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Black Programs & Stealthy Tanks
Black Programs & Stealthy Tanks
By John Kettler On December 9, 2012
The tank has many enemies, some so deadly the tank was written off entirely by certain analysts and pundits following the effective annihilation of the IDF’s (Israeli Defense Force) 190th Armored Brigade in the early stages of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. This followed an armor only attack on Egyptian positions on the far side of the Suez Canal, an attack which ran into a SAGGER AT-3 antitank missile ambush, backed up by hordes of RPG-7s. Tanks have gotten tougher since then, but the antitank weaponry has more than kept pace. What’s a poor tank to do?
There’s camouflage, then there’s CAMOUFLAGE, as we’ll see. This is CAMOUFLAGE writ large, but getting its significance requires some understanding of military history and technology. Spawned by black programs (“tank” was a WW I cover name meant to make spies who discovered it think it was a water tank), the tank needs all the help it can get. This should help enormously.
Tank Camouflage–A Brief History
Camouflage is a wonderful word, deriving from a French expression which means “to cover with flowers.” The purpose of camouflage is to hide the object’s presence, delay its detection and identification and, for certain patterns, confuse the observer. As it applies to tanks, camouflage painting dates back to World War I. World War II saw the proliferation of some excellent camouflage schemes, with one of the standouts being the late war German ambush pattern, which embodied terrain blending in the larger pattern and a micropattern within it to defeat surveillance by binoculars and other high power optics.
Advances also included paint which is in the same spectral range as vegetation, defeating IR (infrared) film which would otherwise reveal the presence of the tank, because it doesn’t look like vegetation. Additional, radical improvement came when the U.S. began fielding the revolutionary M1 Abrams tank in the early 1980s in Europe. One of the reasons it was revolutionary was it it was powered by the same gas turbine which powered the archetypal UH-1 Iroquois (Huey to most) helicopter. Unlike the thunderous diesel engines powering the M48 Patton and M60 Patton 2s, all you hear from an M1 is the whine of the turbine, and that sound doesn’t carry very far. Consequently, the M1 ran roughshod over defenders in military wargames, operating at night, appearing out of nowhere at tremendous speed, striking hard while shooting with deadly accuracy on the move, then vanishing. But there was no way to make the M1 itself disappear. There is now, and that’s exactly what the video portrays–in the most staggering way.
There are other techniques, too. As noted in my previous post, one way to disappear is show on the viewed side the background on the unseen side. This, I believe, is how the stealth suit works. Such techniques are termed biomimetic, in that they mimic the natural ability to copy the background found in creatures as diverse as the chameleon and octopus. This can be done either actively or passively. Actively, you read the background with a camera and project it on the front of what you’re trying to hide. Here’s another approach, patented over a decade ago, which can work in both the visual and IR bands. And here’s a third. How these escaped the maw of black programs, I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t? BAE’s ADAPTIV™ technology operates in the thermal IR band, usually considered to be 8-12 microns, but with some systems, such as the U.S. TWS (Thermal Weapon Sight), in the 3-5 micron band. It is almost certainly geared to the former. Passively, you can use exotic materials to direct light, and perhaps other frequencies, around the object to be screened, so that there’s nothing to see. A relatively simple solution already in use by NATO is a special paint. This works well against IR systems, as seen in the accompanying photos at the link.
Black Programs–Deconstructing BAE’s ADAPTIV™
The BAE advertising video revealed incredible technical capabilities, against both FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) and IIR (Imaging InfraRed) systems. These systems both operate on the principle of detecting and displaying the temperature differences between the background and the target. Classically, this differential is displayed as either “white hot” (hot objects bright) or “cold hot” (cold objects bright). Always good to know which! The BAE ADAPTIV™ video shows the displays as white hot. This FOX piece confirms the system is geared to defeating relatively close range IR detection. Additionally, it reveals Swedish military involvement in the program.
The systems ADAPTIV™ works against include passive IR surveillance, target acquisition, weapon sights and missile seekers. ADAPTIV™ can make the tank disappear by removing its thermal contrast with the background. To do this, it reads the background, then adjusts each panel (broadly, a pixel) to remove the thermal contrast that would allow the tank to be seen in this way. This is best done while static. If you can’t see it, you can’t shoot it. That, though, isn’t the real magic, magic revealed later in the video. This magic consists of the ability to make the tank be seen as something innocuous, like a car. A car is unlikely to excite interest, therefore, unlikely to draw fire, particularly from expensive missiles which pattern match specific IR signatures. What can be depicted is limited only by the preloaded target signature library. The other slick capability is to be able to alter thermal emissivity at will, not to hide or appear to be something other than a tank, but so as to reasonably guarantee NOT being shot because friendlies thought you were a hostile. As the gallows humor military quote goes, “Friendly fire isn’t.”
When a tank costs what a fighter plane used to cost, without considering enormous crew training outlays, even the most brilliant combat actions can be undone by friendly fire. What’s shown late in the video is the ability to invert the IR screening technology to make the tank highly visible to friendly FLIR and IIR systems, avoiding victimization from your own high tech weapons! The “Don’t shoot me!” markings are good, but the real power of the ADAPTIV™ to unambiguously communicate practically screams via the ultra high tech billboard the side of the tank’s turned into just before the video ends.
Sharp readers may’ve noticed the odd looking gun barrel on and smooth appearance of the so-called Chameleon tank. Both are measures to provide radar stealth. A round barrel reflects from all angles, and surface discontinuities create what we call corner reflectors. Think of shining a headlight at night into a cat’s eyes for the equivalent optical event. The Chameleon tank shown is thus stealthy against IR systems and radar, but clearly isn’t there yet (or so they want us to believe) against visual detection. If the British don’t have it already, they likely will soon. After all, they reportedly demonstrated high tech visual camouflage in 2007. Ideally, you’d want simultaneous, visual, IR and radar camouflage, as well as a quiet tank engine, but as the saying goes in Engineering, “You can have it good, cheap or fast. Pick two!”
Black Programs–Nakidka, Russian Passive High Tech Tank Camouflage
The Russians have their own high tech tank camouflage system, Nakidka (in English, “cape”) which relies, not on invisibility per se, but on greatly reducing detection probability, thus, detection range, which corresponds to reduced engagement opportunities. Nakidka, which is completely passive, reduces detection ranges for optical, IR and radar systems,
“According to NII Stali (Scientific Research Institute of Steel), who designed Nakidka, it reduces the chances of detection by Day/Night viewers and TV systems and seekers by thirty percent, Infrared seekers by two to three fold, radar by six fold, and reduces the thermal-radar (FLIR; poor translation, J.K.) signature to near-background levels.[1] Nakidka is efficient in the optical, IR and radar wavelength bands up to 12 cm,[2] and also reduces the Radar cross section by 10 db.[2] ”
and this is clearly shown in the unfortunately Russian language only (no English subtitles) video. The animated sequences show the direct impact on NATO detection means and weaponry. We also see a demonstration of reduced radar return (the guy on the oscilloscope) and of its tremendous effectiveness in defending against IR threats. The tank is practically invisible and certainly isn’t recognizable as a tank. All the IR sensor can really see is some undercarriage glow associated with “shine” from the engine reflecting off the ground and from a few hot parts of the turbine (the bright colors against the blue background temperature), but mostly what we see is the hot exhaust plume from a probable turbine tank engine. Otherwise, the tank is scarcely there, with the best viewing aspects behind and to the left rear.
Nakidka is what you might call a low cost solution to a high tech problem. Its simplicity and ruggedness (traditional Russian military design criteria) work well for a force which prizes both, has a huge armored force to protect and can’t afford many very high end systems like that Chameleon tank. I note with fascination that the online Russian arms export catalog www.warfare.runo longer has a Nakidka write up in conjunction with its section on tanks and that the only Nakidka offering at all is a camouflage screen, with almost no technical details supplied. The manufacturer link at the Wiki is also defunct, both here and in the Internet Wayback Machine. I think Russian military security officials belatedly realized the official Russian arms export catalog and the manufacturer’s site revealed altogether too much sensitive information, so this is an attempt to put the wrongly released information cats back into the bag. Mind, the combat test video was shot in 2002!
By John Kettler On December 9, 2012
The tank has many enemies, some so deadly the tank was written off entirely by certain analysts and pundits following the effective annihilation of the IDF’s (Israeli Defense Force) 190th Armored Brigade in the early stages of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. This followed an armor only attack on Egyptian positions on the far side of the Suez Canal, an attack which ran into a SAGGER AT-3 antitank missile ambush, backed up by hordes of RPG-7s. Tanks have gotten tougher since then, but the antitank weaponry has more than kept pace. What’s a poor tank to do?
There’s camouflage, then there’s CAMOUFLAGE, as we’ll see. This is CAMOUFLAGE writ large, but getting its significance requires some understanding of military history and technology. Spawned by black programs (“tank” was a WW I cover name meant to make spies who discovered it think it was a water tank), the tank needs all the help it can get. This should help enormously.
Tank Camouflage–A Brief History
Camouflage is a wonderful word, deriving from a French expression which means “to cover with flowers.” The purpose of camouflage is to hide the object’s presence, delay its detection and identification and, for certain patterns, confuse the observer. As it applies to tanks, camouflage painting dates back to World War I. World War II saw the proliferation of some excellent camouflage schemes, with one of the standouts being the late war German ambush pattern, which embodied terrain blending in the larger pattern and a micropattern within it to defeat surveillance by binoculars and other high power optics.
Advances also included paint which is in the same spectral range as vegetation, defeating IR (infrared) film which would otherwise reveal the presence of the tank, because it doesn’t look like vegetation. Additional, radical improvement came when the U.S. began fielding the revolutionary M1 Abrams tank in the early 1980s in Europe. One of the reasons it was revolutionary was it it was powered by the same gas turbine which powered the archetypal UH-1 Iroquois (Huey to most) helicopter. Unlike the thunderous diesel engines powering the M48 Patton and M60 Patton 2s, all you hear from an M1 is the whine of the turbine, and that sound doesn’t carry very far. Consequently, the M1 ran roughshod over defenders in military wargames, operating at night, appearing out of nowhere at tremendous speed, striking hard while shooting with deadly accuracy on the move, then vanishing. But there was no way to make the M1 itself disappear. There is now, and that’s exactly what the video portrays–in the most staggering way.
There are other techniques, too. As noted in my previous post, one way to disappear is show on the viewed side the background on the unseen side. This, I believe, is how the stealth suit works. Such techniques are termed biomimetic, in that they mimic the natural ability to copy the background found in creatures as diverse as the chameleon and octopus. This can be done either actively or passively. Actively, you read the background with a camera and project it on the front of what you’re trying to hide. Here’s another approach, patented over a decade ago, which can work in both the visual and IR bands. And here’s a third. How these escaped the maw of black programs, I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t? BAE’s ADAPTIV™ technology operates in the thermal IR band, usually considered to be 8-12 microns, but with some systems, such as the U.S. TWS (Thermal Weapon Sight), in the 3-5 micron band. It is almost certainly geared to the former. Passively, you can use exotic materials to direct light, and perhaps other frequencies, around the object to be screened, so that there’s nothing to see. A relatively simple solution already in use by NATO is a special paint. This works well against IR systems, as seen in the accompanying photos at the link.
Black Programs–Deconstructing BAE’s ADAPTIV™
The BAE advertising video revealed incredible technical capabilities, against both FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) and IIR (Imaging InfraRed) systems. These systems both operate on the principle of detecting and displaying the temperature differences between the background and the target. Classically, this differential is displayed as either “white hot” (hot objects bright) or “cold hot” (cold objects bright). Always good to know which! The BAE ADAPTIV™ video shows the displays as white hot. This FOX piece confirms the system is geared to defeating relatively close range IR detection. Additionally, it reveals Swedish military involvement in the program.
The systems ADAPTIV™ works against include passive IR surveillance, target acquisition, weapon sights and missile seekers. ADAPTIV™ can make the tank disappear by removing its thermal contrast with the background. To do this, it reads the background, then adjusts each panel (broadly, a pixel) to remove the thermal contrast that would allow the tank to be seen in this way. This is best done while static. If you can’t see it, you can’t shoot it. That, though, isn’t the real magic, magic revealed later in the video. This magic consists of the ability to make the tank be seen as something innocuous, like a car. A car is unlikely to excite interest, therefore, unlikely to draw fire, particularly from expensive missiles which pattern match specific IR signatures. What can be depicted is limited only by the preloaded target signature library. The other slick capability is to be able to alter thermal emissivity at will, not to hide or appear to be something other than a tank, but so as to reasonably guarantee NOT being shot because friendlies thought you were a hostile. As the gallows humor military quote goes, “Friendly fire isn’t.”
When a tank costs what a fighter plane used to cost, without considering enormous crew training outlays, even the most brilliant combat actions can be undone by friendly fire. What’s shown late in the video is the ability to invert the IR screening technology to make the tank highly visible to friendly FLIR and IIR systems, avoiding victimization from your own high tech weapons! The “Don’t shoot me!” markings are good, but the real power of the ADAPTIV™ to unambiguously communicate practically screams via the ultra high tech billboard the side of the tank’s turned into just before the video ends.
Sharp readers may’ve noticed the odd looking gun barrel on and smooth appearance of the so-called Chameleon tank. Both are measures to provide radar stealth. A round barrel reflects from all angles, and surface discontinuities create what we call corner reflectors. Think of shining a headlight at night into a cat’s eyes for the equivalent optical event. The Chameleon tank shown is thus stealthy against IR systems and radar, but clearly isn’t there yet (or so they want us to believe) against visual detection. If the British don’t have it already, they likely will soon. After all, they reportedly demonstrated high tech visual camouflage in 2007. Ideally, you’d want simultaneous, visual, IR and radar camouflage, as well as a quiet tank engine, but as the saying goes in Engineering, “You can have it good, cheap or fast. Pick two!”
Black Programs–Nakidka, Russian Passive High Tech Tank Camouflage
The Russians have their own high tech tank camouflage system, Nakidka (in English, “cape”) which relies, not on invisibility per se, but on greatly reducing detection probability, thus, detection range, which corresponds to reduced engagement opportunities. Nakidka, which is completely passive, reduces detection ranges for optical, IR and radar systems,
“According to NII Stali (Scientific Research Institute of Steel), who designed Nakidka, it reduces the chances of detection by Day/Night viewers and TV systems and seekers by thirty percent, Infrared seekers by two to three fold, radar by six fold, and reduces the thermal-radar (FLIR; poor translation, J.K.) signature to near-background levels.[1] Nakidka is efficient in the optical, IR and radar wavelength bands up to 12 cm,[2] and also reduces the Radar cross section by 10 db.[2] ”
and this is clearly shown in the unfortunately Russian language only (no English subtitles) video. The animated sequences show the direct impact on NATO detection means and weaponry. We also see a demonstration of reduced radar return (the guy on the oscilloscope) and of its tremendous effectiveness in defending against IR threats. The tank is practically invisible and certainly isn’t recognizable as a tank. All the IR sensor can really see is some undercarriage glow associated with “shine” from the engine reflecting off the ground and from a few hot parts of the turbine (the bright colors against the blue background temperature), but mostly what we see is the hot exhaust plume from a probable turbine tank engine. Otherwise, the tank is scarcely there, with the best viewing aspects behind and to the left rear.
Nakidka is what you might call a low cost solution to a high tech problem. Its simplicity and ruggedness (traditional Russian military design criteria) work well for a force which prizes both, has a huge armored force to protect and can’t afford many very high end systems like that Chameleon tank. I note with fascination that the online Russian arms export catalog www.warfare.runo longer has a Nakidka write up in conjunction with its section on tanks and that the only Nakidka offering at all is a camouflage screen, with almost no technical details supplied. The manufacturer link at the Wiki is also defunct, both here and in the Internet Wayback Machine. I think Russian military security officials belatedly realized the official Russian arms export catalog and the manufacturer’s site revealed altogether too much sensitive information, so this is an attempt to put the wrongly released information cats back into the bag. Mind, the combat test video was shot in 2002!
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