I thought one of the big selling points for these new ships was reduced crew size. Now every vessel will need an onboard scenic designer.
This is what they need:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wlLqdFsMnCE
BAE’s Adaptive Camouflage
As an old ship modeler, I can confirm that those patterns are beastly hard to paint, especially on the smaller scales. But they make amazing conversation peices when finished.
The photos look really interesting. Some seem to make it difficult to say which way the ship is pointing through tricks of perspective, others to perhaps make the ship appear to be some smaller type of craft?
They aren’t actually bringing back the dazzle camoflage.
Dazzle/zebra was not intended to hide the ship, but rather to confuse the viewers ability to judge aspect, which was required for gunnery and torpedo solutions.
The modern paint job probably won’t have any meaningful effect, except in very low light or obscuration situations.
In these days of radar, sonar, infrared tracking, night vision equipment, electronic signal detection, and all the rest why is the Navy using camouflage for their ships? Do the honestly think that someone who really wants to target it will be thrown off by the paint scheme?
I was stationed at a USAF base in West Germany in the late 70’s - early 80’s. I recall the AF experimenting with a form of dazzle camouflage on the taxiways in front of the hardened aircraft shelters. Geometric shapes were painted onto the taxiways, mostly triangles, in the hope that an attacking pilot, flying very low at high speeds, may be distracted by the patterns and drop his bombs on the pavement rather than the shelter. Don’t know if it ever would have worked.
They should plaster sponsor’s logos all over them like NASCAR. It would defray expenses. ;)
Too Small to stand up to bigger ships, too large to be a deterrent to the smaller ones, yet still not big enough for long endurance missions.
U.S. Navy FAIL!!!
They can paint the LCS’s however they want I still won’t like them. Better to buy Arleigh Burkes, something with weapons. This thing is fast in shallow water, that’s it.
Uh...I see!
With the advent of radar camouflage lost much of its usefulness. Now stealth, that’s where it’s at!
Where did this money come from?
Very interesting pictures-Thanks!
I think this one is the best design.
The USS California shown bombarding Guam in 1944 is the most effective one of the bunch, historic or modern. It could be a small rocky island for all you could tell at a glance with the naked eye.
I suspect this is intended to help foil lower-tech terrorist attacks by small cells using speedboats. It serves no other purpose that I can see, other than jumping on the camo fashion bandwagon.
Anybody know what the post-war studies showed for effectiveness of those paint schemes? Seems logical to me that it would’ve been effective against visual targeting by subs or small craft. But was there any data to prove it?