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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
When it comes to aircraft camo three things are to be considered.
Night Camo: This is usually dark colors (black, gray, green), or at least painted on the underbelly. A matte (dull) painted surface reflects the least amount of light and would be ideal for an chopper since the added drag will not effect its performance due to low speeds of the Heli. A white color at night will even reflect the smallest amount of light (say moon light) off of its skin very visible.
Ground camo: This for hidding the aircraft from other overflying aircraft against the ground backdrop. A white color would be great if your are parked in snow/white background. However there is always a compromise, a best camo for ground operations could end up being the worst camo at night or in flight.
Flight camo: The purpose would be to try to hide the aircraft in flight and even if spoted by naked eyes a good camo can disguise the aircrafts attitude and speed/range. For example you can paint the underbelly sky blue, and the top ground camo.
You can hear the chopper but you may not know its altitude, direction of flight, speed, and distance from you. Also rotor noise reflects off or canyons and hills giving a false impression of where the chopper is without being seen yet.
The Apaches in Afghanistan/Iraq are/were used against insurgents on foot, no tanks. They operate mostly at night with night vision and use their guns to target the enemy cutting them to peaces. The insurgent hear the chopper but don't know where its at.
At day or night a white camo is a give away from above and from below against the Karabakh natural terrain, I know because I have done air searches for downed aircraft in California which has a wide variety of terrain (from desert to tropical green).....also you don't see too many white attack aircraft in any service.
For todays highly advanced sthealth aircraft camo is no longer an issue rather than radar reflectivity off of its skin, but for a slow flying combat chopper a good camo is an asset.
Originally posted by Odysseus
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Night Camo: This is usually dark colors (black, gray, green), or at least painted on the underbelly. A matte (dull) painted surface reflects the least amount of light and would be ideal for an chopper since the added drag will not effect its performance due to low speeds of the Heli. A white color at night will even reflect the smallest amount of light (say moon light) off of its skin very visible.
Ground camo: This for hidding the aircraft from other overflying aircraft against the ground backdrop. A white color would be great if your are parked in snow/white background. However there is always a compromise, a best camo for ground operations could end up being the worst camo at night or in flight.
Flight camo: The purpose would be to try to hide the aircraft in flight and even if spoted by naked eyes a good camo can disguise the aircrafts attitude and speed/range. For example you can paint the underbelly sky blue, and the top ground camo.
but do not be fooled, at night time, EVERYONE can hear a helicopter, I have police helicopters flying around my city everyday, cant miss it, night time stealth for helicopters comes from Distance, not visual concealment. American Apaches are positioned a huge distance away from their targets, and they use missiles to kill the tanks, they are dead before they even hear a rotor. just my two cents.
The Apaches in Afghanistan/Iraq are/were used against insurgents on foot, no tanks. They operate mostly at night with night vision and use their guns to target the enemy cutting them to peaces. The insurgent hear the chopper but don't know where its at.
At day or night a white camo is a give away from above and from below against the Karabakh natural terrain, I know because I have done air searches for downed aircraft in California which has a wide variety of terrain (from desert to tropical green).....also you don't see too many white attack aircraft in any service.
For todays highly advanced sthealth aircraft camo is no longer an issue rather than radar reflectivity off of its skin, but for a slow flying combat chopper a good camo is an asset.
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