Invisibility cloaks for Ukraine: Czech experts produce anti-drone camouflage for Ukrainian soldiers
A special cloak that can make soldiers invisible to enemy drones has been hailed as a “game changer”. Invented and manufactured by Czech experts, the cloak continues to be used by special units of the Ukrainian army.
4M Systems is a manufacturing company based in western Prague, which is a producing a piece of specialist kit much sought after by Ukrainian soldiers. Their cloak, made of the InfraHex material, is able to hide the heat that a person naturally radiates from overhead drones with infrared cameras. Instead of showing up brightly on the screen, troops wearing the cloak melt into the cold blues and blacks of their surroundings.
The poncho-like garment can be stored in a small package, and unpacked within fifteen seconds to provide quick cover from a flying drone. According to the manufacturer, the effectiveness of masking the thermal footprint is up to 96%. Nets made from the material can be used not only to camouflage people, but also vehicles and the heat of their engines.
Better than simply covering soldiers in an emergency, the cloak can be used to hide troops and snipers on excursions behind enemy lines, as Radek Duchek, CEO of 4M Systems, explains:
“Imagine dressing twenty members of a special unit, or two hundred infantrymen, and at night they appear unnoticed twenty or thirty kilometres somewhere behind your lines. This can cause a huge panic, a devastating blow. So, for me, it's a real game changer. It would seem like magic; the enemy will suddenly appear behind you and you won't know how he got there. It’s a huge advantage.”
Produced by a small team in a villa on the outskirts of Prague, the heat-masking cloak has been met with great acclaim, and is being tried out by American, Finnish and Danish special units. Positive feedback notably comes from Ukrainian troops currently serving in the ongoing war, some of whom are using the cloak and have submitted requests for thousands more.
Nanofiber experts from the Czech company Respilon developed the material for the ‘invisibility’ cloak, and Respilon's director, Radek Socha, has been successfully presenting it at arms fairs:
“We are extremely happy with it. Unlike others, this material is very thin, very light. It is breathable, which means that vapour permeability is ensured. It is waterproof, so it works even in the rain, in which many other materials don't work, and it provides the ability to not be detected by thermal cameras. It is unique.”
The positive response of Ukrainian soldiers has meant that the cloak has caught the attention of the Gift for Putin (Dárek pro Putina) initiative. Its co-founder Martin Ondráček has since announced a fundraising collection to buy and provide 333 cloaks, which, in the first few days, raised almost a million crowns.
