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Author Topic: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?  (Read 20750 times)

Offline shawn a

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Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« on: June 07, 2009, 01:16:46 AM »
Visual camouflage has always intrigued me.
From the "Lozenge" style applied in WWI, to the "Splinter" style on the SU-35.
I've seen a few aerial photos showing very effective styles, and some seemingly making the plane stand out more.
The F-22 uses a version that I call "evaporating condensation" (rounded patches here and there, slightly blended) but the edges of the plane are a third shade of very light grey, and applied with sharp edges.
The F-15C uses a similar scheme, but without the light grey on the edges.
The US Navy uses one color all over-dirty grey.
Japanese F-2s are two shades of blue.
How important is it these days? And why?
What's your favorite?

Offline Webmaster

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2009, 03:32:18 AM »
Nice topic, I hope a lot of members will share their views. I am no expert on camoflage, so I just want to say this. Four evolutions that affected the way airforces paint their planes:

1 - Research showed that grey is most effective overall, but especially at medium altitudes.
2 - Radar/Air defense development first, then stealth, made low flying obsolete, so a lot of 'earth' or 'green' camoflage disappeared, except for helicopters.
3 - Threat to aircraft on the ground reduced, because of early warning, shelters, and the overall lack of the traditional conventional enemies. So it's no longer neccessary to paint them in a way they can not be easily distinguished on the ground.
4 - Defense budget shrinkage. Painting an aircraft (with the exception of certain surfaces which need a special paint) in one color overall is much cheaper.

So just paint it all in the same shade of grey, pick a shade that best fits the operating altitude of your aircraft.

Not counting tiger shemes, my favourite is the Swedish Air Force green-black-brown spliter camoflage as they had on the Viggen and some Draken.
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Offline RecceJet

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2009, 04:24:16 AM »
Visual camouflage has always intrigued me.
From the "Lozenge" style applied in WWI, to the "Splinter" style on the SU-35.
I've seen a few aerial photos showing very effective styles, and some seemingly making the plane stand out more.
The F-22 uses a version that I call "evaporating condensation" (rounded patches here and there, slightly blended) but the edges of the plane are a third shade of very light grey, and applied with sharp edges.
The F-15C uses a similar scheme, but without the light grey on the edges.
The US Navy uses one color all over-dirty grey.
Japanese F-2s are two shades of blue.
How important is it these days? And why?
What's your favorite?
When an aircraft is on the ground its own camouflage is useless. Look at any airfield in Google Earth / Google Maps and you'll see how easy it is to find aircraft.

They all cast shadows and have distinctive lines, depending on whether it is sunny or cloudy. On top of that, the concrete or tarmac on which the planes stand have a different tone and texture than the smooth finish on an airframe. These differences again make the aircraft stand out.

The only way an aircraft can be effectively hidden visually is to cover it while it is parked. Painting it any colour or pattern will not help one bit, although it may make it more difficult to tell exactly what ordnance it is carrying.

Example of aircraft in the open.

Example of aircraft concealed.

Offline F-111 C/C

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2009, 05:44:36 AM »
I like the new Camo on the aggressor F-16s from Red Flag Alaska that is Black, White and Grey camouflage like the Urban Camo BDUs that were popular in the 80s.
Wars are won by carrying the 'heavy iron' downtown!

Offline Eldorado82

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2009, 07:55:16 AM »
I'm pretty sure you can guess what is my favorite camoflage- the camoflage of the IAF aircrafts. all the bottom side of the fuselage is in light-blue - the color of the israeli skies and all the upper parts is stains of brown, sand color  and other bright colors. perfect camo for the things that visually looks on the aircraft from the land- almost invisible int he skies and so for the watching aircraft from above- almost merging with the terrain colors. as a matter of fact to my opinion camo remains as impo0rtant as anytime
Remembering Steven "TigerShark" Zeluff

Offline Eldorado82

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2009, 07:58:27 AM »
some pictures of our guys
Remembering Steven "TigerShark" Zeluff

Offline alyster

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2009, 11:06:28 AM »
The army has gone over to the new digital camo. They say it's harder to spot for the enemy. Has any air force even considered the same?
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Offline RecceJet

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2009, 12:03:11 PM »
The USAF has their "tiger strip" equivalent of the US Army uniforms.

Offline shawn a

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2009, 09:36:04 PM »
I've heard one very interesting thing about a form of camouflage I'd call "deception" --2 things actually, now that I think about it.
First, someone in the Middle East , perhaps only for training purposes, had painted aircraft shapes on the ground at an airfield. This was a bit before precision weapons were a standard item. Those painted shapes were targeted, and attacked in preference to real aircraft parked amongst them. Pilots were going fast,probably strafing, and had little time to analyse the scene, and the painted ones stood out better than the real planes. Nice trick!
 And then there's the Canadians. They were the first ones that I saw with a false canopy on the bottom of the plane. Other air forces have picked up that trick and applied it to both fighters and close air support aircraft. It's an odd approach to deception based on human phisiology-- we can pull more positive than negative Gs, so if the canopy is facing the observer, the plane can pull toward the observer (AAA gunner, manpads shooter, etc.) much harder than it can push away without rolling first. USAF A-10s still have them, and I asked a pilot of one if he thought it helped. He said yes, that during training with other A-10s he had been momentarily confused as to the orientation of the other planes.
These are "cheap tricks" and could still be used in these hard economic times.
The US Marines had one F-18 at Miramar a few years back with digital camo, It looked cool, but I don't know if it worked.
If there's a remote possibility that your planes might get caught on the ground, the earth-tone camo seems to make sense.

Offline F-111 C/C

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2009, 09:51:37 PM »
When the A-10 was designed it was built so that top to bottom, front to back all look the same so as to confuse the enemy as to whether it was coming or going. The 'false' canopy shadow enhances the confusion as well.
Wars are won by carrying the 'heavy iron' downtown!

Offline Eldorado82

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2009, 04:12:13 AM »
how the camo colors are painted on the aircraft? here in IAF it is done usually by special airbrush tool
« Last Edit: June 08, 2009, 04:20:38 AM by Eldorado82 »
Remembering Steven "TigerShark" Zeluff

Offline RecceJet

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Re: Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2009, 04:22:03 AM »
I would suggest that it's the same in all countries. Brush painting will apply too much paint which is both a cost and weight factor.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2009, 06:08:04 AM by RecceJet »

 



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