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What enemy IR sensors see
Cloaked in Pixels
Adaptiv System Allows Vehicles, Ships To Hide in Plain Sight
LONDON - An enemy combatant picks up his hand-held infrared camera and scans the terrain. What he thinks he sees are some trees and a Toyota pickup truck. The trees are real enough, but the innocent-looking truck is actually an armored vehicle mimicking the heat signature of the civilian machine.
It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but the Swedish armored vehicles arm of BAE Systems has developed and field-tested a system that effectively makes vehicles, ships, aircraft and even buildings invisible to infrared surveillance and targeting sensors.
With a flick of a switch, the Adaptiv system of hexagon-shaped, thermally controlled pixels fitted in panels to the outer surface of your machine can turn you into a boulder or tree, or mimick another vehicle.
You can pick the signatures you want from a predesigned mission library covering desert, urban or other terrain, or you can do what BAE executives describe as "grab and copy" to instantly replicate the thermal signature of another vehicle or the surrounding countryside or town.
"Using intelligence, you can design a library to match the mission," said Peder Sjölund, the project manager for the Adaptiv system. "The idea is not to blend but to take the shape of a boulder or tree. You can be detected, but they can't classify who you are. If you don't have the matching patterns in your library, you use your onboard sensor to look at the terrain and find something the enemy is not going to be interested in. You grab a snapshot, the software does the processing and all the pixels not involved in the deception will match the background temperature." The makers said Adaptiv can protect against intelligent weapons, helicopter targeting sights, hand-held cameras and other sensors.
BAE executives said that while work on the system, partially funded by the Swedish government, has focused on the infrared spectrum, they have combined the pixels with other technologies to provide camouflage in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to provide all-around stealth.
Briefing reporters ahead of the launch of the system at the DSEi show here later this month, Sjölund said the infrared countermeasures technology has already been tested on the company's CV90 armored vehicle with good results and could be production-ready within two years.
BAE has just unveiled a concept vehicle version of the CV90120 called the Ghost, which features Adaptiv, a redesign of the hull to improve stealth capabilities and a new Rheinmetall 120mm gun. The system can also be fitted to other existing vehicles.
The CV90 trial in mid-July used panels about 14 centimeters across. Cloaking one side of the vehicle's hull and turret required about 450 pixels to present a realistic level of resolution to advanced thermal imaging devices at ranges of 300 to 400 meters. Diagnostics will immediately highlight whether any of the pixel panels are not functioning. Damaged panels can be replaced in the field.
Sjölund said the pixels can be resized to achieve the required stealth at different ranges.
"A warship or building, for instance, might not need close-up stealth, so could be fitted with larger panels," he said.
The executive said that potential military customers who have seen the system say its most important first use could be to reduce fratricide by embedding the pixels on individual vehicles with infrared identification tags.
For years, companies and government research laboratories across the world have been working on countermeasures to camouflage the thermal signature of military equipment, but Sjölund said Adaptiv is the first product of its type ready for fielding.
"Earlier attempts at similar cloaking devices have hit problems because of cost, unacceptable power requirements or because they were not sufficiently robust," he said. "Our panels can be made so strong that they provide useful armor protection and consume relatively low levels of electricity, especially when the vehicle is in stationary stealth recce mode."
Other parts of BAE have been studying similar systems in the air sector for some time, and the Swedish arm of the company has been working on a camouflage system since the mid 1990s.
It started by developing a scheme that pumped hot and cold water around the outside of the hull to change the temperature. This system was abandoned in favor of a thermoelectric device in 2007.
Sjölund said fielding a countermeasure capability is becoming more important with the increasing availability of infrared sensors to military and other potential opponents.
"Pushed by the automotive market, the price for these sorts of devices has dropped, putting this type of technology in the hands of all sorts of people," Sjölund said.
"The statistical chance of being detected is increasing and the quality of the imaging and resolution of systems is going up. Sensors now have much more high definition and image processing. For example, the U.S. has capabilities to detect targets from enormous heights and ranges," he said.
Adaptiv System Allows Vehicles, Ships To Hide in Plain Sight
LONDON - An enemy combatant picks up his hand-held infrared camera and scans the terrain. What he thinks he sees are some trees and a Toyota pickup truck. The trees are real enough, but the innocent-looking truck is actually an armored vehicle mimicking the heat signature of the civilian machine.
It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but the Swedish armored vehicles arm of BAE Systems has developed and field-tested a system that effectively makes vehicles, ships, aircraft and even buildings invisible to infrared surveillance and targeting sensors.
With a flick of a switch, the Adaptiv system of hexagon-shaped, thermally controlled pixels fitted in panels to the outer surface of your machine can turn you into a boulder or tree, or mimick another vehicle.
You can pick the signatures you want from a predesigned mission library covering desert, urban or other terrain, or you can do what BAE executives describe as "grab and copy" to instantly replicate the thermal signature of another vehicle or the surrounding countryside or town.
"Using intelligence, you can design a library to match the mission," said Peder Sjölund, the project manager for the Adaptiv system. "The idea is not to blend but to take the shape of a boulder or tree. You can be detected, but they can't classify who you are. If you don't have the matching patterns in your library, you use your onboard sensor to look at the terrain and find something the enemy is not going to be interested in. You grab a snapshot, the software does the processing and all the pixels not involved in the deception will match the background temperature." The makers said Adaptiv can protect against intelligent weapons, helicopter targeting sights, hand-held cameras and other sensors.
BAE executives said that while work on the system, partially funded by the Swedish government, has focused on the infrared spectrum, they have combined the pixels with other technologies to provide camouflage in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to provide all-around stealth.
Briefing reporters ahead of the launch of the system at the DSEi show here later this month, Sjölund said the infrared countermeasures technology has already been tested on the company's CV90 armored vehicle with good results and could be production-ready within two years.
BAE has just unveiled a concept vehicle version of the CV90120 called the Ghost, which features Adaptiv, a redesign of the hull to improve stealth capabilities and a new Rheinmetall 120mm gun. The system can also be fitted to other existing vehicles.
The CV90 trial in mid-July used panels about 14 centimeters across. Cloaking one side of the vehicle's hull and turret required about 450 pixels to present a realistic level of resolution to advanced thermal imaging devices at ranges of 300 to 400 meters. Diagnostics will immediately highlight whether any of the pixel panels are not functioning. Damaged panels can be replaced in the field.
Sjölund said the pixels can be resized to achieve the required stealth at different ranges.
"A warship or building, for instance, might not need close-up stealth, so could be fitted with larger panels," he said.
The executive said that potential military customers who have seen the system say its most important first use could be to reduce fratricide by embedding the pixels on individual vehicles with infrared identification tags.
For years, companies and government research laboratories across the world have been working on countermeasures to camouflage the thermal signature of military equipment, but Sjölund said Adaptiv is the first product of its type ready for fielding.
"Earlier attempts at similar cloaking devices have hit problems because of cost, unacceptable power requirements or because they were not sufficiently robust," he said. "Our panels can be made so strong that they provide useful armor protection and consume relatively low levels of electricity, especially when the vehicle is in stationary stealth recce mode."
Other parts of BAE have been studying similar systems in the air sector for some time, and the Swedish arm of the company has been working on a camouflage system since the mid 1990s.
It started by developing a scheme that pumped hot and cold water around the outside of the hull to change the temperature. This system was abandoned in favor of a thermoelectric device in 2007.
Sjölund said fielding a countermeasure capability is becoming more important with the increasing availability of infrared sensors to military and other potential opponents.
"Pushed by the automotive market, the price for these sorts of devices has dropped, putting this type of technology in the hands of all sorts of people," Sjölund said.
"The statistical chance of being detected is increasing and the quality of the imaging and resolution of systems is going up. Sensors now have much more high definition and image processing. For example, the U.S. has capabilities to detect targets from enormous heights and ranges," he said.
What enemy IR sensors see
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