By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com April 19, 2011 Last updated on 4/20/11. A German company called Blucher Systems GmbH (Nettetal, Germany) is making and marketing an interesting thermal/IR (Infrared) camouflage/”signature management” fabric technology that can protect whatever it’s covering from being detected by optoelectronic devices, i.e, thermal/IR imagers. This very interesting fabric/material, which utilizes metallized fibers to …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com April 9, 2011 Combat camouflage (combat camo), or tactical camouflage (tactical camo), has been a DefenseReview (DR) area of interest  for a number of years. DR also follows the latest developments in the area of soldier systems, including soldier gear, as much as we can. The website Soldier Systems comes in very …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 14, 2010 Last Thursday, December 9, 2010, the U.S. Army Product Manager, Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment (PM-SCIE) and Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) conducted the Army Camouflage Improvement Industry Day at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, Maryland as part of of Phase IV of the Army’s “Family of camo Patterns” …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com November 6, 2010 DefenseReview (DR) has been publishing information on adaptive camouflage (a.k.a. electro-optical camfouflage, optical camouflage, active camouflage, chameleonic camouflage, invisibility cloaking technology, visual cloaking tech, visual spectrum cloaking tech, etc.) for quite some time. We’ve reported on both metamaterials (a.k.a. MMs, negative-index materials, negative-index metamaterials, and/or left-handed materials) research at …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com June 16, 2009 It looks like the whole metamaterial/negative-index material movement just got another shot in the arm with the development of an "acoustic metamaterial lens" that can theoretically create an acoustic/sonic "invisibility cloak" a.k.a. "cloak of silence" capable of hiding military submarines from enemy detection. DefenseReview first reported on metamaterials a.k.a. negative-index …

by David Crane david at defensereview.com On November 27, 2006, DefenseReview published a piece about Advanced American Enterprises’ (AAE) claims that their IR-Stealth 4.B thermal/IR/NV adaptive camouflage could have saved Israeli warfighters’ lives during their fight with Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon several months ago. That article also discussed AAE’s Visibility Stealth 1.B optical camouflage, which the company claims would make …

by David Crane david at defensereview.com Optical Cloaking Technology for Urban Warfare and Counterinsurgency Operations According to Dr. R. A. Zeineh (a.k.a. "Dr. Z"), his company’s (Advanced American Enterprises) IR-Stealth 4.B combination thermal/IR (infrared)/night vision (NV) stealth system could have protected Israeli infantry warfighters from Hezbollah guerrilla fighters in Lebanon. One of the recent new documents we’ve received from AAE …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Advanced American Enterprise (AAE) recently released information on their thermal/IR (infrared) stealth/camouflage system for jet aircraft (including fighter aircraft a.ka. fighter jets). It’s called IR-Stealth 5 Jet, and it’s designed to protect jet aircraft from being successfully targeted by enemy heat-seeking missiles (all types) by masking the (jet) engine exhaust nozzle/outlet’s thermal/infrared (IR) signature. IR-Stealth 5 …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Greg Grant has written an interesting article for DefenseNews.com about Hizbollah’s (Hezbollah’s) "innovative" (Grant’s term) use of man-portable anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) systems. Mr. Grant cites several examples of Hezbollah’s "innovative" urban warfare/guerrilla warfare tactics with ATGMs. 1) Hizbollah guerilla fighters "swarmed" Israeli Merkava MBTs (Main Battle Tanks)–including possibly Merkava Mk4 MBTs–and fired at the sides …