11–20 of 61 posts
I wonder whether camouflage has changed in purpose (on fighter jets) and is no longer about "fooling" the human visual system, but about fooling computer vision. I'd guess those "New Aesthetic" style pixelated camo paintjobs would do a pretty good job of fooling OpenCV based classifiers…
Does camouflage really helps in modern air combat? Aircrafts engage each other mostly on beyond visual range distances, and dogfighting in kinda rare now. Also, HUDs should assist in tracking of targets and highlight them, so camo will make no difference. The only use for camo I can think of is to hide the aircraft while it's stationed on the airstrip - in a relatively vulnerable position.
They would paint a fake canopy on the underside of the Warthog: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arnielee/4105880397/. This was to make it hard to tell which way the airplane was turning.
Does camouflage really helps in modern air combat? Aircrafts engage each other mostly on beyond visual range distances, and dogfighting in kinda rare now. Also, HUDs should assist in tracking of targets and highlight them, so camo will make no difference. The only use for camo I can think of is to hide the aircraft while it's stationed on the airstrip - in a relatively vulnerable position.
I'm not sure. I read something recently that the last modern dogfight happened around 1999. I'm also confused as to how the concept of "hiding" which way a plane is flying can be achieved with this. If I'm still / have ground support and see something in the sky / radar I'm pretty sure no matter what color it is (even if it closely matches the sky) I could say which direction it was moving? What am I missing? Either…
Fighter camo is probably not that big thing, but all things concerned it just might give a little edge in some situation.
This is a pretty old idea however not applied to aircraft, it was used on ships in WW1 and WW2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage
Does camouflage really helps in modern air combat? Aircrafts engage each other mostly on beyond visual range distances, and dogfighting in kinda rare now. Also, HUDs should assist in tracking of targets and highlight them, so camo will make no difference. The only use for camo I can think of is to hide the aircraft while it's stationed on the airstrip - in a relatively vulnerable position.
Misleading camouflage helps you here.
This is a pretty old idea however not applied to aircraft, it was used on ships in WW1 and WW2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage
Zebras used it even before that. Practically all camouflage ideas can be found from nature.