George's Magnum Opus for Survival Camouflage, I will go over in the next few weeks cover everything the Survivor needs to know about camouflage in one place.
First we need to cover the threat. First the obvious, visual, range first in the desert or great planes you can be seen for miles, in suburbia/urban landscapes the buildings/trees/junk limits visual detection to a few hundreds at most, in forest/jungle detection range can be feet. So what you need is specific to where you are traveling through. Now camouflage does not make you invisible, what it does is make detection harder and decreases the range that someone has to approach you before they see you hopefully giving you a chance to avoid contact altogether.
Let’s take each in order, desert or great planes, first range means that patterns would be of little or no use because it all blends together from far out. For green (Springtime) grassland you would want a pale medium green which would blend into the grass. For dry Summer grassland or sandy desert: khaki or US “3-color desert” pattern will work. For red or rocky desert, US “6-color desert” is pretty good. A-TACS and Multicam work well in all of these.
Suburbia/urban this medium range is where camouflage patterns should shine for example leopard spots and spotted patterns like German flectarn and Dot 44 do in fact make you invisible to human and animal brains so long as you do not move. This has to do with the way the visual cortex processes information from the eyes. Once you move you can be seen. One argument against wearing camouflage at all is that this sets off police/military/animals who see you as either prey or a threat and instantly starts a fight and the whole point was to avoid a fight. So this I ask what are the alternatives? The homeless guy look? That too enrages policemen. All gray clothes? These have a “uniform” look that sets off the military. So ultimately camouflage or gray clothing makes little difference. About the best would be a mix of non-descript civilian clothing of gray/brown/green/khaki all in a dull medium shade or you could just wear camouflage.
The last is jungle/forest land, guess what you do not need camouflage there. Why not? Well it is the range factor, you would be hidden behind vegetation. For example both the USMC in WWII and the US Army in Vietnam tried camouflage uniforms and determined that a solid green was better than faded cammies. It has been tried, solid medium green is better.
So over all you do not always need cammies much at all, not in the daytime. So what is the big whoop? Well there are some places & times where you need camouflage and not having it will get you killed, and that is what is being discussed here. Next Night Vision Technology and it’s threat.
What about those times where you need to lower your visibility just to stay alive? Obviously traveling at night is the correct answer why because it severely limits the bad guy’s ability to detect you. The problem is that Night Vision equipment is being handed out like candy to a large number of not so nice people and it is readily available to anyone except you. Examples are we gave a bunch to Iran which promptly changed sides and the Egyptian Army which will be soon under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, small town police departments across the USA who’s only claim to fame is revenue enhancements for the local mayor who is also the Judge. The Police “enhancements” provided to such “Law enforcement Agencies” by the US Dept. of Fatherland Security end up on eBay within hours. US Military Night Vision goggles go missing all the time. So whether you are the sort who believe that police can do no wrong or believe they are jack booted thugs, Night Vision equipment is out there and will be used against you.
We need to talk about Night Vision equipment and settle on terminology so we can even discuss this intelligently so I will give a name and a bit of information about the major types and the threat of emerging technologies.
First the oldest detection device the Mark 1 Eyeball, two each as issued. Most of us are utterly unaware that we can see in the dark. The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color. The 6 to 7 million cones provide the eye's color sensitivity and they are much more concentrated in the central yellow spot known as the macula. The rods give us our night vision and are somewhat sensitive to light in the Near Infra-Red and Ultra Violet. I for example can see trees on pitch black nights well enough to not walk into them. This is hard to explain everything is grey but trees and people are black if that makes any sense. See:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html
Next there were two or more Night Vision devices available to the German Military at the end of WWII, one a crude heat sensor was of little use but was undoubtedly the forerunner of modern thermal sights, this would allow the detection of heat from a human body.
Second was what we today would call Active Infra-Red (Active IR).
The way it works: Near Infra-Red light is converted to visible light in a phosphor tube, this is very inefficient and needed a spotlight with a dark lens allowing only IR light to escape.
Frequency range: NIR
Counter measures: Detection, all NV equipment can detect the IR Spotlight (IR Illuminator) so if you see a spotlight through your NVGs but not with your eyeballs….
Counter measures: Avoidance, German WWII Leibmustertarn, Swiss Alpine-flage and US M-1981 Woodland uniforms were designed to deal with this NV Technology.
Users: Germany, USSR, the USA and their client states are all lavishly equipped but most has gone to the surplus market as newer generations of NV have come on line. Still in use today.
Next Starlight scopes were introduced as the next replacement for the Active IR systems.
How it works: Same as older IR except an image amplifier is added to increase light by 30,000+ times before being displayed thus eliminating the IR Spotlight. Also called first, second and third generation for light amplification tube inside.
Counter measures: Detection these are passive but do not work in total darkness so ambushes in basements, buildings, caves, tunnels, sewers and heavy forest can force users to use IR illuminators and give away their positions.
Counter measures: Avoidance: All uniforms marked “NIR Compliant” will decrease your signature at night. Although called “passive” to these systems these are both. Avoid the Black BDUs loved by SWAT teams, these glow white when illuminated with NIR light.
CCD or Charge Coupled Device is an eyeball on a chip, new Night Vision devices like rifle scopes and NVGs are coming online that are high quality and low price, very similar to Starlight Scopes with the same limitations. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device
Thermal scopes/cameras: the latest and greatest Night Vision.
How it works: Takes long wavelength IR (heat) and turns it into images.
Counter measures: Detection, 1rst generation large bulky and requires a lot of power to operate, so most are vehicle or aircraft mounted, detect the carrier by sound.
Counter measures: Avoidance, space blankets, wool blankets can decrease your thermal signature enough to not be noticed.
Counter measures: Deception rubber glows in this band and can be used for decoys.
Weakness: Works well in the cold but is often blind on hot days when everything is hot.
New Tech CCD thermals in the same scope as CCD Starlight between the two there are few weaknesses, The US Army has purchases as many as 13,000 of these CCD Combos in 2011.
Counter measures: Avoidance: wool & space blankets, move low and slow.
Other tech that exists but nobody is using it yet:
Ultra Violet detection, almost all civilian camouflage glows in UV and is easily seen by prey animals like deer. Even garage made UV detector could pick up name brand commercial cammies at long range day or night.
Counter measures: Avoidance: Do not use commercial laundry detergent and apply “UV Killer” to your cammies.
IR camouflage detection was used extensively in WWII but is unknown today. Simply placing an IR pass filter on a CCD camera can detect most non-NIR camouflaged camo.
Multi-Spectra sensors like the CCD Thermal/Starlight duo but with several other tricks will be a stone cold bitch to avoid and they are coming.
Overview of camouflage clothing available today all commercial camouflage patterns suck in the UV, Near Infra-Red and are poor in the visible due to bleach fading & UV brighteners.
Military camouflage can be okay but cheap Chinese fakes and deliberately downgraded dyes/cloth like “Multicam VS” make buying Military Uniforms a very iffy proposition at best. There is good stuff out there but you have to test it to be sure. Avoid Propper brand Polyester like the plague! More later..
First we need to cover the threat. First the obvious, visual, range first in the desert or great planes you can be seen for miles, in suburbia/urban landscapes the buildings/trees/junk limits visual detection to a few hundreds at most, in forest/jungle detection range can be feet. So what you need is specific to where you are traveling through. Now camouflage does not make you invisible, what it does is make detection harder and decreases the range that someone has to approach you before they see you hopefully giving you a chance to avoid contact altogether.
Let’s take each in order, desert or great planes, first range means that patterns would be of little or no use because it all blends together from far out. For green (Springtime) grassland you would want a pale medium green which would blend into the grass. For dry Summer grassland or sandy desert: khaki or US “3-color desert” pattern will work. For red or rocky desert, US “6-color desert” is pretty good. A-TACS and Multicam work well in all of these.
Suburbia/urban this medium range is where camouflage patterns should shine for example leopard spots and spotted patterns like German flectarn and Dot 44 do in fact make you invisible to human and animal brains so long as you do not move. This has to do with the way the visual cortex processes information from the eyes. Once you move you can be seen. One argument against wearing camouflage at all is that this sets off police/military/animals who see you as either prey or a threat and instantly starts a fight and the whole point was to avoid a fight. So this I ask what are the alternatives? The homeless guy look? That too enrages policemen. All gray clothes? These have a “uniform” look that sets off the military. So ultimately camouflage or gray clothing makes little difference. About the best would be a mix of non-descript civilian clothing of gray/brown/green/khaki all in a dull medium shade or you could just wear camouflage.
The last is jungle/forest land, guess what you do not need camouflage there. Why not? Well it is the range factor, you would be hidden behind vegetation. For example both the USMC in WWII and the US Army in Vietnam tried camouflage uniforms and determined that a solid green was better than faded cammies. It has been tried, solid medium green is better.
So over all you do not always need cammies much at all, not in the daytime. So what is the big whoop? Well there are some places & times where you need camouflage and not having it will get you killed, and that is what is being discussed here. Next Night Vision Technology and it’s threat.
What about those times where you need to lower your visibility just to stay alive? Obviously traveling at night is the correct answer why because it severely limits the bad guy’s ability to detect you. The problem is that Night Vision equipment is being handed out like candy to a large number of not so nice people and it is readily available to anyone except you. Examples are we gave a bunch to Iran which promptly changed sides and the Egyptian Army which will be soon under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, small town police departments across the USA who’s only claim to fame is revenue enhancements for the local mayor who is also the Judge. The Police “enhancements” provided to such “Law enforcement Agencies” by the US Dept. of Fatherland Security end up on eBay within hours. US Military Night Vision goggles go missing all the time. So whether you are the sort who believe that police can do no wrong or believe they are jack booted thugs, Night Vision equipment is out there and will be used against you.
We need to talk about Night Vision equipment and settle on terminology so we can even discuss this intelligently so I will give a name and a bit of information about the major types and the threat of emerging technologies.
First the oldest detection device the Mark 1 Eyeball, two each as issued. Most of us are utterly unaware that we can see in the dark. The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color. The 6 to 7 million cones provide the eye's color sensitivity and they are much more concentrated in the central yellow spot known as the macula. The rods give us our night vision and are somewhat sensitive to light in the Near Infra-Red and Ultra Violet. I for example can see trees on pitch black nights well enough to not walk into them. This is hard to explain everything is grey but trees and people are black if that makes any sense. See:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html
Next there were two or more Night Vision devices available to the German Military at the end of WWII, one a crude heat sensor was of little use but was undoubtedly the forerunner of modern thermal sights, this would allow the detection of heat from a human body.
Second was what we today would call Active Infra-Red (Active IR).
The way it works: Near Infra-Red light is converted to visible light in a phosphor tube, this is very inefficient and needed a spotlight with a dark lens allowing only IR light to escape.
Frequency range: NIR
Counter measures: Detection, all NV equipment can detect the IR Spotlight (IR Illuminator) so if you see a spotlight through your NVGs but not with your eyeballs….
Counter measures: Avoidance, German WWII Leibmustertarn, Swiss Alpine-flage and US M-1981 Woodland uniforms were designed to deal with this NV Technology.
Users: Germany, USSR, the USA and their client states are all lavishly equipped but most has gone to the surplus market as newer generations of NV have come on line. Still in use today.
Next Starlight scopes were introduced as the next replacement for the Active IR systems.
How it works: Same as older IR except an image amplifier is added to increase light by 30,000+ times before being displayed thus eliminating the IR Spotlight. Also called first, second and third generation for light amplification tube inside.
Counter measures: Detection these are passive but do not work in total darkness so ambushes in basements, buildings, caves, tunnels, sewers and heavy forest can force users to use IR illuminators and give away their positions.
Counter measures: Avoidance: All uniforms marked “NIR Compliant” will decrease your signature at night. Although called “passive” to these systems these are both. Avoid the Black BDUs loved by SWAT teams, these glow white when illuminated with NIR light.
CCD or Charge Coupled Device is an eyeball on a chip, new Night Vision devices like rifle scopes and NVGs are coming online that are high quality and low price, very similar to Starlight Scopes with the same limitations. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device
Thermal scopes/cameras: the latest and greatest Night Vision.
How it works: Takes long wavelength IR (heat) and turns it into images.
Counter measures: Detection, 1rst generation large bulky and requires a lot of power to operate, so most are vehicle or aircraft mounted, detect the carrier by sound.
Counter measures: Avoidance, space blankets, wool blankets can decrease your thermal signature enough to not be noticed.
Counter measures: Deception rubber glows in this band and can be used for decoys.
Weakness: Works well in the cold but is often blind on hot days when everything is hot.
New Tech CCD thermals in the same scope as CCD Starlight between the two there are few weaknesses, The US Army has purchases as many as 13,000 of these CCD Combos in 2011.
Counter measures: Avoidance: wool & space blankets, move low and slow.
Other tech that exists but nobody is using it yet:
Ultra Violet detection, almost all civilian camouflage glows in UV and is easily seen by prey animals like deer. Even garage made UV detector could pick up name brand commercial cammies at long range day or night.
Counter measures: Avoidance: Do not use commercial laundry detergent and apply “UV Killer” to your cammies.
IR camouflage detection was used extensively in WWII but is unknown today. Simply placing an IR pass filter on a CCD camera can detect most non-NIR camouflaged camo.
Multi-Spectra sensors like the CCD Thermal/Starlight duo but with several other tricks will be a stone cold bitch to avoid and they are coming.
Overview of camouflage clothing available today all commercial camouflage patterns suck in the UV, Near Infra-Red and are poor in the visible due to bleach fading & UV brighteners.
Military camouflage can be okay but cheap Chinese fakes and deliberately downgraded dyes/cloth like “Multicam VS” make buying Military Uniforms a very iffy proposition at best. There is good stuff out there but you have to test it to be sure. Avoid Propper brand Polyester like the plague! More later..
: :thumb:
