So BAE went and built an invisible tank...

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

A tank that hides in front of your eyes is the star of the show at Defence and Security Equipment International, the arms and technology show on now at London's ExCel centre.

The invisibility cloak tank designed by BAE Systems uses patented “Adaptiv” technology to trick the opposition's infra-red cameras and goggles. The technology is based on hexagonal panels that can change temperature rapidly, while the outer skin displays background scenery that is picked up by on-board cameras. Alternatively, the hexagons can mimic another vehicle to fool the enemy, or display identification tags to avoid friendly fire.

Project manager, Peder Sjölund explains: “Earlier attempts at similar cloaking devices have hit problems because of cost, excessive power requirements or because they were insufficiently robust. Our panels can be made so strong that they provide useful armour protection and consume relatively low levels of electricity, especially when the vehicle is at rest in ’stealth recce’ mode and generator output is low.”

The machine is being tested in Sweden by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), which funds part of the project.

Endre Lunde, defence consultant for Jane's said "There is no practical application for this technology right now, but the military have been trying to conceal the thermal footprint of vehicles for years. I don't think there will be any buyers of this at DSEi, because it is complicated to get right and the thermal footprint is just one part of a vehicle's footprint. It could be useful for big heavy vehicles, and could be used to beat specific thermal footprint-seeking weapons, but they would be no use somewhere like Afghanistan against an IED (improvised explosive device)."

BAE Systems engineers are building the hexagon technology into other applications, which can be expected to be released over the next few years.

Sjölund adds: “We can resize the pixels to achieve stealth for different ranges. A warship or building, for instance, might not need close-up stealth, so could be fitted with larger panels.”

The MoD were approached for comment on whether the UK would consider buying the BAE stealth tank, but could not provide confirm before this article was published.

We are indeed living in the future.

Source, including video.

[Sanguinary Guardian]

Holy ing !

[Exarch]

nice but a tank isnt what i think of as bieng especially stealthy; wouldnt an invisible fighter jet be more appropriate?

[Sanguinary Guardian]

nice but a tank isnt what i think of as bieng especially stealthy; wouldnt an invisible fighter jet be more appropriate?

You don't think tanks as stealthy? You clearly haven't played Act of War then...

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

nice but a tank isnt what i think of as bieng especially stealthy; wouldnt an invisible fighter jet be more appropriate?

From the article, it would seem like the cells used to make it 'invisible' are prohbitively heavy/and require too much power to be fitted to a plane.

[Col. Tartleton]

And the Challenger 2 Tank just became the best tank in history...Invisible to Heat Signatures AND has a Bivvie onboard.

[Adar]

The platings are actually made by Hägglunds which is a Swedish company owned by BAE systems. "Adaptiv" is Swedish for "adaptive" but it looks like the Huffington Post haven't noticed that

This is how it can look in practice.


A close up on the plates

And the Challenger 2 Tank just became the best tank in history...Invisible to Heat Signatures AND has a Bivvie onboard.

Those plates are actually mounted on this beauty

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A Hägglunds CV90 with a 120 mm cannon.

nice but a tank isnt what i think of as bieng especially stealthy; wouldnt an invisible fighter jet be more appropriate?

The Leopard 2 tank got a surprisingly silent diesel engine but I think the major use of this technology is to use it on stationary tanks to hide them.

[PointOfViewGun]

Those plates are actually mounted on this beauty

It's a beauty indeed. Looks to me like an unmanned tank.

[Sphere]

The question from a technical standpoint is how do you cool the plates? Heating them up is straight forward, but how do your rapidly cool them?

[Exarch]

You don't think tanks as stealthy? You clearly haven't played Act of War then...

love that game; mind you i was more of a naval/light arms user lol

From the article, it would seem like the cells used to make it 'invisible' are prohbitively heavy/and require too much power to be fitted to a plane.

i c.

[Sanguinary Guardian]

love that game; mind you i was more of a naval/light arms user lol

Then you should have painful memories of the Akula Stealth Tank (If you didn't choose the Consortium, that is).
@Col.Tarleton: I just love your sig. +rep!

[Exarch]

Then you should have painful memories of the Akula Stealth Tank (If you didn't choose the Consortium, that is).

the consortium's stealth carrier was better; i played as task force talon
a stealth tank can't just be visually stealthy, otherwise the enemy'll hear it coming when it's crushing twigs and branches as it's rolling towards you.

better if the stealth tech was mounted on a ship

[Sanguinary Guardian]

the consortium's stealth carrier was better; i played as task force talon

I preferred the brute force of the US Army. You mean the Fennek or that thing in the Expansion (haven't played that).

a stealth tank can't just be visually stealthy, otherwise the enemy'll hear it coming when it's crushing twigs and branches as it's rolling towards you.

Perfect for ambushes though.

better if the stealth tech was mounted on a ship

Indeed.

[hellheaven1987]

the consortium's stealth carrier was better; i played as task force talon
a stealth tank can't just be visually stealthy, otherwise the enemy'll hear it coming when it's crushing twigs and branches as it's rolling towards you.

better if the stealth tech was mounted on a ship

I don't know, my favored unit of Consortium actually is railgun turret...

The stealth tank simply cannot compete against M1; if you like brutal playing for Consortium the best is to get as many YF-23 as possible and uses that to bomb enemy back to stone age.

[Nikitn]

The question from a technical standpoint is how do you cool the plates? Heating them up is straight forward, but how do your rapidly cool them?

apply some kind of endothermic chemical reaction to steal the energy from the plates. Or maybe the plates have some kind of hot side and a cool side which are moved around.

Anyway the only use this stuff has is in certain circumstances to pose as another smaller {clearly military, not as a civilian} vehicle or to blend into the background

[Nikitn]

I wonder, couldn't they just use some kind of insulating material (so the warm hull doesn't emit that much heat to the environment) that also can emit IR waves? that would work just as well, wouldn't it?

[SPECTREtm]

I wonder, couldn't they just use some kind of insulating material (so the warm hull doesn't emit that much heat to the environment) that also can emit IR waves? that would work just as well, wouldn't it?

We already have that technology. It's called MSC, or Barracuda.
It has been succesfully deployed by the danish army in Helmand, and while the Taliban doesn't posses any 1st rate anti-tank missiles (Like the FGM-148) the Barracuda system has helped to reduce the heat. Thus making the crew more endurable and combat effective.

The cool thing about this new "stealth" technology is that you can mask your armored vehicles as something entirely different.

[Adar]

I wonder, couldn't they just use some kind of insulating material (so the warm hull doesn't emit that much heat to the environment) that also can emit IR waves? that would work just as well, wouldn't it?

It's a good idea but that the engine produces heat continually so if your not emitting it, then you will boil the crew after a while.

Barracuda nets help camouflaging the vehicle by dispersing the IR emissions evenly over a large area. Thus making it harder for the enemy to spot the tank. A tank with it's engine turned off also gets an advantage of getting it's IR emissions more spread out in a manner similar to vegetation.

There are however several advantages with actively being able to alter your IR-emissions.

• You don't get stuck in a Barracuda net if you need to start moving.
• You can imitate the background, thus making you effectively invisible
• A tank that is too warm to make itself identical to the background can shape itself to look like something different.
  
  
  

[Nikitn]

spectre: i didn't mean the material should disperse IR waves but send out such waves.

It's a good idea but that the engine produces heat continually so if your not emitting it, then you will boil the crew after a while.

Barracuda nets help camouflaging the vehicle by dispersing the IR emissions evenly over a large area. Thus making it harder for the enemy to spot the tank. A tank with it's engine turned off also gets an advantage of getting it's IR emissions more spread out in a manner similar to vegetation.

There are however several advantages with actively being able to alter your IR-emissions.

• You don't get stuck in a Barracuda net if you need to start moving.
• You can imitate the background, thus making you effectively invisible
• A tank that is too warm to make itself identical to the background can shape itself to look like something different.

I'm sure it would be possible to divert the exhaust from the engine into the ground or something.

Regardless, a material which can emit IR waves (just like these BAE plates) - which is what I said, while acting as an isolater of the hull could work in theory.

I think that is what BAE are doing with the plates. The plates aren't actually heated up, but given enough energy to emit IR radiation.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

This thread made me re-install Act of War...