60 Tons of Tank Will Be
Invisible Source: News of the World
July 19 1998
A DEATH-DEALING tank which is invisible to the enemy is
being developed by defence experts.
Its surface will be covered with tiny light-bearing
fibres which will imitate the scenery behind the tank.
Enemy soldiers will see only an unbroken line of sand,
grass or trees . . . until they are blasted into oblivion.
The fibre-optic camouflage allowing the 'chameleon
tanks' to blend with its background is outlined in top secret plans
leaked from boffins at the US Defence Department. The vehicle will
also have a silent-running engine.
Chris Foss, Land Systems Editor for Jane's Defence
Weekly, said: "This is well beyond the current technology, but 30
years ago they said nobody would have a personal computer."
Scientists in the UK and the US have already in-vented
an armoured vehicle invisible to radar-using technology from the
angular Stealth bomber.
A prototype will take four years to build, but the army
hopes to have vehicles in service by 2007.
Two Anglo-American consortiums one including British
Aerospace are involved in a £3 billion race to develop the light tank.
An initial design shows an angled vehicle - codenamed Tracer - small
enough to fit in a Hercules transport plane.
Other mind-boggling military inventions are already with
us - or in the pipeline.
COLOURCHANGING camouflage is being used by US snipers.
TINY sensors and cameras designed to look like plants or
stones will transmit troop movements.
SWARMS of tiny aircraft some about six inches long will
spy on enemy positions.
MINIATURE solar-powered mechanical ants will infiltrate
bases and sent back vital intelligence. And similar "wasps" will carry
tiny amounts of high explosives to sabotage power or telephone
systems. An official at the Pentagon's Research Agency commented:
"Many of the underlying technologies are available now. It's not all
science fiction."
Scientists have already produced motors so small that
1,000 could fit in a 5mm square.
Military commanders are also demanding non-lethal
weapons for use in bloodless battles.
"We don't want our people killed, but we also don't want
civilians killed," says Prof Harvey Sapolsky of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This is a big constraint because war is a messy
enterprise, if you start shooting at people you're going to kill
civilians." Sedative gas canisters will replace grenades and soldiers
will be zapped with pepper spray, covered in nets or blasted with
glue-like foam.
by Adrain Addison and Matthew Acton