US Pentagon “scientists” are working to exploit an old battlefield “tool”, smoke. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is leading an effort to develop a smoke-like “invisibility veil” that would prevent enemy troops from seeing friendly ones. The “new smoke” will actually block the enemy’s vision, but will still allow US and allied forces to see the entire battlefield.
One of the most useful tools in the history of warfare is tobacco. Thick, billowing clouds of smoke, created by burning combustible materials, obstruct line of sight across the battlefield — for both sides. The problem is that the smoke worked against both sides. Smoke is often treated as a temporary solution by military forces, but it blocks vision just as surely as a mountain or a wall of trees. While the smoke eventually subsides, it can hinder and assist attackers or defenders alike.
In the 1980s, technology finally stepped in to give one side an advantage with the use of thermal night sights, which US and NATO forces used to see and shoot through the smoke. Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact troops, on the other hand, used more primitive forms of night vision systems. This gave a huge advantage to US and NATO troops, who could now observe and fire on enemy forces who were operating virtually blind.
Today, most modern militaries have thermal night vision systems. So DARPA is seeking to regain the advantage by working on what it calls Coded Visibility, which “aims to develop customized, adjustable, secure obfuscation methods that will give friendly warfighters an asymmetric advantage by enhancing their visibility while suppressing vision systems and opponent detection.
DARPA is working on Coded Visibility using two approaches: passive and active asymmetry. Passive asymmetry, says program director Rohith Chandrasekar, “will likely require multiple dark materials to be deployed in specific ways to allow one-way vision.”
The dark materials could include smoke, a type of liquid spray, or could even be something more “exotic” like metamaterials – engineered composites designed to interact with electromagnetic radiation for certain purposes. In this case, a metamaterial cloud could be used to block light or allow it to enter only from certain angles.
Active asymmetry, on the other hand, will require “a single piece of dark hardware, but one that can be tuned in real time” to let troops see it, Chandrasekar says. Friendly troops may be able to control an active asymmetry smokescreen by enabling—or disabling—the ability to see through it with night vision or similar means. Sometimes, it may be preferable to prevent everyone from seeing through coded visibility the “smoke” if enemy troops also gain this ability.
Coded Visibility should also be safe for people to breathe. The military currently uses white phosphorus to create smoke screens. The problem is that white phosphorus (WP) is pyrophoric, meaning it burns on contact with air, and is therefore extremely dangerous to have. Troops are trained to use it in a way that minimizes risk to themselves, but using it on the battlefield can expose troops or endanger civilians.
In 2017, Human Rights Watch warned that US-led forces fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria were using white phosphorus, risking harm to civilians. Ideally, troops and civilians should be able to walk unprotected through Coded Visibility and emerge unscathed.
