Camouflage in War: Deceiving Enemy Eyes

In war, fooling the enemy can mean the difference between winning or losing, life or death. Deception is more than just strategy; it’s an art and science that has greatly advanced over the last century ranging from decoy tactics to visual disguises. During the early 1900s, the appearance of military attire became a more integral part to these strategies.

To help conceal soldiers and make them difficult to target by the enemy, stylish military uniforms of early times were replaced with more muted materials. Today, uniforms are designed with patterns and colors that blend into the surrounding environment, including deserts, jungles, and any terrain where combat occurs. Warfare taking place in the desert, for example, may require meandering tan and brown-colored shapes that blend in with the sand dunes of its environment. To master the art of creating these camouflage uniforms, experts study the patterns and colors found within the environment of each combat terrain and how the human eye detects objects.

According to sources, the human eye searches for the outline of human forms when scanning the area for targets. The outline of the human body may be more easily detected when wearing one single color or too many colors. To trick the eye, the right colors, lines, and shapes are required so that our brain connects the colored lines and patterns of the uniform with the foliage, ground, or shadows of the environment. Military uniform patterns and colors are visually disruptive when produced correctly, obscuring the outline of the body and making an individual difficult to spot.

To establish and meet color quality standards for multi-colored materials, the following products are recommended:

• SpectraMagic™ NX2 Color Data Software>
• CM-17d Handheld, Portable Spectrophotometer >
• CM-5 Bench-top Spectrophotometer >

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