Optical Stealth Possible?

[Michel Van]

you know it from TV

in Star Trek, the Klingons and Romulan use Cloaking device
or in Anime Full Metall Panic, have Invisible Helicopter.

only Sci Fi ? NO !

in 2006 David Schurig and his colleagues at Duke University in Durham,
imagined the first and most primitive Cloaking device .
It consists of a ring of several layers of copper wire and fiber glass slides, and work only on microwave (radar)
on wavelength of 3.5 cm

in 2007 Christopher Davis and his colleagues have developed a camouflage cap, the visible light bend around them.
its oly green waveleng but it works!

Their camouflage cap consists of concentric rings. However, the material is another:
It consists of a transparent acrylic, on a thin gold layer is raised.
more on that work here
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0709/0709.2862.pdf

The path to a genuine camouflage cap is still far.
The previously presented camouflage caps work only in two dimensions

but Mathematicians Allan Greenleaf has idea for that
he called it "Electromagnetic Wormhole"
Greenleafs idea: Take a rectangular piece of camouflage material, roll it into a cylinder and then put in the inside of the cylinder of that thing, you want to disappear.

source (in german languade only)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,524320,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,511566,00.html

Attach Picture
1: Cloaking device for Microwave
2: Electromagnetic Wormhole
3: The images show how the so-called meta-materials radiation to the ring.
So viewers get the impression that there was not the ring

 

[Justo Miranda]

- In 1943, an experiment was performed under the Yehudi code-name to diminish the frontal visibility against the luminous background of the sky. It consisted of 10 sealed-beam lights, installed along the wings leading edges and the rim of the engine cowling of an Avenger TBM-3D bomber. The tests proved that the Yehudi system lowered the visual acquisition range from twelve to two miles.

The entry into service of the new centimetric radars, that the ‘Metox’ detectors of the Kriegsmarine could not detect, disrupted the balance in the Battle of the Atlantic, rendering the Yehudi useless. But the experiments went on using a Liberator and were only declassified in the 80s.

During the Vietnam war, the idea was resumed under the ‘Compass-Ghost’ code name and the tests made with a blue and white F-4 Phantom, lighted by nine high-intensity lamps on the wings and fuselage, reduced the detection range a 30 percent.

In the mid 90s, the advanced achieved in Computer Generated Holography, wavelength computation with Fourier transform method and Point Source Holograms, allowed the creation of holographic images in 3D around an object to hide it. But the system just worked with static objects and the Phased Array Optics required a considerable amount of electronic equipment.

In 2003, researchers at the University of Tokyo developed an active camouflage system with video cameras that registered the background to project it against the object that should be camouflaged.

In 2004, the discovery of the graphene made possible the manufacturing of curve video screens and adapts them to any surface. An aircraft with a coat of grapheme screens and equipped with video cameras that register the background from any angle and project it on the screens at the other side, may become practically invisible.

The layers of grapheme are super-thin and several of them, with different properties, may be superimposed. Under the optical screen, it is possible to locate a layer formed by hexagonal elements of grapheme that may be heated or cooled down in a selective way, thanks to the ‘Adaptiv’ system, developed by BAE systems in 2011. This layer would very efficiently act as IR camouflage.

 

[GTX]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjuY6ynuFU

 

[Justo Miranda]

Total invisibility is practically impossible, it is possible to greatly reduce the optical, radar and infra-red signature, but not eliminate them completely, especially heat. In my opinion, the struggle between camouflage and detection will continue for many years with increasingly sophisticated systems. The increasing use of electromagnetic engines will reduce the heat problem but will require the development of specialized detectors. The Nazis worked on an electrostatic field detector in 1944.

 

[FighterJock]

I would think that optical stealth would be possible but not right now considering the current state of technology for future stealth but as the saying goes never say never Justo Miranda, look at where we are with technology compaired to where we were even ten years ago.

 

[Justo Miranda]

I would think that optical stealth would be possible but not right now considering the current state of technology for future stealth but as the saying goes never say never Justo Miranda, look at where we are with technology compaired to where we were even ten years ago.

I also thought that way in 1969, but the reality is that technological progress is not linear, nor exponential. History shows that it advances by leaps and bounds and is sometimes forced to retreat for economic, political or ideological reasons.

Let us remember the anti-nuclear movements after the accident on the Three Miles Island or the ban of Concorde in the United States.

In my opinion, the real operational utility of stealth systems will not be to always be ignored, but to have the opportunity to get as close to the target as possible before being detected, and that works.

 

[publiusr]

A type of optical stealth in the daytime are bright lights, ironically.

I remember footage of a tank atop a hill--its silhouette against a milky sky.

A bank of 12 lights in a frame was put against the near side of the tank--and the camera zoomed out.

No silhouette--the lights blended into the sky glow at a distance.

Counter-intuitive.

 

[Scott Kenny]

A type of optical stealth in the daytime are bright lights, ironically.

I remember footage of a tank atop a hill--its silhouette against a milky sky.

A bank of 12 lights in a frame was put against the near side of the tank--and the camera zoomed out.

No silhouette--the lights blended into the sky glow at a distance.

Counter-intuitive.

That's basically how the Yehudi Lights worked, they more or less eliminated the shadow caused by the silhouetted tank.

And it's thermally and electrically affordable to do these days, with small+bright LEDs.

 

[quellish]

That's basically how the Yehudi Lights worked, they more or less eliminated the shadow caused by the silhouetted tank.

And it's thermally and electrically affordable to do these days, with small+bright LEDs.

It’s contrast matching. It works - so does luminance matching - and is definitely in use on some aircraft.

As a sidenote HAVE BLUE was originally going to have such a system but it was dropped before first flight.

 

[quellish]

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/northrop-grumman-b-21-raider-lrs-b.25915/post-412747

 

[publiusr]

LUMILOR is electrified glowing paint---though that could come at the expense of radar adsorbing materials.

Octopi can present different patterns--a smart skin could sprout either materials when passing occupied areas--rad-adsorption on one side and luminosity on the other.

 

[Scott Kenny]

It’s contrast matching. It works - so does luminance matching - and is definitely in use on some aircraft.

I'd expect that to be in use on MARSOC and AFSOC C-130s, especially the gunships.

 

[quellish]

I'd expect that to be in use on MARSOC and AFSOC C-130s, especially the gunships.

Nope, MALE UAVs.

You’d think gunships would get contrast matching and IR suppression but nope, no interest in improving the survivability of gunships

 

[Scott Kenny]

Nope, MALE UAVs.

You’d think gunships would get contrast matching and IR suppression but nope, no interest in improving the survivability of gunships

*facepalm* so hard I think my grandparents felt that up in heaven...

 

[Foo Fighter]

Even shrapnell would make anything reliant on camera's/mirrors etc vulnerable and rather pointless. IMOHO, of course.

 

[riggerrob]

That's basically how the Yehudi Lights worked, they more or less eliminated the shadow caused by the silhouetted tank.

And it's thermally and electrically affordable to do these days, with small+bright LEDs.

Yehudi Lights mimicked the dirty white colour of the sky over the North Atlantic during the winter months. RCAF Catalinas, etc. were painted a dirty white.

M/Cpl Rob Warner, HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Iroquois, STANAVFORLANT, etc.

 

[riggerrob]

An F-22 or was it an F-35A was recently painted reflective silver to reduce the IR reflections.

 

[quellish]

An F-22 or was it an F-35A was recently painted reflective silver to reduce the IR reflections.

No, that is internet “wisdom” and not fact.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Yehudi Lights mimicked the dirty white colour of the sky over the North Atlantic during the winter months. RCAF Catalinas, etc. were painted a dirty white.

M/Cpl Rob Warner, HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Iroquois, STANAVFORLANT, etc.

Right, they matched the brightness of the aircraft with the brightness of the sky.

 

[quellish]

Right, they matched the brightness of the aircraft with the brightness of the sky.

That is what contrast matching is, and it is effective (even at night)

 

[Hydroman]

Visual Stealth - Don't be in the right place at the wrong time....

 

[Justo Miranda]

Visual Stealth - Don't be in the right place at the wrong time....

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