making it invisible to sonar.
"How can we make it a paint?" Fang asks. "I would consider this more of an engineering issue than a fundamental challenge."
Stay tuned.
More on invisibility:
- To hide a hunter
- Invisibility cloak made of silk created
- Invisibility cloak closer than ever to reality
- The latest fashion in invisibility
- 'Invisibility cloak' directs lights away from eye
- Harry Potter's hallowed high tech
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
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I find it interesting that many things the human mind has been able thus far to accomplish that which we have imagined for years, but why must it almost always be military applications, why can't it be something that would benefit not just a single country, but our race, the Human Race, as a whole.
because massive funds required for research are only available to the military industrial complex.
You may not realize it, but most of the major technological advances in history were in one form or another designed for or funded by the military of some country. These technologies are streamlined for war, tested, experimented with, perfected... and then the technology becomes part of the civilian world. I'm too tired to look up more major ones so here's the first to pop into my mind - GPS. Entirely created for espionage, I almost guarantee you use something that has GPS functions in it that make your life a whole lot easier. Google maps sure is a lifesaver isn't it?
Good point, however it has to be said that an equally impressive number of major tech leaps have occurred in the pursuit of less aggressive goals. NASA in particular has proven itself an unquestionably valuable source of practical innovation. Also, few other organisations have been as concerned with integrating their beneficial technology into our daily reality. I think Ben Franklin would be proud.
That isn't a shot at the military however; I served in an engineering capacity myself and in doing so came to understand the value of historical ground breaking advances especially in medical, logistic and communication fields, not least of which is the internet itself. That said, I imagine as an inventor, it's always more satisfying to see your warfare technology repurposed to peaceful applications than the reverse.
When you get down to the nuts and bolts of all military funding ... it is from the taxpayers. Although the figures appear to come from the military budget, one must always remember where that military budget came from ... IN the USA, it comes from the taxes appropriated each year from the citizens and legal residents via Federal Income & Business taxation, fines, fees, penalties, tarrifs, etc (in essence, from the US treasury coffers and whatever means our government, in our name and by our fundings, was able to accrue anything of any value in those coffers). I am sure it is the same for most nations as well.
Since those massive amounts of monies are indeed OUR MONIES, we should be more than able to redirect those research dollars SPENT IN OUR NAME to non-military, peaceful endeavors.
Whoever claims it is the "massive funds required ... only available to the military industrial complex" either has forgotten who supplies those massive funds (taxpayers), isnt a part of the USA or any other form of democratic government and doesnt understand complex thinking such as "of the people, by the people and for the people" or is a part of that military industrial complex and wishes to continue the false memetics that the people who fund them cant determine their future . That may be true in totalitarian or military regimes or even under monarchies ... but that is NOT true in a free society based upon democracy. Americans can influence what these "massive funds" are by the Congressmen and Congresswomen we either elect or allow to remain seated for their entire term. The budget appropriations occur every year in the Senate ... hopefully by 9/30 of each year so we are ready for the new fiscal year that begins 10/1 of each year, but unfortunately there is too many footstomping tantrums each year and "temporary" budgets are passed so they can continue the tantrums for months at a time.
Having said that, I've worked at three Defense labs on Star Wars programs, NONE OF WHICH DEPLOYED, and ALL OF WHICH ARE STILL BEING FUNDED. There is no 'Sunset Clause' on war profiteering, and if they can sell the rubes on a $100s BILLIONs Harry Potter cloak of invisibility, believe me, they will throw everything at the wall to see what sticks in the halls of Congress, which just STOLE the $95 billion for National HealthCare, and GRIFTED IT to 'Defense' (sic) for a +14% COLA RAISE, when America has the worst healthcare metric of any industrial nation; then Congress did it again, STEALING $8 billion from US Education, and GRIFTING IT to 'Homeland Security' (sic) for a +14% COLA RAISE, when America has fallen to 46th in education metrics of any industrial nation.
Next time you think the military is responsible for the Internet, remember, Darpanet was around for more than TWENTY YEARS, and it wasn't until PRIVATE CITIZENS invented the Apple and 8086 PC, that Defense glomed onto that profit potential, not the other way around. NASA has squandered more than a HALF TRILLION DOLLARS of our life savings since the END of Mission Moon, and all we got were some nice photos of plasma in a vacuum, and a space pen that writes upside down in zero gravity.
Americans have been proven incapable of separating GRIFT from CLEVER MARKETING, and 'Defense', 'Homeland Security' and Mil.Gov Mafia in general know this, they count on this, they spend $35 BILLION a year on domestic marketing, specifically to convince the rubes we need the Right Stuff. It's very much akin to the Catho|ic Church, body of Christ, just pass the collection plate, Baby Jeebus needs a new pair of shoes.
We are BROKE. 'Defense' is squandering TWO-THIRDS OF ALL DISCRETIONARY SPENDING, and the remaining one-third is ALL GOING TOWARDS USURY INTEREST ON THEIR RUNAWAY OVERSPENDING.
Maybe they can build a 'Cloak of Invisibility' to airlift and drop over America's rapidly growing ghettos.
"Look mommy, a homeless person!" (one of 11,000,000 today)
'Where, honey?"
"I don't know, he was right there!"
CLOAK OF INVISIBILITY SAVES THE DAY AGAIN! 46,000,000 AMERICAN JOBLESS AND HOMELESS ARE NOW INVISIBLE, AND WE HAVE A TRILLION DOLLAR WEHRMACHT AND HOMELAND GESTAPO. YEAHH!!
good for the brits. usa got one in the air ...lets see you red coats do better .
People are always complaining about how "the useless military wastes money" - which shows their abject ignorance. Like a previous poster said, there are many, many offshoots of things that get developed for the military that the public then gets.
Drink frozen OJ? - invented by the Army during WWII because fruit was too heavy and spoiled too fast. Does anybody drive a car? Synthetic rubber came from the army too- the Japs had control of the rubber plantations in the Pacific. How about TV, radio, computers,, microwaves, - those useless items? : Military. High intensity light bulbs: military. Digital clocks: military. Integrated circuits: military. Air travel? - pioneered by the military.
Don't like what the military invents? Move into a cave, and make your own clothes out of furs. And there you go. Comfy.
Military spending beats blowing fortunes on the endless rathole of welfare.
And don't forget the money that companies pay their workers. The "military-industrial complex" is more than a bunch of suits sitting around collecting big checks. It's millions of workers that are getting paid.
Of course that interferes with the welfare state the libs aim for, so they have a good complaint there.
Eric, the reason these things are created for the military is because they are not going to create this as clothing so you can stand in the womens locker room.
because war is how we spread our religious beliefs.
invisible sub??? wow I totally forgot subs are targeted by line of site.
Bspurloc-- subs are targeted by sound waves (sonar), not line of sight. That's why the subs get an "acoustic cloak" where the tank gets invisibility armor, or "optical camouflage."
As to the rest-- any and all of you groaning about the fact that this is receiving a military application, you remember that the next time you see a wounded tank commander or a coffin of a tanker. This is a powerful defensive tool, as well as offensive. If you don't like war, I must apologize on the behalf of history, which is quite literally written in the blood of armies. Conflict and war are an integrated part of humanity. Humans are warlike creatures. It's in our nature. I, for one, think this new technology is incredible and will make our armored battalions (or the British, anyway, for now) more effective.
Besides, I think invisibility is a dangerous tool to hand to civilians. No one wants a drunk with an invisible car, a serial killer with an invisibility cloak, nor a pedophile or burglar. What honest reason would a civilian have to own any kind of invisibility device? I can't think of a single one.
Ritdog: I think you are confusing something that is made for the army with something made by the army.
WMG-21 - Any married person has your answer! To hide from your Mother in Law;-}
They have made an invisible pay check for years, ask any working man! Once it hits your hand you never see it again! How much more invisible that that could you ask for?
It starts with the military, but the advances expand out to the rest of humanity.
It's a sad commentary on our civilization that we spend so much money on finding new and "better" ways to kill people, and so little on finding new and better ways to save lives. While many American children lie in hospital beds dying of cancer, people cheer because someone found a more efficient way to kill someone's else's children.
WMG-21, you seem to view war as an inevitable consequence of human nature. I believe that you are mistaken. While our country has found itself involved in armed conflicts with disturbing regularity, there are plenty of countries out there that have not been involved in a war for a LONG time. If you look at a large number of primitive cultures, you see the same picture -- some were quite warlike yet, for others, organized armed conflict was virtually unknown.
The causes of war are many and are far too complex to even begin to discuss in a post on a message board. For now, suffice it to say that you are very mistaken if you think there is a "war gene" somewhere in our chromosomes. Our species does have tendencies towards all sorts of bad things -- racism, violence, greed, etc, etc. Yet, the existence of people that are NOT racist, people that are NOT violent, people that are NOT greedy -- tells me that it is not hopeless. The prevention of war is even more complex than the cause -- yet a careful look at the issues shows that it IS possible.
A good scholarly text on the subject of peace studies is a good place to start.
A cloaked tank or acoustically cloaked sub aren't designed for the purpose of aggression. Their design would be a deterrent. Knowing that an opposing force has such stealth capabilities would limit an enemy's options if not hinder them to the point of not being worth commiting to aggression in the first place.
The Constitution authorizes Congress to collect taxes and to provide for the common defense. That will always be true, whether it's for a colony of 13 states, a nation of 50 states, or for whatever we develop into in the future. It was intended that way by the Founding Fathers to protect the citizens of this country so that they may no peace and enjoy the blessings of liberty. Something taken for granted in many parts of the world.
If you despise the military so much, I suggest you think on world history. The U.S. and our allies stopped the spread of Hitler and Japan, two nations decidedly bent on military conquest. Should we have sat it out? Let Europe fall? Let the Pacific fall? Abandon our allies...our friends? No, we stood up to an aggressor and fought back to defend freedom, not just for ourselves, but for the whole world. To that end, we had to invest in a massive amount of industrialism to drive the production of tanks, bombers, and ships. We sent hundreds of thousands of men and women in to harm's way to keep us safe at home.
Today, we continue to ask our sailors and marines...our soldiers and airmen...to put their lives on the line to defend our nation still, and I for one think it appropriate and justified to develop the best tools and equipment to let them do that job and come home safely.
I'm and American. I'm a Democrat. A moderate. An Atheist. A Veteran. A Tennessean. I support the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, for all my fellow Americans, and to that end I will stand up and fight for my country again and again. Until there is some fundamental shift in the human psyche, we will always be faced with men and nations that seek to impose their will on those less fortunate or less able to defend themselves. That's why we have a military. That's why we spend billions of dollars on the defense of a nation of over 300 million people. That's why investing in advanced technology for our military is a smart idea.
It would be nice to live in a world where everyone got along and cooperated for the mutual benefit of all, but until that day, we have to be prepared to stand and fight for what is right for us, for our families, and for our nation.
@Kristofer72
I will try and put this as delicately as I can. For many of us that are not Americans and do not live in the USA, we see it as the huge, uncontested, American military is the aggressor. Again, do not want to piss off my friends to the south (really, please do not invade us too… LOL) but think of it this way,
Do you think any other nation could say the same thing? Do you think any other nation could be talking about the USA when they say it? Can you honestly say that the US military does not impose the American will on other nations?
Please…, the USA waited what, like 3 or 4 years before entering WWII, and you were brought in kicking and screaming, you had to wait for the Japanese to attack, so the US did and would have continued to, sit it out. And Yes, Canada fought with the British from day one; we helped our freinds and allies.
Kristofer72, I'm not against having a military. What I oppose, however, is the absurdly inflated defense spending we have now and the practice of trying to be the world's policeman. Using our military to stop a madman like Hitler is one thing -- OVERusing our military to the point where even our own allies begin to see us as bullies, however, is counterproductive.
MGinRochester,
I agree with you whole heartedly. I despise the erroneous logic that we used to justify the war in Iraq, for example. After Saddam Hussein was contained by Desert Storm, he was not a threat to the safety and security of the United States. Attacking Iraq unjustly as certainly damaged our credibility with the world, but that is something that can be rebuilt.
Buddha Dude,
The U.S. did wait 21 months (not 3 or 4 years) before being pulled into the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, however Roosevelt provide what support he could during those early months in protecting British convoys in the Atlantic and in the sale of ships to Britain.
I'm sorry that the image many in the world have of America has become one of that of a bully. Honestly, that is not the mentality of the majority of us have. It is unfortunate that often the loudest people are those that are obnoxious and don't represent us well. The point I was trying to make about military spending is that we live in a world where radicals and others let hatred of something that is different from their culture or belief lead them to attack us. We have a right to defend ourselves and our allies and spending money on developing the best tools and machines to protect human life something I see as necessary. Advanced tanks or subs doesn't mean that we'll feel emboldened to attack (a la The Hunt For Red October).
@Kristofer72
It takes two to tango my friend, the US needs to reflect deeply on why others hate them so much, you might be surprised at what you find…

MGinRochester-
We are genetically predisposed to war:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1458834/
Violence is inherent in all mammals, so far as I am aware, and in most other organisms as well. Driven by the evolutionary need to survive, the genetic predisposition is presented with fertile ground in the conscious mind of a human being. Tie together external enemies, cultural bias, and psychological variances with this gene and you have the recipe for war.
If war is not an inherent facet of human existence, why then have we been engaging in war since our earliest historical records and continue to do so unto today? To deny the violence of Man is to ignore our nature.
Additionally, as another poster mentioned, this type of technology is a deterrent-- war is unlikely to break out against an opponent who has this capability. It is also defensive. I guarantee the boys driving those tanks will be glad that they are so are hard to see-- it will mean they're also hard to hit.
Hey, I know that the U.S. is no angel, but that doesn't take away from the good that this country does or represents all over the world. No society is perfect...not even your own. I'd like to think that we can learn from our mistakes, but the fact that we've made mistakes doesn't mean that we must get down on our knees in some twisted act of contrition. I stand by my country, my values of right and wrong, and my duty to my family and fellow citizens. To that end, I ask that my country provide me with the best tools to defend it so that I may come back home to my family in one piece and of sound mind. THAT is what this article is really about. The private sector doesn't have the resources or motivation to create something like invisible tanks or subs, but it is entirely in the purview of the military.
This is interesting, and I look forward to it reaching its completion, but it has FAIL written all over it. For one, a simpler laser based scanner could instantly detect the cloak. Infrared scanners would also detect it.
Lasers have issues underwater. And even the one that doesn't, could hit anything, and send a false positive. A submerged floating tree trunk, a whale, and not quite sunk shipwreck
They are better user for communication, then a broad search underwater.
Tanks tend to get dirty. Are we going to hire squeegy guys to keep the tank clean in battle?
Bullcrap About Everything systems have been watching the old 007 dvds again, yes die another day is one of my favs....you don't have to think to hard to realize that cloaking a tank is going to take more than a handful of oleds and a slew of web cams...personally I would be scared as hell if I heard a multiton screeching tank wheeling off in the distance, so much so that I would immediatly notice the fauna tramped down in it's path as I foucused in on the loud mechanical screeching and DIESEL engine noise and smoke (and smell)....they got a long way to go before they pull this off...meanwhile, the days of the tank are almost over cause it's gun's in the sky now...robotic at that....give us back the wasted tax money....
I sent this exact idea to the White House, Air Force and Army about 6 years ago. I wonder how many people get the same idea at the same time. Probably happens a lot. Oh well :)
Only 6 years ago huh ... well research and development on this technology was well underway and funded at Universities and businesses throught the USA back in 2001 ... and it wasnt a new idea. It was already funded and being developed. I remember a prototype of one "invisible", aka "stealth", armored tank at a college in my area so developed they had data on the research on the college research site. I believe this link is related to that research back in 2001. A friend of mine who had his PHD in Physics was working on it at the time. http://stl.uml.edu/radar/
Also, the research and development of the Stealth F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter was nearing completion in 2005 and was emersed in testing ... now for something this cutting edge as the F-35 to get to the testing phase, you know decades were placed into the design, development and research of such a project. My daughter worked on part of that research and development - she is a rocket engineer. I didnt get to know anything about what she had been working on until their "sales advertisements" were publically released. There are tons of info on it online - Have a bird's eye view of it and take a peek:
1) F35 Lightning II-Fighter of The Future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjXmCb-7dns&feature=related
2) Future Weapons: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTSRbXTh-_A&feature=related
3) F-35 JSF Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II Test Pilot Flies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7jRblwNDgk&feature=related and
4) F-35 Showing Off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ9MiWXRBQE&feature=related
The technology and the cutting edge research and development have existed for a hell of a lot longer than 6 years. Sorry it took you so long to "catch up" with cutting edge science and engineering Jason.
I got to actually touch a prototype F-35 while visiting Edwards AFB in 2004, the thing is amazing. Not a single rivet or joint on the skin, it almost looks like a shark it is so aerodynamically perfect. Of course they wouldn't let us peek at the good stuff in the cockpit :-(
They will let the public look at it from a closely supervised outside view ... but your great grandaddy and you and everyone inbetween will need a top secret clearance before you get to look inside even those windows. My daughter, while working on it, couldnt tell me more than she was working on a DoD contract ... period. Once those DoD advertisements showing off the F-35 went online, then she was able to tell me what was available to the public, period. Oh, she also sent me a picture of the experimental F-35 that they worked on and her whole team which included her. That didnt include that special skin that makes it "invisible" to radar and is important to it's ablitity to remain "quiet" while in use. That areodynamically perfect outer layer is indeed the F-35's skin in more ways than most would think: stealth capacity, noise reduction/elimination, hover agility and its unique, cutting edge technology for vertical take off and landing.
And as good as the F-35 is, it's almost sure to be killed because some senator somewhere didn't get a big enough payoff from the contractor.
If it 's more complex than a little red wagon, Congress just doesn't understand it.
OR, they need more money for welfare payments.
The Waxahatchie Supercollider getting canceled was a prime example. What a bunch of idiots.
Ritdog - Trillions of dollars for the military and all you seem concerned about is the pittance of money for the poor people on welfare!
Look at your posts, you always work in something about welfare spending. In reality welfare spending is but a tiny part of the overall spending, and what is your solution to those unfortunate souls? Should we just dig a large hole and bury them and use some invisible cloaking so we don't see them? Hopefully you will never have bad luck and need a helping hand because others like you will decide you are just some bottomfeeding freeloader and decide you should just go away!
If it wasn't for the greed and fraud in every part of the government, there would be plenty of money to cover all the needs of everyone in our country and to still be the greatest country on earth!
Good point about the squished vegetation and the noise. I remember reading an article in Newsweek about the military creating chameleon like clothing that would allow a soldier to blend in with the environment. It used nano-technology for the cameras and such. But, yes, they would have to teach those soldiers to walk really quietly;)
If you dont want to get eaten on the plains of africa - run towards the roar. Makes me regret more that i'm getting to be an old geeser seeing how technology is making more and greater strides ,the danger being is will we be able to survive ourselves (without humanity all is for naught) We now have with the (uncensored)internet the power of the collective conscience (sort of like ESP maybe) while at the same time independent intellect, this I believe will overcome much corporate and government manipulation over time and allow those willing and or able to have more control over their lives and development. Survival of the fittest still will apply in the future. Evolution not revolution for these people. live long and prosper kimosabbe
Will they still cast shadows in daylight?
The noise this machine would make is a good point. Also bear in mind that displaying images on a screen would make it partially invisible in only the visible spectrum of light. The tank would still stick out like a sore thumb in the IR spectrum.
One guy with thermal vision googles and your billion dollar tank is visible again.
To those who say spend money on saving lifes not the military, I believe that is exactly what the money is being spent on, saving lives. The lives of our soldiers. Giving them an advantage so that if they have to go to war, and they will eventually, that they have the best opportunity possible to 1) hit the enemy so hard that he sues for peace sooner rather than later and 2) we don't lose a bunch of our guys in the process. The fact that the technology is first developed by the military then trickles down to everyday life doesn't mean it shouldn't have been developed in the first place.
Consider the space program in every country in that has one- it was born from the Nazi V-1 program- oh sure there were amateur rocketeers who were tinkering with the technology before the war but the technology got its boost (hah that's punny!) from the war effort.
Finally those complaining about noise, shadows, thermal vision goggles and all that are off base. The point is not to make the tank invisible so that it can be parked in your front lawn without your knowing it, the point is to buy just enough advantage to get off a first strike and hopefully win the skirmish.
"1) hit the enemy so hard that he sues for peace sooner rather than later", ...so we hit 25,000 Afghan Tango (by CIA's own estimate) hillbillies with flintlocks so hard they sued for peace ... when?! This is the longest and most expensive Af-Pak-xStan Griftfest in the history of humanity, and it has NOTHING to do with technical superiority on the battle field, and EVERYTHING to do with ALL-OUT DEFENSE LOOTING.
If you are complicit in this, even if you are a just cheerleader for this, then you are still a Collaborator in the Destruction of the American Republic by the gribbles and the grifters. It's every man for himself now.
w love to blow things up ... and to watch a war live on t.v. is soo kool ...the blast must have blown up at least 100 lives maybe more .. war is so kool i wished it would never end .. but it did. now we have push buttons and a country that is only fighting poor countrys .. and we as big as we are we look like pussyies
cmon cowboys lets see you pick on someone our own size...
and we cant get along ... thanks to our way of life...
united we stand,divided we fall.is also vice versa,
I can't see how this would work, if the same side of the tank were seen by two enemies a hundred yards apart. The projected image wouldn't match the background, for one enemy or both.Â
And of course a heat detector could easily pick up the tank.
Will this new technology work on Paris Hilton, Lady Gag-a and the Kardashian's so we don't have to see them?
OK, so now they can cloak tanks from visual detection. They still make one hell of a noise when they are clunking down the battlefield. So what is the real advantage gained here if they still can be detected? Submarines... Well the same problem. They make very identifiable noises under the ocean as well, and sound travels much farther and faster under water. You need to be able to insure the equipment is not making any sound for this to be practical. Stealth aircraft makes great sense because they can cover great distances very quickly and if they are heard, it's usually too late by then anyway. The tanks are really only going to be able to use this technology if they are laying in wait or they are firing weapons that travel over the horizon, in which case they won't be seen anyway.
Subs run on "silent" all the time. Electric-Diesel submarines are the best at this- when running on battery power they are absolutely silent. Add the acoustic cloak and your utterly invisible.
As for tanks, they've made several "quiet" tanks. They tend to overheat because of the buffering materials used around the engine. They also have to drive really slowly, else the ground vibrations become noticeable. I read an article years ago about a pilot program that was, it seems, a precursor to the technology described here. Essentially, it mounted big television screens on the front of tank which projected images from the cameras mounted on the rear. Far from perfect, it allowed the tank a modicum of invisibility, but only from the front. The tank was quiet though and as a test they positioned a sniper team out in the field and told them to watch for a tank. They never saw it coming. It got within 100 meters of the sniper team before the exercise ended. Still, the method used was expensive and, as I said, only provided invisibility from one angle. So far as I know, the plan was scrapped. Now the Brits have better. Go figure.
So we are now getting close to being invisible with our tanks and planes. WOW
I knew that study of all thoses UFOs they have been hiding at Area 51 would pay off.
BAE Bogus Army Equipment. They've got hot young gilrls working for them.
Actually, the Japanese have been playing with this stuff for at a couple of years in the form of a fabric which emits light matching what a camera picks up on the far side of the screen or clad person. In the tv demonstration, I could still clearly see the anomalies. This may be effective as a better ground camoflage for fixed positions, snipers or advance units. But dust, exhaust smoke, noise and infra-red will still expose targets, just as cavitation and the odd mechanical noise or hull creak may expose a submarine.
For all decrying defense research funding, consider this: He who controls technology, controls the battlefield. He who controls the battlefield, is more likely to engage in war, and to win it. We fought a fifty year war against the Soviet Union, using research, money and surrogates as our weapons. Had Hitler waited another five years to start WWII, we might all be required to speak German. As our friends/enemies develop their new toys, we will continue to develop ours to at least maintain parity. And as a youngster in the 60's, NASA was as much military as civilian. And each service, except the Marines, continued to develop missiles and aircraft.
Um no, what you saw was a moron wearing a cloak made from a TV screen projector cloth. It not only had a camera behind the guy in the "cloak", it had a projector on the other side that projected the one side to the other, worse yet, it only worked from one vantage point and as you said, you could still see anomalies (and the projector). Now why on earth any of us even saw this setup at all is anyone's guess, a six year old could have developed such a lame system, it was not worthy of any TV coverage at all. The Japanese have nothing like what you described.
One day invisibility will be a reality, as soon as we figure out how to make light bending meta-materials small enough to bend visible light frequencies and not just microwaves.
Until then, it turns out that simple light bulbs of the same brightness as outside work just fine at obscuring the tanks.
I am not worthy of making comments here, but I am really angered by the people that justify all military spending by any innovations that trickle down to civilian applications. Yes, it is true that we benefit from these technologies. Please don't forget that the military always uses commercial products when it can. Civilian companies usually produce cheaper products, quicker, and embrace new ideas. Specifically, I am thinking that since WWII, the military has been trying to adapt commercial vehicles to use. Of course, they usually fail, but some have succeeded. You know better than I do of all the products that already existed, and were modified for the military.
It seems that winning a war is more than just combat. Our enemies are winning a different kind of warfare. We are being invaded. We send our best and brightest overseas to die, or be crippled. Meanwhile, Mexicans and Muslims are building force (In America), they are imposing their culture, laws, language and morality upon us. Afghanistan bankrupted the USSR, and now it will happen to us as well. We have the highest military spending in the world, yet we cannot reach any goal in the poorest country, with a population of farmers. This technology does not give us any advantages. We are just killing people who want us to leave them alone. The Allies defeated great powers like Japan, Italy, Germany, in 5 years, yet here we are almost ten years, with no end in sight. Maybe there are more terrible reasons we are actually in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Some Nazis and sympathizers came to the USA, and they would exploit our democracy to get what they want.
This is how it could be done: Create a steam or vapor around the object and project the image of the surroundings onto it. Perhaps a lightweight plastic dome (inflatable) to be carried by the object inside of which the vapor can be released (so it won't blow away). It's like hiding in a bush that you cary with you. All you would need it to do would change color to match it's surroundings as it moves.
Cuttlefish, Octopus, Chameleon.
this is by no means a new technology, its been theoretically possible for years, and i think even a few small prototypes have been made. the only problem is that they are fragile and need a fair bit of energy. the fragility might make them impractical for combat for quite a while
Great, so soon we can park missile launchers and Tanks in mini cooper dealerships and they'll blend in with the rest of the tiny cars?