Tanker here. Yes it is effective, yes it makes sense, and yes it is a battlewinner in terms of drawing an enemy into a FCA. The thermal signature is significantly smaller. The outlines are broken up and the "human" eye without tech will overlook it in the bushes. Optics being covered up is a problem, however we tend to avoid covering up the optics in general. In a defensive battleposition we have the engine off, and as you mentioned the APU will kick in if there is low voltage. After a couple of hours the heat signature is small. Engines on, the trees / buidings near a tank will light up like a bulb in thermals. The problem is not hiding your tank, it is hiding your tracks. Aviators will just follow the tracks. It will not matter if you are in a forrest, or in a barn. Baracuda camo is the shit! Worth every penny in Afghanistan and we will see more of it in the future. But nothing beats branches, grass and mud.
That's always been the biggest wonder to me. What do you guys do to cover your tracks? Doesn't matter how camouflaged you are, how minimal your heat signature is, hell you could be 95% invisible to everything, but if you several obvious tracks leading right up to where you are, it undermines alot of that doesn't it?
Eternally Angelic I once jokingly suggested to a brigade general that we should drag large Christmas trees behind us to mask our tracks as he was so focused on camouflage nets wherever we went. he was not impressed.. But covering the tracks leading directly into a wooded area 1 x 1 km is not important. if I had a drone with video feed I can tell you exactly where to call for fire. a squadron of tanks makes a he'll of alot of tracks and deep ones too.
I'm sure someone's thought of this many times over, but.. Since you're going "Old School" tactics of branches on vehicles, etc., why not go even more old School, and take a page out of the Romans books when fighting the Pagans. Since they couldn't really hide that they were there, the next best course would be to hide how strong you are. They'd walk single file. Do tanks do the same? Drive in each others tracks to conceal how many of you there are, then spread out in the woods with the APU? Harder to tell from the air if the tracks are then just a few trucks, or a whole battalion of tanks. harder to spot those tracks too if it's just 2 lines, rather than 40 lines spread out, or ripping up the ground all over the place.
Eternally Angelic not knowing how many abrams and bradleys there are would be scary AF. Even if the enemy catches on that you are doing that, one set of tracks that could be from a dozen Abrams leading into a forest would scare me shitless. Sending one tank could deny the enemy an entire area just by the possibility that there could be an entire army. Set up some early ambushes in a campaign and fear can become a new dimension to war.
+Matsimus Gaming Heres video idea. How well old AT techniques of infantry would/are working against modern armored vehicles of different countries. To name the few: molotov cocktail, birch log in tracks, satchel charge and so on. I.e how militia/poorly armed force would use guorilla tactics against larger forces modern armor. We know about IED's and its effectiveness, but could any other way work, perhaps if militia still does not have any explosives at hand, or dont have much of it, only small arms.
Retired German Leo II TC/platoon leader here. Yes, we put a lot of effort into the camo of our tanks, even for just some ordinary, basic tankshooting on the various training areas. Camo is something you learn among the very first lessons even in basic training. "Always, everywhere and permanent adaption" was our principle. On various trainings we even carried a different basic set of small tress with us to change camo if quickly neccessary. Camo masks the thermal signature of your tank a lot. But don't forget you will not always face high tech, respectively functional high tech. Also on various situations, you can't always use all your optics, and if so, possible opponents in same situations can't do it as well. So yes, camo was always an essential art we had to perform.
I kept watching the video because I had this weird feeling like it was building up to something. But then toward the end at around 15:35, I caught a glimpse of a woman standing in a field wearing a backpack and another woman with a little girl strolling toward some bushes and then the video abruptly ended????
Matsimus you cheeky bugger....if i wanted to waste 16+ minutes of my life by looking at snowy landscapes i would put on BBC with Sir David Attenborough okay? *I came here to see tanks!* ;D
I think one of the other reasons camouflage like this is done is that during training it gets the soldiers thinking tactically about cover and concealment. Even if the camo job is useless (which it's not), getting it done still demonstrates the tactical mindset and gets folks on the field thinking about staying hard to see.
Matsimus Gaming ah. I thought it was just a plain background. I see the tank now. XD I can't believe you replied. I really LOVE your videos. Can't wait to see more tanks and hopefully some ships!
Not much mud during winter in Poland. Would stick out pretty badly. Also we havent actually needed cammo for a long time since we have outclassed our opponents so heavily that its a waste of effort.
American armour divisions used to do it during the second world war. American vehicles coming without camo and only in green. within the winter months, they stuck out like a sore thumb, the quickest solution was to just smear mud up the side of the tank.
I remember a local US national guard humvee display in maybe early 2002, criticising him that his vehicle should be colored desert tan instead of forest / olive green. I was anticapating desert war and he was perhaps playing dumb.
The thermal camo is most likely a Peltier type device which generates or sucks up heat,it should technically work even with mud splashes as the plates will cool down or heat up the mud still presenting a different signature compared to the original, the drawback is that the vehicle will take some time to heat up the said mud, but once it's done it will still present a changed/reduced thermal signature.
I hope he just missed what is going on and didn't state it as if he is convinced this shall be for visible light... Well ok, watched till the end. He in fact is talking about thermal imaging. Ok for your information @Matsimus Gaming mud, sand and rain wan't restttrict the signiture that is projected that much
In future, hybrid electric engines would not only provide acoustic stealth to these vehicles but would also contribute in great extent to the vehicle been hidden on the infrared spectrum as they would not have that much heat/ smoke emissions in electric mode while working in conjunction with their infrared camouflage . However, they would need to rely the most time on conventional engine due to their limitations.
The SAAB Barracuda system is awesome for MBT's and all sorts of units. The swedish army used on the Strv 122 (Leo2) in Afghanistan, and those usually are painted in a very special dark green camo for swedish forest, and if I'm not mistaken they never repainted them, just covered them in the desert Barracuda shown in this clip.
The swedish army didn't use Leopard 2 in afghanistan, only CV-90. The danish army and the canadian army deployed the Leopad 2. Also the swedish army CV90 aswell as the danish army Leopard 2A5DK were painted in desert camo (canadian Leopard 2A4CAN wasn't), but they added SAAB barracuda (MCS) on them (and the german Marder 1 IFV) because the vehicles heated up too much for the older air conditioning to handle. Thermal camouflage systems like barracuda or solarshield have heat resistance, so the inside of the vehicle stays (relatively) cool. On modern vehicles this kind of heat resistance technology is already integrated in the base armor (AMAP-S).
Matsimus Gaming I don't think anyone took it as offensive and even if, it's a slip up. Keep up the good work, you are honestly one of the best mil tec channels on here
Immenant what? Didn't offend?! *T* *R* *I* *G* *G* *E* *R* *E* *D* everyday I wake up to a sound of a tank engine and all I see is a massive bush, I think I'm going insane, did I ever tell you a story of how I found a moving metal bush?
Great vid Matsimus! I don't know if someone already mentioned it but covering tanks with vegetation isn't just for visual camouflage, it's also for thermal. At least some types of vegetation provide thermal camouflage, like fir trees/spruce, like a poor mans Barracuda. You have to keep in mind that it is an organic material and you will have to replace after a day or so. It of course won't remove the whole signature but the intensity will decrease drastically and blend in with the surrounding terrain, and it will require a second or two more to be able to classify or identify the vehicle (and that's where you get shot). Especially in a cold environment where you can complement spruce with packed snow. Tips from a Leo2 TC. Keep up the good work
as a tank crew man at the IDF, i can say we don't use camouflage nets for the tanks because they lighted up and burns after a ATGM hits you, and the heat of the frontal engine.
Do you know what a real fancy form of camoflage is? In east german army during cold war they had highly trained special troups for camoflage, who could create from some bushes, sticks and some cloth planes things that actually did look like a tank. They could do that in a very short amount of time and in the outcome you could not tell what was a real tank and what just some fake thing from bushes, sticks and cloth. And that was exactly the very purpose of this troups, to distract possible enemies from the real tanks amoung the fake ones. So camoflage does not only have function to hide something, it can also be used very well to make you believe things that are not at all what you think they are.
Hey Mat, great video again and great lesson to learn. I've always thought that camouflage was just a fashion but yes, definitively has a reason. I love this great work you do.
Camo would be effective against infantry but NOT against other armored vehicles. The tanks are Coyote Brown because they were scheduled to rotate to the Gulf before the US Army changed its mind. Tanks in the Eastern US (where Europe is, in fact, our focus) are Woodland Camo.
We (Dutch cavalry when that still existed) tested active daytime camouflage which were dozens of very bright lights shining directly at the enemy. Seems crazy but worked pretty good.
Good video! Old Bradley gunner here. This is really good to see. You notice the American soldier made a point to mention that all the camouflage material used was "dead fall" and not cut. The Americans in general are behind the 8 ball 🎱 when using natural camouflage. I can't say what the policy is now, but when I was a gunner in Europe 20 years ago, we were not allowed to camo with foliage 🌿, dig fighting positions and numerous other things due to treaty and environmental restrictions. We were instructed not to camouflage to avoid any implications or questions on whether we caused unnecessary damage to the environment.
Why is painting expensive? Is it the paint itself or are the some special requirements? You'd think you just get a couple of guys with spray guns and paint brushes and get done with it
The US (idk...maybe whole NATO) uses CARC paint on vehicles, and some equipment as well. Tan is actually a better color than green since light brown is present on any environment except maybe in a complete white-out. We used to use white camo netting for vehicles at Alaska during exercises.
Well you can paint a big car with epoxy paint for 300e, guesstimate 5x paint for Abrams sized tank, that's 1500e. Consider military buys the paint in huge batches, maybe -30% (probably even less), thats 1000e per tank. And you probably aren't too considered on the finish quality so you dont need expensive professional labour. So unless the paint is something special, the cost doesn't seem very high considering the cost of operating a tank anyway. AssaultPlazma If you're sending the tank to another country (different terrain, desert to snow etc), then it probably goes through maintenance anyway so I dont see why there would be extra logistics involved. I guess for enviromental reasons you would have to use a painth booth so maybe that could be issue
trust me dude actual straight spray paint for the entire tank itself needs to be done professionally. unless were spray painting over/ re painting new bumper numbers we don't mess with the paint. Also no part of pre-deployment maintenance involves painting the tanks.
Love the old school camouflage, hate putting it up. I did my conscription service in the Finnish maritime forces an we used to camouflage whole warships that were anchored up to islands. The ships aren't actually that large, but I can assure you it's plenty of work hiding a 50m long missile boat with netting.
Excellent video Matsimus! And for once, the Canadian army splurged and actually purchased Baracuda camouflage for both the Leopard 2A6M and 2A4M a few years ago in Afghanistan :D We have something that's new now!
I'm not sure if you've mentioned it in the vid yet, I'm not all the way through. But have you seen the new netting for the Challenger 2 (Megatron or ATDU, I'm not sure?) I think it looks really cool, but how will it effect the system and is it like the anti-radar netting you talked about? Just curious.
Matsimus Gaming I think it makes the thing look fluffy, but bloody fantastic 😂 Was wondering whether it would help with reducing the thermal output of the tank too
I made my own Ghillie Suit and I used ghillie yarn, a woodland camo painted mesh/tight netting, and a large sheet of the camouflage tarp military's use to cover stationary vehicles.
Just a point about using plant-life as cammo: anything "alive" will die and dry out after you cut it. meaning that grass and leaves that once looked just like every other push in the area will begin to change color. Eventually it will stick out almost as much as generic cammo nets (and thus need to be replaced).
Hello Matsimus. Regarding your question about the invisible camouflage when it gets dirty: I think they can use for fast cleaning, bursts of cleaning agent with blown compressed air. It could be a system integrated into the tank which is activated seconds before the activation of the invisible camouflage. Also on the market there are already products which applied as coating, repels water, mud and oils. Thx.
You would do it for sure. Do it every 8 hours or so. Because the leaves you grabbed would have dried out and thus the "bush" your tank once looked like is now an odd color and wilting.
When we had camouflage exercises in basic training my squad leader tried to make me look like a fool and asked me to find the camouflaged soldiers that hid up ahead while we were marching through a forest. The test was supposed to show how close we had to get in order to spot them but I had seen them even before I was asked because they did such a bad job so I could even name each of them. That's what I learned about camouflage in the Bundeswehr.
Personal experience with applying bush camo to a Gvozdika was that it really makes the tank harder to see with both naked eye and thermal optics(didnt get to test thermal myself tho,but thats what i was told by my superiors). It also doesnt take too long and is relatively fun to do and it didnt make my driving of the tank any harder.
Yo, that ended well. With the actual guy telling us some basics/pointers. Could hear the background(those tanks were loud as shit, no joke the problem that must be). So informative, can say enough. Thank you.
Matsimus as for your thoughts of mud or something getting on the tanks. It would be rather easy to remove that stuff with the new hydrophobic spray. The mud will simply bounce off spray and not stick.
Biggest use of Commo wire during my entire military service....putting stringers on the sides of armoured vehicles to have foliage attached.... The Barraccuda nets are fantastic...BUT as you said very expensive...using natural vegetation ALSO has a thermal dissipation value to it as well as visual camo.... God...the memories...trying to get Cam nets on the vehicles in the Lagers after they had been rolled up all day and covered in 6 inches or more of dust / dirt / mud etc.....made for rather dirty crewmen to say the least....... Thanks for the videos Matsimus......... drive on troop!......
During winter operations it could turn out very useful to camouflage the tank covering it with snow, it would hide it both from optical and thermal air sights
When you told about the camo/armour plating for the Leopards, then I did scream Denmark. I know our tanks has (had) them when they was sent out in Afghanistan. But I still think the old school camo is good too. Because no matter what kind of tech we get, then we still need to use our Mk. 1 Eyeball to see with
Awesome video. I was actually searching for tank camouflage because of the upcoming counter offense by the Ukrainian military with the T-62, T-72, T-80, T-90, Abrams, Challenger 2 and Leopard 2 tanks. Would be great if they can camouflage them so good that the Russians don't know what they are up against on the battlefield
Back in the early to mid 1970s, I was involved in an experimental U.S.Marine Corps Program using painted camouflage (Murdock Pattern) in conjunction with natural camouflage materials. One of the criticisms we heard from 'Old School" tankers was, "Oh, there goes a 52-ton ton camouflaged tank !" The tank the Marines were using at the time was the M48A3 Mod B. During the tests and evaluations, conducted in wooded areas, I was able to spot the uncamouflaged, Marine Corps Green tank at 1200 meters, that is of course boresight range for the 90 mm gun system. On the other hand, I could not spot the camouflaged M-48 tanks until they were between 700 to 800 meters from us. The M 48 with its rangefinder and ballistic computer and a trained crew can hit targets with a greater than 90% chance of a first round hit on targets beyond 1200 meters. When tanks are engaged at 700 to 800 meters, those ranges are quite literally, point and shoot, and in tank vs tank warfare, he who sees first, shoots first and generally wins.
Nice one! THX! I was driving an Tpz Fuchs for 3 Years and in Winter times we use some kind of Paint too. Its called " Schlemmkreide". Its white Paint that we put on the green Parts of the original Camoulage by ourselves. ( sry for my bad english ;)
1:58 are Polish Leopard 2A5 indeed. You can see it on the shorter barrel of the Rheinmetall L44 while the german Leopard 2A6/A6M/A7 have the 25 % longer L55 as seen at 1:47 .
The video shows, that there is more training needed. One usually tries to camoflage his vehicle as best as he could...but NEVER, NEVER NEVER in a way that it hampers the vehicles functions (guns, optics, hatches air intake). But its a good start
So, I'm curious. . . as a grunt, we conducted force-on-force drills ALL THE TIME. We used blanks a lot, but also simunitions (a glorified paintball round that fired from your normal rifle or pistol). Do modern armored units conduct force-on-force drills? I'm assuming they must.
I've always liked the look of just piling on tree branches and bushes to camouflage a vehicle. There's various good pictures of Shermans and other tanks from that era driving around looking like mobilized underbrush.
Most civilians don't realize that first off a tank like the Abrams or the Bradley is going to be able to easily spot a human size target from a VERY LONG ways away and a tank even further. So by just putting some tree branches over the tank, a human isn't going to be able to spot a tank. It is very hard to spot a tank hidding in a tree line from just a few hundred yards and by the time you get close enough to spot it, you will probably be long dead. Also for US and it's allies, their tanks are pretty much always going to have air cover. It's hard to imagine the US and it's allies not having air superiority. So enemy forces won't have many chances to attack US and NATO armor from above.
Hi mate I was a grunt with Australian Defence Force back in the 80's One EX I was lead scout for my section and we were tasked to locate a unit of "Enemy"APC'S It was thick scrub. I found them only because the crew commander or picket in the top of the APC had his sleeves rolled up! I spotted his arm resting on the 30,cal !! The rest of the vehicle was hull down and cammed up with scrub bushes as was the other two APC.etc. Chances were with our access of advance we would probably gone right passed them! I support all you have said about old school cam methods. I'd say even modern day grunts on the hunt for armour and with time contstraints for patrolling or recon missions wont have the equipment or time to utilise it. Agrunt relies on eye balling his objectives.
If you really hate politics, then please stop repeating NATO's narrative which is "someone who drinks vodka and speaks russian" might invade Poland!!!Just for the sake of argument, give me one single sain reason for which "someone who drinks vodka and speaks russian" would want to invade Poland???
The hell? Grow up? And I get this from a "mature" man simply for saying "please"?Learn to read my dear young man! I wrote: "stop repeating NATO'S narrative" and continued by explaining what NATO's narrative is. Go ahead, read my comment again, it clearly reads: which is (NATO's) "someone who drinks vodka etc".
The anti-radar net is probably just a net with metal wires embedded in it. The wire mesh absorbs the radar signal like an antenna, and converts it into a tiny bit of heat.
As a retired tank crewman - on the defensive you should only have to be concerned with camouflaging the turret. This is because tanks fight from the 'hull down' position where the tank is behind a rise in the ground and (ideally) the only thing sticking up over the top of the ground is the gunner's and TC's optics. (Which are mounted on the roof of the turret for precisely this reason.) When an enemy target is detected the TC designates the target to the gunner and the gunner calls out 'identified' when he sees it in his sights. The TC then commands the driver to creep the tank forward until the muzzle of the main gun just clears the ground. When the gun tube is clear the TC gives the command to fire. The tank will fire two - maybe three shots - and then reverse at full speed, turn to the right or left and rapidly move to another pre-selected firing position where the drill starts over again. When advancing - the full frontal camouflage with help but the motion will still give away the fact that something is out there.
This brings back memories. I was fortunate enough to never have to use netting. Did a good job at making my tank look like a rolling stand of trees at Ft. Stewart but didn't do any in Germany due to the SOFA.
Consider yourself lucky, camo netting is the biggest pain in the ass to work with. As Matstimus mentions, it gets snagged on everything from your clothing, your 782 gear (I know that really dates me), to everything on your vehicle. On the bright side, it does offer a decent amount of shade and wound actually make the area covered at least a few degrees cooler, nothing to sneeze at when you're in 100+ degree heat at 29 Palms.
One thing you could do to confuse the infrared recce is to put some cookers a different place - light them, and they will show up splendid on infrared. And the loss of a couple of cookers is cheap compared to a tank.
I love seeing my units CVRTs cutting round all scrimmed up and the barracuda padding is good stuff we had it on my units challenger 2s and bulldogs in Iraq back in 2007 the British ones where flame retardant too seeing as the Iraqis loved throwing petrol bombs at alot of our vehicles on a crewmans point the barracuda matting also helps moving around on the outside of the vehicle painless no more smacking your knees and shins of pointy corners lol pretty good video keep it up
Many years ago I remember chatting to a Russian tank commander from WW2, one thing he told me was the Germans spent a lot of time and money painting some of their tanks white to blend in with the snow. The Russians used a bucket of water and newspaper, they just pasted newspaper onto the tank and it froze in place, as the weather thawed and the snow melted the paper was just washed off.
Hey Matsimus On the camouflaging systems to fool weapon system optics. Thermal imaging and IR are the most common technologies as far as I know, which would mean, that instead of screens they could be using some kind of electric heating and cooling (Peltier) elements with isolation between them to get the desired effect of obscuring the silhouette. Sensors (similar to thermal cameras could do the trick) mounted on each side could record for the opposing side of the vehicle to use. Advantage of this is that you could just use a normal metal (like aluminum) on the outside of the electronic camouflage, and paint them as normal (except the thermal imaging sensor used for recording signatures of course).
One of the best MCS is made by Lubawa SA. It is used by Finnish , Polish and recently by US forces (first testing batch ordered in 2018, sold by HDT Global, partner of Lubawa SA). It provides cover from optical, thermal, radar and noctovision.
They would probably counter mud spills on the special adaptive camo with that strange hydrophobic spray. If it gets even a g of dust or mud on the armour, a tiny spray of water and all of it runs off.
Hey, I've seen the Vids of the "see through" Camo, but in reality, they developed a see through thermal camo, so these plates heat up or cool down do make the thermal signature invisible. So if there would be dirt on these plates, the heat tranfers to the dirt, heating it or cooling it. So generally a good idea!
Hey, minor correction here, Adaptiv is THERMAL camouflage. It uses individual peltier plates to rapidly warm up or cool down, functioning as pixels in the composite IR signature.
72 ton heavily armored bush.
Sir Fabulous haha combat bushes hell yeah
Bush did the camouflaging!
It was an inside job (by the crew)!
Greg Makropoulos You sir made my day.
Reminds me of my ex-wife.
Soldier: Sir? I think that bush is looking at us
Commander: What do you mean? Bush cant lo- *Killed by a shoot from the armoured bush*
Tanker here. Yes it is effective, yes it makes sense, and yes it is a battlewinner in terms of drawing an enemy into a FCA.
The thermal signature is significantly smaller. The outlines are broken up and the "human" eye without tech will overlook it in the bushes. Optics being covered up is a problem, however we tend to avoid covering up the optics in general.
In a defensive battleposition we have the engine off, and as you mentioned the APU will kick in if there is low voltage. After a couple of hours the heat signature is small. Engines on, the trees / buidings near a tank will light up like a bulb in thermals. The problem is not hiding your tank, it is hiding your tracks. Aviators will just follow the tracks. It will not matter if you are in a forrest, or in a barn.
Baracuda camo is the shit! Worth every penny in Afghanistan and we will see more of it in the future. But nothing beats branches, grass and mud.
Peabush Hahaha you know :) the sky is a pain in the ass fore a tank greetz from a Dutch tankdriver
That's always been the biggest wonder to me. What do you guys do to cover your tracks? Doesn't matter how camouflaged you are, how minimal your heat signature is, hell you could be 95% invisible to everything, but if you several obvious tracks leading right up to where you are, it undermines alot of that doesn't it?
Eternally Angelic I once jokingly suggested to a brigade general that we should drag large Christmas trees behind us to mask our tracks as he was so focused on camouflage nets wherever we went. he was not impressed.. But covering the tracks leading directly into a wooded area 1 x 1 km is not important. if I had a drone with video feed I can tell you exactly where to call for fire. a squadron of tanks makes a he'll of alot of tracks and deep ones too.
I'm sure someone's thought of this many times over, but.. Since you're going "Old School" tactics of branches on vehicles, etc., why not go even more old School, and take a page out of the Romans books when fighting the Pagans.
Since they couldn't really hide that they were there, the next best course would be to hide how strong you are. They'd walk single file. Do tanks do the same? Drive in each others tracks to conceal how many of you there are, then spread out in the woods with the APU?
Harder to tell from the air if the tracks are then just a few trucks, or a whole battalion of tanks. harder to spot those tracks too if it's just 2 lines, rather than 40 lines spread out, or ripping up the ground all over the place.
Eternally Angelic not knowing how many abrams and bradleys there are would be scary AF. Even if the enemy catches on that you are doing that, one set of tracks that could be from a dozen Abrams leading into a forest would scare me shitless. Sending one tank could deny the enemy an entire area just by the possibility that there could be an entire army. Set up some early ambushes in a campaign and fear can become a new dimension to war.
It's for hunting down Santa Claus.
HAHA hell yeah ;-)
+Matsimus Gaming Heres video idea. How well old AT techniques of infantry would/are working against modern armored vehicles of different countries. To name the few: molotov cocktail, birch log in tracks, satchel charge and so on. I.e how militia/poorly armed force would use guorilla tactics against larger forces modern armor. We know about IED's and its effectiveness, but could any other way work, perhaps if militia still does not have any explosives at hand, or dont have much of it, only small arms.
He had it coming... keeping that good bad list of his🤣😅😂
Retired German Leo II TC/platoon leader here. Yes, we put a lot of effort into the camo of our tanks, even for just some ordinary, basic tankshooting on the various training areas. Camo is something you learn among the very first lessons even in basic training. "Always, everywhere and permanent adaption" was our principle. On various trainings we even carried a different basic set of small tress with us to change camo if quickly neccessary.
Camo masks the thermal signature of your tank a lot. But don't forget you will not always face high tech, respectively functional high tech. Also on various situations, you can't always use all your optics, and if so, possible opponents in same situations can't do it as well. So yes, camo was always an essential art we had to perform.
This video is very confusing to me. It's literally just a 16:45 minute long footage of trees with some voice over.
Jerry Bot yet you continued to watch it?
I kept watching the video because I had this weird feeling like it was building up to something. But then toward the end at around 15:35, I caught a glimpse of a woman standing in a field wearing a backpack and another woman with a little girl strolling toward some bushes and then the video abruptly ended????
Jerry Bot no it didn’t. But hey. I see your rather dubious point.
The guy walking in front of the Leopards got me
Yeah, very strange background footage for the topic.
Matsimus you cheeky bugger....if i wanted to waste 16+ minutes of my life by looking at snowy landscapes i would put on BBC with Sir David Attenborough okay? *I came here to see tanks!* ;D
And the *totally random* tank sound effect
Haha! well they are there lol! Tanks for watching!
you can't expect to SEE tanks in a video with camouflage in the title d'oh!
Well bushcraft and nature meet the tank nice combo.
It is How central Europe Looks like .. it could be land when WW3 starts. Land for big tank battles...
I wonder how Germany feels about have tanks in Poland again
I can sleep well at night. : D
Nick R. Same goes for Poland and German tanks in it again
or vice versa,....
No one want's tanks here. It's our and overseas dickheads playing with wartoys. In the end it's you and me dying for political shit....really cool hm?
Also US having troops all around Europe...
US army is learning some defensive tactics instead of usual attack attack attack
They are just working into new NATO doctrine I think. Thanks for watching :-)
wwwelkam ahahaha nice one
It's RE-learning skills that feel away during the GWOT. Go read Team Yankee. Great book that describes defensive armor ops back in the Fulda Gap days.
Yup, I was there. 1st Infantry Div, Forward.
I dont get it.. dont usa use waterdisolveble white color to paint the tanks -It just used since 50 years in sweden.
U.S. Abrams have NBC coating in the paint. That's why it's a big deal to repaint them just for an exercise.
Fair point. thanks for watching!
No they don't, they have an IR coating. They have an NBC pack. BTW none of that work's against TI sights.
Does not matter since the new paint goes over the old one so it does not really matter
Unless you sandblast the entire fucking tank
Dejezeri ah I see why he said it was expensive to repaint the tank
I think one of the other reasons camouflage like this is done is that during training it gets the soldiers thinking tactically about cover and concealment. Even if the camo job is useless (which it's not), getting it done still demonstrates the tactical mindset and gets folks on the field thinking about staying hard to see.
ghostdog688 are you an officer? Because this sounds like some officer making an excuse for when something isnt done right.
no doubt the germans would have grown hedgerows all along the front and sides of the l.p.1500 ratte
Your voice is very nice to listen too, thats the only reason i really watch your videos
MarkVonHere hahahah!! Well thank you :-)
MarkVonHere tank gun stabilizer video please?
ASMR time :P
sorry, to easy
9:40 the Russians would call it the floating shitstain of death
Trys not to mention Russia
HAHAHAH! Sorry :-/
russian tanks need no camo they are built out of stalinium!
Dark Pluto the most powerful camo is Russian bias
the red star will protect you
Dark Pluto *1946 yeet
The invisible tanks don't use screens. They use thermal tiles to become invisible to thermal imaging. But we might be talking about different things.
Why is your thumbnail empty?
It wasnt? Is it now?
Matsimus Gaming ah. I thought it was just a plain background. I see the tank now. XD I can't believe you replied. I really LOVE your videos. Can't wait to see more tanks and hopefully some ships!
I am sorry that I dont always reply. Its hard nowdays :-)
Matsimus Gaming no worries, just keep doing what you do for as long as it makes you happy. :) Best wishes to you.
Thout it wasca camo joke
I'm honestly surprised they've not done the old, smear a basic tiger stripe in mud.
Not much mud during winter in Poland. Would stick out pretty badly. Also we havent actually needed cammo for a long time since we have outclassed our opponents so heavily that its a waste of effort.
American armour divisions used to do it during the second world war.
American vehicles coming without camo and only in green.
within the winter months, they stuck out like a sore thumb, the quickest solution was to just smear mud up the side of the tank.
I remember a local US national guard humvee display in maybe early 2002, criticising him that his vehicle should be colored desert tan instead of forest / olive green. I was anticapating desert war and he was perhaps playing dumb.
Armored Bush would be a great video game title.
Hahah! Yeah or a sex toy!
Why is this grove moving towards us?
Time for new glasses? 🤓
Patrick Bennett Yes th-cam.com/video/nHbPHYMdxUQ/w-d-xo.html
Tank? i see no tank? sometimes only dust!
The thermal camo is most likely a Peltier type device which generates or sucks up heat,it should technically work even with mud splashes as the plates will cool down or heat up the mud still presenting a different signature compared to the original, the drawback is that the vehicle will take some time to heat up the said mud, but once it's done it will still present a changed/reduced thermal signature.
Look stop making really informative vids about fantastically interesting subjects I do have other things to do you know ! ; ]
The Adaptiv camouflage is only for infared, so mud and dirt might not be as much of an issue.
I hope he just missed what is going on and didn't state it as if he is convinced this shall be for visible light... Well ok, watched till the end. He in fact is talking about thermal imaging. Ok for your information @Matsimus Gaming mud, sand and rain wan't restttrict the signiture that is projected that much
In future, hybrid electric engines would not only provide acoustic stealth to these vehicles but would also contribute in great extent to the vehicle been hidden on the infrared spectrum as they would not have that much heat/ smoke emissions in electric mode while working in conjunction with their infrared camouflage . However, they would need to rely the most time on conventional engine due to their limitations.
The SAAB Barracuda system is awesome for MBT's and all sorts of units. The swedish army used on the Strv 122 (Leo2) in Afghanistan, and those usually are painted in a very special dark green camo for swedish forest, and if I'm not mistaken they never repainted them, just covered them in the desert Barracuda shown in this clip.
The swedish army didn't use Leopard 2 in afghanistan, only CV-90. The danish army and the canadian army deployed the Leopad 2. Also the swedish army CV90 aswell as the danish army Leopard 2A5DK were painted in desert camo (canadian Leopard 2A4CAN wasn't), but they added SAAB barracuda (MCS) on them (and the german Marder 1 IFV) because the vehicles heated up too much for the older air conditioning to handle. Thermal camouflage systems like barracuda or solarshield have heat resistance, so the inside of the vehicle stays (relatively) cool.
On modern vehicles this kind of heat resistance technology is already integrated in the base armor (AMAP-S).
I like how you said, the training Area Poland. I know what you meant it just sounded like Poland as a whole is a training area
Sorry. I meant no offense :-(
Matsimus Gaming I don't think anyone took it as offensive and even if, it's a slip up. Keep up the good work, you are honestly one of the best mil tec channels on here
Immenant what? Didn't offend?! *T* *R* *I* *G* *G* *E* *R* *E* *D* everyday I wake up to a sound of a tank engine and all I see is a massive bush, I think I'm going insane, did I ever tell you a story of how I found a moving metal bush?
Great vid Matsimus! I don't know if someone already mentioned it but covering tanks with vegetation isn't just for visual camouflage, it's also for thermal. At least some types of vegetation provide thermal camouflage, like fir trees/spruce, like a poor mans Barracuda. You have to keep in mind that it is an organic material and you will have to replace after a day or so. It of course won't remove the whole signature but the intensity will decrease drastically and blend in with the surrounding terrain, and it will require a second or two more to be able to classify or identify the vehicle (and that's where you get shot). Especially in a cold environment where you can complement spruce with packed snow. Tips from a Leo2 TC. Keep up the good work
One of the most interesting schemes I've seen is the Berlin Brigade camo from the cold war.
as a tank crew man at the IDF, i can say we don't use camouflage nets for the tanks because they lighted up and burns after a ATGM hits you, and the heat of the frontal engine.
Do you know what a real fancy form of camoflage is? In east german army during cold war they had highly trained special troups for camoflage, who could create from some bushes, sticks and some cloth planes things that actually did look like a tank. They could do that in a very short amount of time and in the outcome you could not tell what was a real tank and what just some fake thing from bushes, sticks and cloth. And that was exactly the very purpose of this troups, to distract possible enemies from the real tanks amoung the fake ones. So camoflage does not only have function to hide something, it can also be used very well to make you believe things that are not at all what you think they are.
Interesting. Thanks for your input.
Hey Mat, great video again and great lesson to learn. I've always thought that camouflage was just a fashion but yes, definitively has a reason. I love this great work you do.
Camo would be effective against infantry but NOT against other armored vehicles. The tanks are Coyote Brown because they were scheduled to rotate to the Gulf before the US Army changed its mind. Tanks in the Eastern US (where Europe is, in fact, our focus) are Woodland Camo.
We (Dutch cavalry when that still existed) tested active daytime camouflage which were dozens of very bright lights shining directly at the enemy. Seems crazy but worked pretty good.
SAAB has really got their promo video shit toghether
the entire swedish military is basically a big commercial for SAAB :P
Good video!
Old Bradley gunner here. This is really good to see. You notice the American soldier made a point to mention that all the camouflage material used was "dead fall" and not cut. The Americans in general are behind the 8 ball 🎱 when using natural camouflage. I can't say what the policy is now, but when I was a gunner in Europe 20 years ago, we were not allowed to camo with foliage 🌿, dig fighting positions and numerous other things due to treaty and environmental restrictions. We were instructed not to camouflage to avoid any implications or questions on whether we caused unnecessary damage to the environment.
Why is painting expensive? Is it the paint itself or are the some special requirements? You'd think you just get a couple of guys with spray guns and paint brushes and get done with it
Catrik i huess it's the sheer amount needed
The US (idk...maybe whole NATO) uses CARC paint on vehicles, and some equipment as well. Tan is actually a better color than green since light brown is present on any environment except maybe in a complete white-out. We used to use white camo netting for vehicles at Alaska during exercises.
expensive long lasting paint. Also you have to factor the logistics of sending tanks back to get repainted.
Well you can paint a big car with epoxy paint for 300e, guesstimate 5x paint for Abrams sized tank, that's 1500e. Consider military buys the paint in huge batches, maybe -30% (probably even less), thats 1000e per tank. And you probably aren't too considered on the finish quality so you dont need expensive professional labour. So unless the paint is something special, the cost doesn't seem very high considering the cost of operating a tank anyway.
AssaultPlazma
If you're sending the tank to another country (different terrain, desert to snow etc), then it probably goes through maintenance anyway so I dont see why there would be extra logistics involved. I guess for enviromental reasons you would have to use a painth booth so maybe that could be issue
trust me dude actual straight spray paint for the entire tank itself needs to be done professionally. unless were spray painting over/ re painting new bumper numbers we don't mess with the paint.
Also no part of pre-deployment maintenance involves painting the tanks.
Love the old school camouflage, hate putting it up. I did my conscription service in the Finnish maritime forces an we used to camouflage whole warships that were anchored up to islands. The ships aren't actually that large, but I can assure you it's plenty of work hiding a 50m long missile boat with netting.
"I would just shoot it anyway" It seems we have a similar philosophy on this matter. Security is more valuable than ammunition lol.
Excellent video Matsimus!
And for once, the Canadian army splurged and actually purchased Baracuda camouflage for both the Leopard 2A6M and 2A4M a few years ago in Afghanistan :D
We have something that's new now!
Thanks connor! I really appreciate that! And yeah its about time canada got some kit we like. The leos serves us well. Tanks for watching!
I'm not sure if you've mentioned it in the vid yet, I'm not all the way through. But have you seen the new netting for the Challenger 2 (Megatron or ATDU, I'm not sure?) I think it looks really cool, but how will it effect the system and is it like the anti-radar netting you talked about? Just curious.
I have seen that tank! ITS AMAZING LOL! the netting would work well I think. What do you think?
Matsimus Gaming I think it makes the thing look fluffy, but bloody fantastic 😂 Was wondering whether it would help with reducing the thermal output of the tank too
I made my own Ghillie Suit and I used ghillie yarn, a woodland camo painted mesh/tight netting, and a large sheet of the camouflage tarp military's use to cover stationary vehicles.
Just a point about using plant-life as cammo:
anything "alive" will die and dry out after you cut it. meaning that grass and leaves that once looked just like every other push in the area will begin to change color. Eventually it will stick out almost as much as generic cammo nets (and thus need to be replaced).
Ever had a Christmas tree in your home? A lot of evergreen plants can last for weeks before they dry out.
He is right, before color changes thermal signature of branches change. You should renew camouflage for 2-4 days depending temperature.
Hello Matsimus.
Regarding your question about the invisible camouflage when it gets dirty: I think they can use for fast cleaning, bursts of cleaning agent with blown compressed air. It could be a system integrated into the tank which is activated seconds before the activation of the invisible camouflage.
Also on the market there are already products which applied as coating, repels water, mud and oils.
Thx.
those plates are not displays they are thermal plates that heat up to the ambient temerature
LOL! sorry I am stupid :-(
its ok i am dumb too
DUKE NUKEM Can I be dumb too?
Zoltan Csikos lol you're not a very good troll
Best channel for all about tanks! Thank you very much!
I want my tank covered. If i'm a tanker and i could not do that, then i'm out.
You would do it for sure.
Do it every 8 hours or so. Because the leaves you grabbed would have dried out and thus the "bush" your tank once looked like is now an odd color and wilting.
But bushes are great!
When we had camouflage exercises in basic training my squad leader tried to make me look like a fool and asked me to find the camouflaged soldiers that hid up ahead while we were marching through a forest. The test was supposed to show how close we had to get in order to spot them but I had seen them even before I was asked because they did such a bad job so I could even name each of them. That's what I learned about camouflage in the Bundeswehr.
Where do you get this footage from?
youtube
Personal experience with applying bush camo to a Gvozdika was that it really makes the tank harder to see with both naked eye and thermal optics(didnt get to test thermal myself tho,but thats what i was told by my superiors). It also doesnt take too long and is relatively fun to do and it didnt make my driving of the tank any harder.
man those M1A2 Abrams look badass.
But it's pretty outdated with no modern active protection systems in frontal area.
kordax mint Bullshit the M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams will be fitted with the US Army's Quick kill APS.
it doesn't even have an ammo loader, big bulked afroamerican soldier will load shells...
kordax mint so who cares if it doesn't have an autoloader, a human loader can be quicker.
dude, it's 21st century... autoloader is a machine, human loader can fail, drop shell, etc.
it just shows that M1A's are from WW2 era :D
Yo, that ended well. With the actual guy telling us some basics/pointers. Could hear the background(those tanks were loud as shit, no joke the problem that must be). So informative, can say enough. Thank you.
well thank you good sir im fine
interesting video as always
Thanks! Glad you liked it :-)
Matsimus as for your thoughts of mud or something getting on the tanks. It would be rather easy to remove that stuff with the new hydrophobic spray.
The mud will simply bounce off spray and not stick.
Just get some chalk if you are in the snow, Russians did it in WW2.
Cat Slave It was newspaper
Biggest use of Commo wire during my entire military service....putting stringers on the sides of armoured vehicles to have foliage attached....
The Barraccuda nets are fantastic...BUT as you said very expensive...using natural vegetation ALSO has a thermal dissipation value to it as well as visual camo....
God...the memories...trying to get Cam nets on the vehicles in the Lagers after they had been rolled up all day and covered in 6 inches or more of dust / dirt / mud etc.....made for rather dirty crewmen to say the least.......
Thanks for the videos Matsimus.........
drive on troop!......
During winter operations it could turn out very useful to camouflage the tank covering it with snow, it would hide it both from optical and thermal air sights
Great video yet again.
Keep up the great work.
Tanks are fascinating.
I say nuke it from orbit :)
Thanks for video!
TheSauronchik no nukes in space bruh. you can't hug kids with nuclear arms bruh... :)
Thanks for watching :-D
PS.: Just check the Marder at minute 07:10 ff. All optics, the guns and the drivers hatch are not covered...
The Canadian Army LOVES using scrim on vehicles and helmets.
Yeah we are fucking obsessed with cam nets.
I hate scrim on helmets. Its awful. lol! Tanks for watching!
DJSbros canada was the first recoded country to ever use camouflage and we still do it. if you mess eh ya don’t know whaer the hell we comeing from.
I really find your videos interesting. Thank you for the effort and keep it up!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that! Have a great day! ;-D
"How not to be Seen" 2019 Style.
Rule 1: Don't stand up.
rule 2: dont leave the underneath of your desk.
When you told about the camo/armour plating for the Leopards, then I did scream Denmark. I know our tanks has (had) them when they was sent out in Afghanistan. But I still think the old school camo is good too. Because no matter what kind of tech we get, then we still need to use our Mk. 1 Eyeball to see with
0:38 cool story bro
Awesome video. I was actually searching for tank camouflage because of the upcoming counter offense by the Ukrainian military with the T-62, T-72, T-80, T-90, Abrams, Challenger 2 and Leopard 2 tanks. Would be great if they can camouflage them so good that the Russians don't know what they are up against on the battlefield
looks like the germans dont obstruct their views with camo, well america keep learning from the war experts
Back in the early to mid 1970s, I was involved in an experimental U.S.Marine Corps Program using painted camouflage (Murdock Pattern) in conjunction with natural camouflage materials. One of the criticisms we heard from 'Old School" tankers was, "Oh, there goes a 52-ton ton camouflaged tank !" The tank the Marines were using at the time was the M48A3 Mod B. During the tests and evaluations, conducted in wooded areas, I was able to spot the uncamouflaged, Marine Corps Green tank at 1200 meters, that is of course boresight range for the 90 mm gun system. On the other hand, I could not spot the camouflaged M-48 tanks until they were between 700 to 800 meters from us. The M 48 with its rangefinder and ballistic computer and a trained crew can hit targets with a greater than 90% chance of a first round hit on targets beyond 1200 meters. When tanks are engaged at 700 to 800 meters, those ranges are quite literally, point and shoot, and in tank vs tank warfare, he who sees first, shoots first and generally wins.
OLD SCHOOL rules
F Jon agreed 👍😉
Nice one! THX! I was driving an Tpz Fuchs for 3 Years and in Winter times we use some kind of Paint too. Its called " Schlemmkreide". Its white Paint that we put on the green Parts of the original Camoulage by ourselves. ( sry for my bad english ;)
1.58 this is polish Leopard 2A5 no German ;-D
As far as I know Poland only got Leo 2 A4. Which after a huge armor update (which looks different then that of the A5) are called Leopard 2PL.
Leszek Prondzinski they stole my tank!!11!!
To me it looks more like a German reconnaissance unit.
No, Poland also got Leopard 2A5
1:58 are Polish Leopard 2A5 indeed. You can see it on the shorter barrel of the Rheinmetall L44 while the german Leopard 2A6/A6M/A7 have the 25 % longer L55 as seen at 1:47 .
The video shows, that there is more training needed. One usually tries to camoflage his vehicle as best as he could...but NEVER, NEVER NEVER in a way that it hampers the vehicles functions (guns, optics, hatches air intake). But its a good start
Camouflage works in ambush, otherwise it's futile.
It helps even in move, trust me
Nah seeing a big bush moving at 70kph is definitely not conspicuous.
So, I'm curious. . . as a grunt, we conducted force-on-force drills ALL THE TIME. We used blanks a lot, but also simunitions (a glorified paintball round that fired from your normal rifle or pistol). Do modern armored units conduct force-on-force drills? I'm assuming they must.
AMD APUs are dank enough for the military.
#AyyyMD
I've always liked the look of just piling on tree branches and bushes to camouflage a vehicle. There's various good pictures of Shermans and other tanks from that era driving around looking like mobilized underbrush.
Wish to donate to support my channel? - Paypal link: paypal.me/Matsimus
Just FYI www.lubawa.com.pl/index.php/en/kamuflaz-4/kamuflaz-mobilny/771-kamuflaz-mobilny-en
you can also donate to me if you want :)
Matsimus, you have a good content. liked your commentaries and all of them makes sense!
mind if we post our
paypal here too? 😂jk
not jk
HAHAHAHA!!
the classics are classic for a reason they work!
Russia is researching S-500, Nato is researching basic camo technology. Sigh.
Good video though.
Russia has no hope to keep air superiority, NATO has time to burn on Camo as Russian tanks are still cold war hulks
Tanks for watching :-D
Most civilians don't realize that first off a tank like the Abrams or the Bradley is going to be able to easily spot a human size target from a VERY LONG ways away and a tank even further. So by just putting some tree branches over the tank, a human isn't going to be able to spot a tank. It is very hard to spot a tank hidding in a tree line from just a few hundred yards and by the time you get close enough to spot it, you will probably be long dead. Also for US and it's allies, their tanks are pretty much always going to have air cover. It's hard to imagine the US and it's allies not having air superiority. So enemy forces won't have many chances to attack US and NATO armor from above.
Best answer.
LOL I said I will shoot it anyways
Hi mate I was a grunt with Australian Defence Force back in the 80's One EX I was lead scout for my section and we were tasked to locate a unit of "Enemy"APC'S It was thick scrub. I found them only because the crew commander or picket in the top of the APC had his sleeves rolled up! I spotted his arm resting on the 30,cal !! The rest of the vehicle was hull down and cammed up with scrub bushes as was the other two APC.etc. Chances were with our access of advance we would probably gone right passed them! I support all you have said about old school cam methods. I'd say even modern day grunts on the hunt for armour and with time contstraints for patrolling or recon missions wont have the equipment or time to utilise it. Agrunt relies on eye balling his objectives.
If you really hate politics, then please stop repeating NATO's narrative which is "someone who drinks vodka and speaks russian" might invade Poland!!!Just for the sake of argument, give me one single sain reason for which "someone who drinks vodka and speaks russian" would want to invade Poland???
It's the same reason that "someone who drinks vodka and speaks russian" invaded Finland, South Ossetia, Abhazkia, Crimea, E Ukraine, etc. 🍋
SsiolisP the hell are you talking about? Did I at any point refer to Russians drinking vodka and invading Poland? Answer is no. Grow up.
The hell? Grow up? And I get this from a "mature" man simply for saying "please"?Learn to read my dear young man! I wrote: "stop repeating NATO'S narrative" and continued by explaining what NATO's narrative is. Go ahead, read my comment again, it clearly reads: which is (NATO's) "someone who drinks vodka etc".
This one is easy. The USA which is only 241 years old has invaded 71 other nations. Thats 1 nation every 3 years: (1) American Indian nations (1776 onwards, American
Indian Genocide; 1803, Louisiana Purchase; 1844, Indians banned from east of the
Mississippi; 1861 onwards, California genocide; 1890, Lakota Indians massacre),
(2) Mexico (1836-1846; 1913; 1914-1918; 1923), (3) Nicaragua (1856-1857; 1894;
1896; 1898; 1899; 1907; 1910; 1912-1933; 1981-1990), (4) American forces
deployed against Americans (1861-1865, Civil War; 1892; 1894; 1898; 1899-1901;
1901; 1914; 1915; 1920-1921; 1932; 1943; 1967; 1968; 1970; 1973; 1992; 2001),
(5), Argentina (1890), (6), Chile (1891; 1973), (7) Haiti (1891; 1914-1934;
1994; 2004-2005), (8) Hawaii (1893-), (9) China (1895-1895; 1898-1900;
1911-1941; 1922-1927; 1927-1934; 1948-1949; 1951-1953; 1958), (10) Korea
(1894-1896; 1904-1905; 1951-1953), (11) Panama (1895; 1901-1914; 1908; 1912;
1918-1920; 1925; 1958; 1964; 1989-), (12) Philippines (1898-1910; 1948-1954;
1989; 2002-), (13) Cuba (1898-1902; 1906-1909; 1912; 1917-1933; 1961; 1962),
(14) Puerto Rico (1898-; 1950; ); (15) Guam (1898-), (16) Samoa (1899-), (17)
Honduras (1903; 1907; 1911; 1912; 1919; 1924-1925; 1983-1989), (18) Dominican
Republic (1903-1904; 1914; 1916-1924; 1965-1966), (19) Germany (1917-1918;
1941-1945; 1948; 1961), (20) Russia (1918-1922), (21) Yugoslavia (1919; 1946;
1992-1994; 1999), (22) Guatemala (1920; 1954; 1966-1967), (23) Turkey (1922),
(24) El Salvador (1932; 1981-1992), (25) Italy (1941-1945); (26) Morocco
(1941-1945), (27) France (1941-1945), (28) Algeria (1941-1945), (29) Tunisia
(1941-1945), (30) Libya (1941-1945; 1981; 1986; 1989; 2011), (31) Egypt
(1941-1945; 1956; 1967; 1973; 2013), (32) India (1941-1945), (33) Burma
(1941-1945), (34) Micronesia (1941-1945), (35) Papua New Guinea (1941-1945),
(36) Vanuatu (1941-1945), (37) Austria (1941-1945), (38) Hungary (1941-1945),
(39) Japan (1941-1945), (40) Iran (1946; 1953; 1980; 1984; 1987-1988; ), (41)
Uruguay (1947), (42) Greece (1947-1949), (43) Vietnam (1954; 1960-1975), (44)
Lebanon (1958; 1982-1984), (45) Iraq (1958; 1963; 1990-1991; 1990-2003; 1998;
2003-2011), (46) Laos (1962-), (47) Indonesia (1965), (48) Cambodia (1969-1975;
1975), (49) Oman (1970), (50) Laos (1971-1973), (51) Angola (1976-1992), (52)
Grenada (1983-1984), (53) Bolivia (1986; ), (54) Virgin Islands (1989), (55)
Liberia (1990; 1997; 2003), (56) Saudi Arabia (1990-1991), (57) Kuwait (1991),
(58) Somalia (1992-1994; 2006), (59) Bosnia (1993-), (60) Zaire (Congo)
(1996-1997), (61) Albania (1997), (62) Sudan (1998), (63) Afghanistan (1998;
2001-), (64) Yemen (2000; 2002-), (65) Macedonia (2001), (66) Colombia (2002-),
(67) Pakistan (2005-), (68) Syria (2008; 2011-), (69) Uganda (2011), (70) Mali
(2013), (71) Niger (2013).
SsiolisP my point is, when did I repeat anything. I didn't mention a damn thing about ANYTHING you are talking about.
The anti-radar net is probably just a net with metal wires embedded in it. The wire mesh absorbs the radar signal like an antenna, and converts it into a tiny bit of heat.
As a retired tank crewman - on the defensive you should only have to be concerned with camouflaging the turret. This is because tanks fight from the 'hull down' position where the tank is behind a rise in the ground and (ideally) the only thing sticking up over the top of the ground is the gunner's and TC's optics. (Which are mounted on the roof of the turret for precisely this reason.)
When an enemy target is detected the TC designates the target to the gunner and the gunner calls out 'identified' when he sees it in his sights. The TC then commands the driver to creep the tank forward until the muzzle of the main gun just clears the ground. When the gun tube is clear the TC gives the command to fire. The tank will fire two - maybe three shots - and then reverse at full speed, turn to the right or left and rapidly move to another pre-selected firing position where the drill starts over again.
When advancing - the full frontal camouflage with help but the motion will still give away the fact that something is out there.
This brings back memories. I was fortunate enough to never have to use netting. Did a good job at making my tank look like a rolling stand of trees at Ft. Stewart but didn't do any in Germany due to the SOFA.
Consider yourself lucky, camo netting is the biggest pain in the ass to work with. As Matstimus mentions, it gets snagged on everything from your clothing, your 782 gear (I know that really dates me), to everything on your vehicle. On the bright side, it does offer a decent amount of shade and wound actually make the area covered at least a few degrees cooler, nothing to sneeze at when you're in 100+ degree heat at 29 Palms.
One thing you could do to confuse the infrared recce is to put some cookers a different place - light them, and they will show up splendid on infrared. And the loss of a couple of cookers is cheap compared to a tank.
I love seeing my units CVRTs cutting round all scrimmed up and the barracuda padding is good stuff we had it on my units challenger 2s and bulldogs in Iraq back in 2007 the British ones where flame retardant too seeing as the Iraqis loved throwing petrol bombs at alot of our vehicles on a crewmans point the barracuda matting also helps moving around on the outside of the vehicle painless no more smacking your knees and shins of pointy corners lol pretty good video keep it up
Camo isn't always about hiding the tank but to confuse the human eye and brain in recognising the tank.
Many years ago I remember chatting to a Russian tank commander from WW2, one thing he told me was the Germans spent a lot of time and money painting some of their tanks white to blend in with the snow. The Russians used a bucket of water and newspaper, they just pasted newspaper onto the tank and it froze in place, as the weather thawed and the snow melted the paper was just washed off.
9:20 That camo system has been in developement for about 8+ years now. Havnt seen it deployed nor have i heard of it being used or updated.
14:45 That shot looks so badass
Hey Matsimus
On the camouflaging systems to fool weapon system optics. Thermal imaging and IR are the most common technologies as far as I know, which would mean, that instead of screens they could be using some kind of electric heating and cooling (Peltier) elements with isolation between them to get the desired effect of obscuring the silhouette. Sensors (similar to thermal cameras could do the trick) mounted on each side could record for the opposing side of the vehicle to use. Advantage of this is that you could just use a normal metal (like aluminum) on the outside of the electronic camouflage, and paint them as normal (except the thermal imaging sensor used for recording signatures of course).
Great video! Ave Matsimus!
love the camo love your show. Had a shit day. Sat down watched one and I am smiling. Thanks.
One of the best MCS is made by Lubawa SA.
It is used by Finnish , Polish and recently by US forces (first testing batch ordered in 2018, sold by HDT Global, partner of Lubawa SA). It provides cover from optical, thermal, radar and noctovision.
being a commander in a leopard 2a6 in canada i really like the net/padding what ever you want to call it
Good to see the netting is just as user friendly everywhere, always hoped everyone got to share in the misery.
They would probably counter mud spills on the special adaptive camo with that strange hydrophobic spray.
If it gets even a g of dust or mud on the armour, a tiny spray of water and all of it runs off.
Hey, I've seen the Vids of the "see through" Camo, but in reality, they developed a see through thermal camo, so these plates heat up or cool down do make the thermal signature invisible. So if there would be dirt on these plates, the heat tranfers to the dirt, heating it or cooling it. So generally a good idea!
Hey, minor correction here, Adaptiv is THERMAL camouflage. It uses individual peltier plates to rapidly warm up or cool down, functioning as pixels in the composite IR signature.