Invisible tank is already a reality

Swedish engineers developed a new defense technology that allows tank trick the enemy by simply disappearing.

As reported by Sky News, the Adaptiv technology created by specialists from the Swedish division of an English company gives the tank chameleon properties that can adapt to their surroundings.

It is assumed that military equipment in motion will not be noticeable in the infrared range and, accordingly, will become inaccessible to enemy anti-tank weapons with thermal homing systems. On the portal BAE Systems there is a video about the created “invisible tank”.

According to reports, to achieve a similar effect, hexagonal plates are used, which are made of materials that can quickly change their temperature.

Scanners, which are installed on the tank, collect information, and then adjust the temperature indicators of the “invisible cloak”, adapting them to the environment.

To cover the tank, you need a panel that consists of thousands of hexagonal blocks, the size of which is 14 centimeters. Manufacturers assure that this technology can be used very effectively in order to ensure the invisibility of moving tanks.

The enemy is supposed to be introduced into deception, forcing armored vehicles to become similar to other vehicles - for example, to quite harmless civilian vehicles. According to the developers, in a couple of years the “invisibility cloak” will be completely ready for use in real combat conditions.

Recently, the idea of ​​creating such means of masking, which would hide objects not only in the infrared range, but also in daylight, is being increasingly discussed. So, in particular, specialists from Imperial College in London are working on this technology.

In 2010, the English first made the object invisible in the 3's dimensions. However, it should be noted that so far they have achieved success only with rather small objects - no more than one millimeter.

This "invisibility cloak", which was developed in London, consists of small rods, forming a structure similar to a woodpile. Due to this arrangement, the rods partly bend the passing rays of light. Thus, scientists can change the direction and speed of light, forcing the rays to bypass the object.

Recall that at MAKS-2011 Russian military specialists showed a new set of combat equipment of a soldier. According to experts, the new Russian ammunition exceeds the current foreign counterparts.

This equipment of the future was shown by a group of developers consisting of representatives from more than 20 enterprises. The set of equipment includes systems of destruction, control, protection, energy and life support.

Comments

[Phoenixl]

"Your advertisement in the enemy's thermal imager"

[Sanzyro]

Swedish tank builders, Turkmen nuclear physicists, Chukchi hackers ... How many funny phrases ...

[Denis]

a little wrong, the Swedes still in the 60 years had a reckless and somehow crouching tank, though it didn’t go wildly expensive in the series

[Sanzyro]

Our BMD has been crouching for a long time, but no one makes a sensation from this. And mind you - in the series!

[Noni4]

Interesting technology. I think its worth developing.

[ars_pro]

Normal Western PR ...

[Uhalus]

I would not underestimate the enemy. We have destruction, and they are developing.

[Superduck]

As I got it, she is trying to deceive only thermal imagers, i.e. these cells can be cooled and heated according to the program. I can imagine how many watts he eats.

[Vadivak]

The very idea of ​​a tank as something "scrap" is lost in the scanners sensors ... some kind of glamor

[MaxArt]

Explain to me the plan, if not difficult! Understood nothing! I understand why mask the thermal footprint - in order to be invisible in the infrared. But why do these plates know how heat? What's the point of this? If we are talking about thermal guidance of missiles, then the only thing that makes sense is to hide the exhaust streams and cool them. This is a time. And secondly ... to be honest, it seems like 100% PR. Well, look at any air conditioner in the store or at work. A hefty split system has the task of only cooling the air. I want to say that there is only one way to cool the plates - removing heat somewhere ... inside the tank?! But this is nonsense. Chemical cooling is another option, though one-time. And there are simply no other options to force the surface of such plates to "cool down", humanity simply does not know how, in half a second, to take a large amount of heat somewhere who knows where.

Summary: PR and stupidity. Or I don’t understand something.

[Foamas]

It was written that the basis of cooling is the principle of a thermoemission generator. (direct conversion of heat to electricity).

[Sanzyro]

Heat can be converted into electricity. But not all. And not instantly.

[Superduck]

Modern ATGMs are not aimed at the thermal trail, here we are talking about detecting the tank with thermal imaging equipment.

[MaxArt]

Good. I may not be sufficiently savvy, but I will continue my dullness a little.

Thermal emission generator takes place, it is a fact. I have only one question. How to force it to cool the metal forcibly? The principle of operation is simple: the metal (namely the metal!) Heats up, free electrons appear. They were taken away - the temperature dropped. But in this process, the magnitude of thermal emission is set only by the properties of the metal - how many electrons were torn off, so many were taken away, not a single more. In other words, it will not be possible to forcibly cool the metal, but it is possible only to the extent that it "allows" it. Moreover, it will not be possible to cool it down quickly, as shown in the "video", in a second. If such technology existed, there would be no problem, say, overheating of satellites or spaceships. And there is such a problem. Perhaps, due to the high power consumption of such an installation, it is only suitable for a tank, but for me personally, the existence of a system with such performance characteristics remains doubtful.

Superduck, by "thermal missile guidance" I, of course, did not mean the flight of the ATGM into the exhaust pipe of the tank, I just put it crookedly).

[Superduck]

Electrons do not transfer heat; you confuse something, it seems, and electric current (the movement of electrons) in ordinary materials, including and metals does not occur under the influence of temperatures which are higher than necessary for superconductivity. Heat is transferred in metals, in particular, molecular vibrations, for example, infrared radiation (photon fluxes) in a metal does not propagate.
There are semiconductor elements which, under the influence of an electric current, can heat up on the one hand and cool down on the other, but polarity is not enough to switch the mode, you really need to turn it around. Well, as you rightly noted, according to the law of conservation of energy and the principles of operation of the air conditioner, if the plate cools, then the same calories of heat will be allocated from the other side, this heat should be taken somewhere (I think no one will heat the tank because its thermal contrast is usually in the background colder environment). The only way I can assume you can remove so much heat is to transfer it through the heat pipes to the bottom, using it as a large radiator, there is no other place, all other parts need to be cooled. But to make a large area of ​​fins there (like in a car or an air conditioner) is unrealistic, since it is still a tank and has the ability to crawl on its belly, which is necessary.
Yes, and it seems only Jewelin and Jewish ATGM similar (I forgot what is called) are homing on the target's thermal circuit (as one of the guidance options), i.e. This is a real shot, I forgot, when you do not need to accompany the target, the laser is no longer suitable there, but the shot there is like a T-55. The rest of the ATGMs, at best, have a gunner's thermal imaging channel, and the missile itself is guided either by a laser beam or by wires like a "baby". Classic infrared targeting is used by stinger / arrow / needle type anti-aircraft missiles and a bunch of other large and small ones, and only because the plane and the helicopter give a much higher thermal contrast than the tank.

[MaxArt]

Free electrons, their number and energy - this is heat, along with the vibration of molecules in the crystal lattice. The more we heat the metal, the more free electrons it contains, each with a large supply of energy. If it were not for the free electrons of the heated metal, then the thermionic generator would not exist, in them its meaning. It is appropriate to recall the thermocouple, which is probed in technical universities in the first or second year. To be fair, the word "metal" is not used anywhere in the article.

One way or another, and such a system of camouflage requires good energy costs, even better money and raises the remaining questions:
- teach the tank to levitate so that it doesn’t reveal itself as dust clouds
- completely cool the exhaust, because even in the presented video it "glows"
- learn to ride silently
- hide in the optical range
- make the exhaust heavier so that it isn’t cow poles down, not a column of smoke.

Well, you need to hang the tank from head to toe with such plates. There are many video recordings of Comanche flights in Iraq, made with a thermal imager. From kilometers away, people can distinguish their hands and feet, not like the cannon of a tank or its equipment. Even the track from the tracks of a tank that has just passed will "glow" with a slight heat. And the helicopter is the main enemy of armored vehicles.

As a result, the development is interesting, but in tank building, IMHO, it will not find itself.

[Vadivak]

There are many videos of Comanche flights in Iraq on the Internet,

Maybe you're wrong - "Apache" probably? Comanches didn't seem to go

[AlexAl]

I think the story will be like with stealth technology, when Ufimtsev said that the plane cannot be made absolutely invisible, their absence will sharply stand out against the background of interference and noise. We look into the thermal imager and see, instead of a tank on a mountain background, a motorcycle on a background (nothing), where the circuit (nothing) is very similar to a tank. Explain how in the video, when the tank disappears, we are shown the contours of the forest? How does Baer know from what angle we are looking at the tank, and what kind of background is behind the tank? Then about three days ago, they wrote that we have a cape that hides the tank - so we are ahead - Baer is developing, but we already have it.

[Honory]

In my opinion, the bourgeois hurried a bit.