Dual-Use Camouflage Development Inspired by Nature

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A new Russian development of a camouflage material could have a dual-use value. Russia’s Defense Ministry is considering the production of clothes made of electrically-controllable material that can change its color. The material was initially developed for military camouflage coating.
The technology was developed at the Tekhnomash Central Technological Research Institute, part of Roselectronics, which belongs to the Russian state corporation Rostec. Earlier, Rostec announced the production of stealth camouflaging for troops and military hardware. “At the moment, the institute is exploring the possibility of using the material in civilian industries and developing prototypes of products. In the future, the technology may be in demand to create clothing or advertising media,” the holding’s representative told tass.com.
A prototype of the electrically-controllable chameleon material demonstrated in 2018 can change its color depending on the surface that needs to be camouflaged and on the environment. The coating can reflect color changes and imitate complex graphical depictions, up to the leaves wavering in the wind.
It allows armored vehicles with such a disguise or fighters with the applied material to remain invisible to the enemy in the optical range – equipment and the military will merge with the background, which will copy the material, according to oreanda.ru.
The Ratnik helmet with such a coating was demonstrated at the Army 2018 forum. The State Corporation noted that the use of the coating does not require a lot of energy and computing power: when changing the color no more than once every 1.5 seconds, 4-20 W per square meter of material will be spent.
The possibilities of using the coating are much wider, said head of Rostec Sergei Chemezov. In the future, it may be applied to whatever it is: clothes, arms, combat hardware, etc.