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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 have been following the “Invisibility cloak” subject for a number of years and there seems to be a major flaw in it, you are completely blind, meaning the photons (visible, micro or what have you) wrap completely around the item and pass out the other side. In order to be able to “see” (human eyes, or some form of sensor) the photons have to “hit” something that can detect them, meaning, if you made an invisible cloak for a soldier, you would see these floating eyes walking around, or for say a tank, some form of floating dish or other sensors that would still show up to the enemy.
The question I have is, the Brit Sub cloak seems to work exactly the same way as the photon cloak, so is the sub then deaf? Meaning it can not hear other subs or even it’s own sonar system? If so, does that make it worth while?
Now if only someone could invent a pinhole camera and a microphone smaller than a car. :P
Also besides the obvious above solutions, think "veil", do you think that veiled women are walking around blindfolded? Just because the gaps in the material are small doesn't mean you can't see through them when your eyes are close to them.
I don’t think it works that way, even putting a pin hole would distort the light too much as it traveled around the object.
I did do a quick Google search and it looks like a company has a solution to the “blindness” problem, according to Business Wire, Fractal Antenna Systems, Inc., proposes the following solution:
A solution, yes, but you are still blind when it is turned on.
Screw the cloak. I want a force field shield. I want the enemy to see our guys coming to kick their asses. I want them to see their rounds bouncing off of our shields. I want them to know if they don't surrender they die.
Good morning everyone,
Congrats to the Brits, this looks like a very interesting piece of technology. But it's already obsolete.
When I read this article the first thing I thought of was "thermal imaging", that is, looking for the vehicles heat signature. They can paint, drape or broadcast pictures onto the vehicle to fool the eyes and reduce it's signature in the visual spectrum, but if the vehicle is running it's going to register HOT in the thermal spectrum.
Many of you probably do not recall my rant from a few weeks ago regarding all our misguided spending on more weapons to win the last war. The next war will be fought and won in cyber space. I warned that the Chinese are hiring their best hackers and investing in technology, not military hardware.
Low and behold, look what we just did to Iran's nuclear capability. We inserted a worm into their computers that blocked the enrichment process and shut down down their ability to produce nuclear weapons. Our fear is that someone could do the same thing to us!
We need to be preparing for the coming Cyber Pearl Harbor, not buying more tanks and aircraft.
Just think how dependent we are on computers. EVERYTHING important to 21st Century civilization is wired to computers. Our power grid, our communications, our entire defense capability. Think what would happen if those computers suddenly went off line or worse, someone else, say a hostile foreign power, could turn them into "slaves" and control them!
That is the future of warfare, not broadcasting background pictures onto the side of armored vehicles.
America spends 3% of its budget on the military. And one of the few jobs the federal government has, according to the Constitution is defend the U.S.A.
jsteph67: three percent? I see no figures which support that erroneous claim.
3%??? From what I know, the US spends between 19 - 20% of its budget on the military
kristofer, the private sector doesn't have tanks or submarines...
Leaving that aside, allow me to make a proposal to you, military leaders: I've got a bunch of invisible tanks and see-through submarines for sale to you, at the low low price of $35 billion. Yeah, they're right over there! Of course you can't see 'em-they're invisible! Got that check for me?
You betcha. Just as soon as I board and test each and every one of them.
Hmm. I was hoping they finally nailed that tech they were talking about a few years ago-- bending the light around an object, so that what people actually see IS the landscape behind it. This isn't really as exciting.
Do our enemies really target out tanks only using their eyes? This seems a silly expenditure for little return.
Yes, they do actually. Most countries do not have the integrated battle-net set up that we use, so the ground forces do not necessarily receive intel derived from air reconnaissance. In short, they have to sight the tank and fire on it. For that matter, even with our battle-net, we still rely on line-of-sight designations more often than not. That's why tankers drill for days on the silhouettes of friendly (allied nation) tanks and enemy tanks. Of course, we also have the benefit of night and thermal optics, but that too is out of reach for most nations.