https://www.newsmax.com/scitech/invisibility-cloak-ukraine-military/2023/10/05/id/1137176/By Nicole Wells | Thursday, 05 October 2023 05:43 PM EDT
An "invisibility cloak" has been created out of necessity and it's Ukraine that has it.
Developed by the Ukrainian government, the new military clothing is designed to conceal Ukrainian soldiers from Russian thermal cameras and is ready for mass production, Newsweek reported.
Maxim Boryak, a member of the team developing the cloak under the Ukrainian government's Brave1 research program, said on Wednesday that the group is already working on upgrades to the battlefield technology.
"We received positive feedback from the military who tested the cloak, along with recommendations and wishes," Boryak told Newsweek, adding that he and his colleagues "hope that our scientific research will be crowned with success in the near future by an updated sample of the cloak."
Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov shared a video from Brave1 on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, of the invisibility cloak being tested.
"Have u ever read about invisibility cloaks in fairy tales?" Fedorov asked. "Well, Ukrainians made it. The cloak blocks heat radiation & makes defenders invisible to Russian thermal cameras. It will help our soldiers work effectively during the night."
Boryak told Newsweek that the video doesn't showcase the technology's full capabilities.
"In the video, you can see a person's face, which is not covered by a special mask; a protective mask is included in the cloak kit," he explained. "If you wear a protective mask and special glasses, it will 'blind' a thermal imager."
"Our production capacity is currently limited to 150 units per month, but if necessary, we can increase the volume of production," Boryak continued. "The presented sample is ready for mass production and wide application in the area with the presence of natural vegetation, when a person is in any position: standing, sitting, or lying down. It is allowed to use a cloak in an open area only in the lying position."
Boryak said the wearable technology was designed with covert operations in mind and pointed to special operations, reconnaissance, sabotage, sapper, and sniper teams as units that are especially suitable. Soldiers standing guard and conducting patrols would also benefit from the garment, he said.
Currently there are limits to the cloak's functionality, however.
"The cloak masking properties are preserved indefinitely as long as the person in the cloak moves very slowly, so that the human body does not additionally release excess heat, for example, when moving quickly over the terrain," Boryak told Newsweek.
"The cloak is designed for the slow positioning of a person in the place of dislocation and cannot be used during rapid movement, which is accompanied by excessive heat release and minor leakage through the ventilation holes in the cloak." He added that dangerous thermal leakage can be somewhat undetectable if the wearer is hidden in vegetation.
Russia's unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the gradual introduction of high-tech Western military equipment on the battlefield has spurred rapid technological and tactical advances. The new cloaking technology could give Ukrainian forces an edge on dark battlefields that are frequently surveilled by drones with sophisticated cameras.
According to Boryak, the plan is to improve "our product so that it can be used for fast movement in open terrain. Research is being conducted in this direction in cooperation with other scientists. It is planned to conduct full-scale tests of a new model of cloak with improved camouflage properties by the end of the year."
