Talk-Polywell.org

Texas scientist makes strands of ‘invisibility cloak’

Ali Aliev uses carbon nanotubes--which look like pieces of thread--and then heats them up rapidly until the objects beneath them effectively disappear.You can watch the threads disappear as they are heated up in the video below.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/tex ... 15865.html

Have they never heard of a mirror? It's a lot cheaper.

I have seen open-source studies by western militaries going back to the 1990s which suggest that they would like to have invisibility cloaks.

Driving around a tank covered with mirrors is not a very effective way to hide it if there's any sunlight. Also, the mirrors tend to be frangible.

Carbon nanotube "fabric" stretched over most of the surface, while it wouldn't provide perfect invisibility, would do to make the vehicle very indistinct at anything but short ranges. You would see something driving around, but it would look more like a ghost or a mirage or just rippling heat waves in the distance until you got within a few dozen yards/meters.

Also, if the "fabric" is hit by enemy fire, most likely only a small section of it is scorched/torn, and most remains reflective.

Of course, since World War II a good way to detect the approach of armoured vehicles is by noise. Even at a distance, the track and engine noise can conduct very well through certain types of ground. Vehicles with big soft wheels like Strykers can be quieter, but they lack good flotation across certain types of terrain, and are also limited by their tires in the weight of armour that can be loaded on them. Making an AFV "invisible" at distance won't be a perfect way to evade detection and enemy fire, but it would make it a fair bit more difficult/frustrating for your opponent... which could give you the edge.

And the Brits currently have an IR camo package that works fantastically. Can make a tank look like pretty much anything. Even its background. They are currenlty working on extending the panels into the visual spectrum.

If you are trying for invisibility, maybe you don't want to be using tanks.

The Iraqis tried burying their tanks in the sand, but we could detect their IR emissions even using primitive equipment. We could distinguish between decoy pits containing stove pipes and real pits containing operating tanks.

In addition to making real weapons less visible, it pays to make decoys more visible. There have been efforts in the past to simulate the heat, noise, and even the smell of operating systems. This can serve to reduce the fire received by real targets, but also can serve as bait, attracting the enemy to reveal themselves, whereupon they are set upon by any of a number of truely stealthy operations, from well-armed bushes to laser-guided bombs dropped from ten miles away.

We continue to use our older, non-stealthy, fighters as "wild weasels". It got to the point where nobody bothered even turning on their radar any more. Wild weasels show up great on radar, and attract enemy missiles like a magnet ... but in doing so the anti-aircraft radar are instantly identified and destroyed by radar-seeking missiles carried by these aircraft. Tanks likewise draw attention, but tend to be well-equipped to deal with it. A stealthy tank may need an accompanying decoy to do some missions well, as they may need to stir up some trouble in order to have an opportunity to fight.

Tom,
I am spending this week in Mclean. Here is a link to the armor package, as well as some clothing that we played with a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pftna34TbJU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx0ggSL8CkU