Invisible Tanks?

Invisible tanks could be on battlefield within five years.

An article on the internet said that British military scientists plan to develop an army of "invisible" tanks ready for use on the battlefield within five years.

A weapons manufacturer is describing an "eCamouflage" system that uses electronic ink to disguise combat vehicles by projecting videos of the countryside onto them -- electronic squid ink of a sort.

Using highly sophisticated electronic sensors attached to a vehicle's hull, BAE Systems plans to project images of the surrounding environment back onto the outside of the vehicle -- enabling it to merge into the landscape and evade attack. Unlike conventional forms of camouflage, the images on the hull would change in concert with the changing environment, always insuring that the vehicle remains disguised.

BAE Systems is working with an unnamed Swedish company that makes a technology similar to the e-ink screens in digital book readers like the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader.

E-ink screens, as any e-book reader can attest, are both slow to refresh and black and white -- two clear obstacles to this technology. BAE has reportedly solved those problems.

BAE is starting with tanks, such as the CV90 (or Combat Vehicle 90, the Swedish equivalent of the Bradley tank) on which the first tests will be conducted. But the technology won't be limited to them. They also plan on developing it for aircraft.

Several companies have been working on similar technologies, all based on the same approach. They all use a camera to capture the scene on the other side of the vehicle, then project that image on the other side of the vehicle so that it blends into the environment.

But BAE plans to make it happen, intending to test in Sweden at the end of the month a technology it calls "adaptive signature." -And the next stage will be transparent battle armor for soldiers  --I want some....

Live Long and Prosper.....