New Camoflage Developments On The Horizon

Photo: US Army

Mar 22, 2012 By David Hambling defense technology international

London - The U.S. Army is about to select improved camouflage for soldiers’ uniforms. But according to one of the finalists, far more advanced camouflage, offering potential for concealment bordering on invisibility, is just around the corner.

The Army Camouflage Plan started in 2009 after criticism of the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) that had been adopted five years earlier. The initial aim was a better pattern for soldiers in Afghanistan, but the plan recognizes the need for a science of camouflage to enhance design and to improve how future camo schemes are evaluated.

The new result may be another universal pattern like UCP, but driven by the need to operate in theaters like Afghanistan, which spurred a need to find something not as dark as “woodland” and not as light as “desert,” the two pattern styles of choice with nations that need to deploy around the world, according to Guy Cramer, CEO of HyperStealth Biotechnology of Vancouver, Canada. “Thus the explosion of transitional-type patterns has moved to the forefront.”

UCP, also known as the Army Combat Uniform Pattern, is a transitional pattern that combines gray, tan and green. It is digital, continuing the trend that started with the Canadian army’s Cadpat in 2002. Digital designs resemble earlier disruptive pattern material, but with a randomized, computer-generated pattern which more closely mimics natural backgrounds. Still, users have complained that instead of working everywhere, UCP does not work well enough anywhere.

Camouflage works in two ways—by helping the wearer blend in with the background, and by breaking up their outline and making them harder to pick out. Multicam, originally developed for the British military and selected to replace UCP in Afghanistan, has seven colors and emphasizes blending. The effect is enhanced by the way it reflects the hue of the background, so it appears green under forest canopy and tan in open desert. The design has relatively low contrast between elements; the makers, Crye Precision, say the wearer’s profile fades into whatever surrounds them. Earlier patterns with high contrast, like the “chocolate chip” pattern used in the 1991 Gulf War, can attract the eye.

Like UCP, Multicam is intended to be universal for all terrain and light conditions, including the near-infrared (IR) range used by night-vision systems.

The new U.S. camouflage is intended to outperform Multicam. A key element is the assembly of a new database of images of 43 representative terrain types across all seasons, with a particular focus on areas of geopolitical interest. Software is being developed to insert the rendered image of a soldier wearing a new camouflage pattern into a scene so that the concealment effect can be evaluated reliably.

Five teams have been selected to submit camouflage patterns for the project. Four are from industry, including a partnership between ADS and HyperStealth, and one is from the Army’s Natick Soldier Center. Each team will submit a pattern with three color variations—desert, woodland and transitional—with a fourth for use on equipment. The selection process will determine whether the transitional pattern is suitable for all terrains, or whether multiple variations are needed.

An alternative is now emerging to static camouflage—adaptive camouflage, which changes to match the scenery. Last year BAE Systems unveiled its Adaptiv vehicle camouflage, a layer of hexagonal cells which can be individually adjusted to match the IR pattern of the background.

Adaptive camouflage for soldiers is more of a challenge. HyperStealth’s solution is a fabric called Smartcamo. This resembles the company’s other complex fractal patterns and it can change color, contrast and lightness. Smartcamo can shift from woodland to desert color schemes and everything in between, and can be dark enough for night use or light enough for a snowy background.

Cramer has already demonstrated a version of Smartcamo. He says that the second-generation version will be able to change patterns, and in a third generation the pattern will shift to mask the wearer’s motion. However, it is likely to be expensive—at least $1,000 per uniform—and it is electronic, encumbering soldiers with yet more batteries.

Looking even further ahead, metamaterials offer the ability to channel light around an object and make an “invisibility cloak.” So far, this has only been demonstrated in the laboratory and on a tiny scale. However, Cramer says that HyperStealth has developed a material known as Quantum Stealth that effectively makes the wearer transparent.

“We bend light all the time with fiber- optic cables,” says Cramer. “Our material just does this differently.”

Adds Cramer, “It works, that’s all I can say.”