Invisible Tanks
Last night I was catching up on some reading and I read in the January 2008 edition Harper’s Magazine in the “Findings” section a quick blurb that the UK’s Ministry of Defence had unveiled an ‘Invisible Tank’.
Well, that’s interesting and sorta strange I thought. I wonder how one unveils an invisible tank?…
So, I decided to do some investigating. Here’s what I’ve found out thus far:
Firstly the story is actually old news. The Telegraph wrote about this story in January 2007 and the Daily Mail wrote about it in October 2007. Maybe even earlier becuase their article actually says that the page was updated in October 2007.
So how does this invisibility device work? Basically, the technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank or other vehicle. The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it. Here’s a diagram that I drew:
The article’s mention that the only drawback was the reliability of the cameras and projectors. I would also add that one would need to convince ones enemy to view the tanks or vehicles from one direction only. And I would think that for an armoured squadron on the move these would be useless as well, given that one needs to set up a projector. Unless of course one has a moving invisible projector as well. But of course I’m just guessing here as I wasn’t at the great unveiling. 
Still, it is an interesting development in stealth/invisibility technology. MoD’s ‘Q’, Professor Sir John Pendry, says that “The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them - which is intricate and complicated, but possible.”
Related News:
- MoD tests technology to turn tanks ‘invisible’
- Army tests James Bond style tank that is ‘invisible’
