Iran Military Forum

Stealth Technology for Land Forces.

(Author: Numbers)

There are three spectrums of light (electro magnetic waves) that allow detection of military vehicles and infantry.
They are Radio spectrum, Infrared spectrum and Visible spectrum.

Radio spectrum is used in Radar technology. All Radars tranmsit and receive Radio spectrum
electromagnetic waves.

To hide military asset from Radio spectrum detection 2 things have to be done:

1) Shape of military vehicle has to reflect Radio waves to the sides of vehicle and not back
to Radar. That means that vehicle shape must be completely "reflective" without any objects
attached to it.

Current military vehicles have a lot of objects on them that make them un-stealthy.

(See Picture 1 below of US Army Jeep. It has "reflective shape". Picture 2 is Stealth Boat with "reflective shape".
And Picture 3 is Stealth Tank).

2) Material of which military vehicle is done has to be Radar "transparent" Plastic.
In that case Radio waves go through vehicle's Plastic chassis without been refelcted back
to Radar.

(See Picture 4 of Iranian Helicopter that has Plastic rotor blades.)

So there are 2 solutions for Radar Stealth Vehicles. Either make them "reflective" or "transparent".
Or make them both "reflective" and "transparent".

Note: Most current Iranian vehicles are completely not Radar Stealthy. All those Tanks, APCs,
trucks and motorbikes can be easily detected by any US Aircraft's Radar. There are two solution to
protect currtent Iranian vehicles from Air Attack.

a) Iranian vehicles can be deployed in "desert bunkers". Vehicles in
bunkers can be hidden from Radar and Infrared spectrum detection. Allowing hidden vehicles
to ambush approaching US Land Forces.

b) Itanian vehicles can be protected from Air Attack by MAN Portable Air Defence missile
(MANPAD). Like Iranian Misagh-2 MANPAD (Picture 5).

You can easily spot all (!) current Aircrafts and Helicopters in Thermal Infrared spectrum.
(See Picture 6. Heat emitted by Aircraft engine is high enough to be detected by MANPAD)

Note: All other claims that US Stealth Aircarft can be detected by Radar guided missile like
Russian S-300 are false. The only Radar that can detect Stealth Aircraft (by laws of Physics)
is Russian Nebo SVU. However right now I doubt that S-300 Missile is fitted with active Nebo SVU seeker.

(See Picture 7. Long wavelength Radar Russian Nebo SVU)


Now, I will explain second and third detection spectrums - Infrared and Visible.

First, you should know that there are 2 Infrared spectrums: "Nightvision" Near-Infrared and "Thermal" Mid-wavelength Infrared.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared#Commonly_used_sub-division_scheme

1) Visible Spectrum, wavelength 390 - 750 nm. Everything human eye can see.

2) "Nightvision", Near-Infrared, Wavelength 0.75-1.4 µm.
Nightvision Image intensifiers are sensitive to this area of the spectrum. Examples include night vision devices such as night
vision goggles. That amplify reflected light from moon and stars during the night.

3) "Thermal", Mid-wavelength Infrared, wavelength 3-8 µm. In guided missile technology the 3-5 µm portion of this band is the
atmospheric window in which the homing heads of passive IR 'heat seeking' missiles are designed to work, homing on to the Infrared
signature of the target aircraft, typically the jet engine exhaust plume.

You can see the transparency of atmosphere to Infrared radiation. (Picture
Atmosphere is transparrent to 1.4 - 1.5 µm (Nightvision) and 5.5 - 8 µm (Thermal) wavelenghts.

To hide military vehicle from detection in "Visible", "Nightvision" and "Thermal" spectrums
you have to deploy camouflage net. (Pictures 9, 10)

The main detail of camouflage net design is that net has to hide vehicle from all 3 spectrums:
Visible, Nightvision and Thermal at once.

That can only be done if net is made of material that can hide from all 3 spectrums at once.

In nature there are only 2 solutions:

a) Sand.
b) Dried Wood Pieces.

These solutions can hide vehicle or soldier in all 3 passive spectrums (and even in ultraviolet spectrum).

To hide vehicle only in Visible spectrum diffrent Paint coatings can be used.

Remember that you can not out paint onto natural substance since Paint can only hide object
in Visible spectrum.

So following combinations of camouflage can be done:

Desert = Sand glued on net (only sand) = 100 % camouflage in all 3 spectrums.
Forest = 75 % Dried wood pieces + 25 % Green Paint = 75% camouflage in all 3 spectrums.
Winter = 75 % Dried wood pieces + 25 % White Paint = 75% camouflage in all 3 spectrums.

75 % camouflage in all 3 spectrums means that object can still be found by Nightvision as Colored Paints have
different Nightvision light reflection. But object can be found at much closer range.

Thermal signature of vehicle can be further reduced by water cooling or air cooling. That means that under
camouflage net vehicle is further cooled by "convection" (or contact with water or air).

That ends this lecture on Stealth Technology.

Future Land Forces should combine Stealth in all 3 spectrums (Radio, Infrared and Visible):

a) "Reflective" shape and "Transparent" materials will reduce detection in Radio spectrum.
b) Camouflage nets will reduce detection in Visible, Nightvision and Thermal spetrum.
c) Water and air cooling will further reduce detection in Thermal Spectrum.

Thank you for reading this lecture gentlemen .

More pictures of Camouflage Nets and Stealth Vehicles (Pictures 21 - 30).

Adaptiv

Russian Ballistic Missiles to Cover Tracks






Russia's mobile ballistic missile launchers are to be fitted with a new camouflage system that will cover their tracks on the ground, making it harder to detect them, Defense Ministry spokesman Vadim Koval said on Friday.

The new equipment not only effectively camouflages missile launchers when deployed, but can also promptly erase tracks on the ground to cover the movements of missile vehicles, as well as creating false trails to mislead enemy surveillance, Koval said.

The new equipment will cut the time required to camouflage the launchers many times over, he added.

The Teikovo ballistic missile site in Russia’s Ivanovo Region will become the first missile unit to be equipped with new advanced camouflage at the end of the year, Koval said.

The unit, based 280 kilometers from Moscow, consists of Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle B) and Yars (RS-24) intercontinental ballistic missile systems.

Other Strategic Missile Forces detachments, including the Irkutsk and Novosibirsk units in Siberia, will also get similar equipment in the future.

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20120601/173787154.html