MoD tests technology to turn tanks 'invisible'

[Carach]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/ntank131.xml

some new technology has been developed that they believe will save lives in afghanistan and iraq (and in the future anywhere)

not entirely invisible by the looks of the pictures in the article but it is possibly enough to look like a mirage? heh.

does look a bit primitive though with the projectors and all that.

[LoZz]

i would rather the money be used to provide better housing for armed forces employees, finish building all the super blocks for example.

more body armour and rounds would be nice. o and decent medical and aftercare for soilders would do alot more for moral and lives then some bollocks tank that proberly wont work

whatever happened to "electronic armour" and all that space age crap as well?

[leeho730]

i would rather the money be used to provide better housing for armed forces employees, finish building all the super blocks for example.

more body armour and rounds would be nice. o and decent medical and aftercare for soilders would do alot more for moral and lives then some bollocks tank that proberly wont work

whatever happened to "electronic armour" and all that space age crap as well?

I would rather have bulletproof vest than some medical and housing allowance. You can ask for so much but what's the point of those allowances and benefits when you're dead?

[removeduser_487563287433]

You're not think big, Lozz. This is something we can sell to all manner of violent arabs.

[Carach]

something like that ferrets

whatever happened to "electronic armour" and all that space age crap as well?

still under development.

[King Edward III]

Laser guns next me thinks.

[Carach]

Laser guns next me thinks.

havent u seen the laser missile defence system?

I would rather have bulletproof vest than some medical and housing allowance. You can ask for so much but what's the point of those allowances and benefits when you're dead?

the general populace here in the UK either 1) dont care about the armed forces 2)dont understand the armed forces.

Hence why people tend to talk about the social side of things being in a poor state rather than the actual fighting capability being in a skeleton form on starvation rations.

[King Edward III]

havent u seen the laser missile defence system?

I'm talking Star Wars style

[Farnan]

I'm talking Star Wars style

That's its name, Star Wars.

[Holger Danske]

That's its name, Star Wars.

Star Wars has been dead for quite some time...

every 3rd world nation's grunt will have a thermal vision or something fancier by default .

Right.. Just as the Iraqis had.

[VALIS]

You watch, our cowardly politicians will probably sell it to the Americans just like the jet engine!

Then before we know it we'll be behind 20 years in terms of the technology.

[danzig]

You watch, our cowardly and imbecilic politicians will probably sell it to the Americans just like the jet engine!

Then before we know it we'll be behind 20 years in terms of the technology.

If you read the article you'd see that its er being funded by America so er technically its already ours.....sorry Kidding of course since the Brits and Americans work closely together on this stuff probably very few tech secrets (roswell! sorry but the flying saucers are ours!) between our two countries

The theory behind the method, that uses materials that refract light in ways not found in nature, has already been proven.

"Researchers at Duke University in the US have already built a material that works for radar," he said.

"But doing it with visible light will take a lot longer."

Although his research has been funded by the American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), he said he had talked to the MoD about it. "They are interested," he said.

An MoD spokesman confirmed it was looking at the technology.

[VALIS]

Goddammit!

Ah well, at least we get it, and if its funded by the Americans we can spend money on housing or whatever people are moaning on about.

[Medicus]

Hmmm. Still pretty visible, isn't it?

What a waste of money. What we have today will be good for centuries to come.

[Cluny the Scourge]

Hmmm. Still pretty visible, isn't it?

What a waste of money. What we have today will be good for centuries to come.

That's a zoomed-in photograph from short range. At the actual ranges that enemy vehicles and anti-tank weapons will be used from, i.e. up to approx. 4 kilometres, that half-visibility will make the tank much, much harder to discern from their surroundings. While the enemy is closing to make sense of the shimmering haze in front of it, with sand and rock and dirt flying all around them from incoming high-explosive, there's plenty more time for these tanks to sit and blast the crap out of the attackers as they come.

[Medicus]

That's a zoomed-in photograph from short range. At the actual ranges that enemy vehicles and anti-tank weapons will be used from, i.e. up to approx. 4 kilometres, that half-visibility will make the tank much, much harder to discern from their surroundings.

I assume the tank will also be giving out heat, as well as sound and exhaust.

Back to the drawing board, noobs.

[Carach]

its the beginings of something doctor. look how planes have developed since ww1 for example of that (and tanks.. and guns... and everything in general)

may be mostly useless now (even then, its not that bad, it could easily be some kind of mirage from far away in desert conditions or something else - probably harder to see when in some kind of forested enviroment and not taken with the skyline..) but it will probably develop into true invisibile tanks heh.

[humvee2800]

Thats a pretty bad example pic they have, you guys should see the japanese link in the article.

still see outline but try seeing that guy at 30 feet

[The Alcotroll]

Presumably the invisible tanks are to go with the invisible body armour and the invisible accomodation?


Personally, I suspect that the invisible tank might be given away by the clanking of treads and the ****ing great cloud of dust and petrol fumes that always billows out the back of mine.

[Farnan]

Personally, I suspect that the invisible tank might be given away by the clanking of treads and the ****ing great cloud of dust and petrol fumes that always billows out the back of mine.

This technology can be used when setting up an ambush or defensive actions, but yea for offensive actions it is nearly useless as it doesn't mask sound or smoke.