well, to get facts straight:
you've probably noticed that metals being heated has a faint red glow in the dark which cannot be seen in daylight, when heated.
the infrared spectrum is just below that, able to see "deeper" kinds of red.
a thermal sight is an infrared sight, but can see an even deeper kind of red, capable of picking up heat signatures
which wouldn't glow in standard infrared sights, and displaying it as a monotonous greyscale image.
on some sights, these monotonous images are given a green hue. http://www.kotsch88.de/f_m1a1_2.htm
a site explaining the M1A1 GPS(in german, but nice pictures)
what you see in the first picture is the main sight, with the infrared thermal sight on the left, and the daysight on the right. the gunner has a switch which he uses to switch between thermal and daysight. he looks in through the back of the sight.
here's a picture of an ukrainian thermal sight, which unlike the american thermal is separate from the daysight.
you can see the eyepiece for the gunner on the rear of it, while the sensor isn't in view.(its basically a flat panel sensitive to the thermal wavelength of light, which converts these signatures into a black and white image based on the strength of the signature received.
i don't think magnetic detectors would be such a good idea, there's a lot of large metal objects around, and future vehicles will most likely be made of superglass or some sort of super-kevlar material made from spiderweb proteins.
in fact, modern tanks have ceramics arranged in a honeycomb array embedded in their frontal turret armour.
as for poison gas warnings, modern tanks has NBC protection, which consists of nuclear, biological, and chemical warning and filtering systems.
if the tank is under an NBC attack, an alarm sounds, and the crew button up the tank, and get on their NBC gear.
the NBC filter, filters the air for any contaminants, keeping the crewmen safe.
i'd suppose in a future conflict however, that every soldier would be wearing exosceletons with built in airconditioning, NBC filters, an FCS to keep the hands stable while running, and a HUD displaying operation orders, zoomed in views of the action, etc. basically the weapons utilized will be part that plugs into the suit.
im not really that bothered about keeping it too grounded IRL
but a couple of points ceramic armour or not, alot of the vehicles at this time are magnetic powered and radiat strong feilds (thats what im saying anyway)
and i thought infra red was different to heat sensing, as one is passive and one active (like the difference between hearing and sonar (my beef)
well i'd think with magnetic sensors, you'd deploy magnetic shielding, to minimize the magnetic sensors from detecting your vehicle, either in a passive or active array.
i'd suggest putting glass orbs, or something like that at the end of some of the "whiskers".
(which would be attached by a wire through the turret, and connected to a screen for the gunner)
since i can only see one door, and the space in the vehicle seems to be very limited, i'd suppose theres only 1 crewman, the gunner. having extra crewmembers is always a plus, both for maintenance duties, and added situational awareness. for example tanks usually have 3-4 crewmembers.
there's the driver, which drives the vehicle around.
theres the gunner, which aims and fires the maingun and coaxial machinegun.
theres the TC, who keeps in order where the hell in the world you are, looks out for enemies, keeps in touch with other vehicles, and coordinates movement. he usually have something along with him to play with, either a 12.7mm heavy machine gun capable of blowing peoples heads off, or a 5.56 rifle which he fires from his hatch.
then theres the loader, who loads the maingun and coax, and stacks around ammunition. the loader usually have a 7.62mm machine gun to fire as well.
btw, cats whiskers are used for touch sensing. when the whiskers touch something, the cat knows not to go there.
i'd think the whiskers are capable of sensing pressure changes in the air as well.
as for passive and active,
active sights needs IR illumination to be able to see, and they usually only work well in the dusk period.
active IR sights is an ancient technology, introduced in world war 2, was further developed by the russians and americans, but the americans phased it out over the much better thermals around 1970s when the M60A3 got the TTS,
and the same for the rest of the western world.
russians however has been slower to adapt, only gaining thermal sights during the later 90's.
btw, passive thermal sights require cooling, and when in the interior, always makes a very distinctive compressor sound.
if you're thinking about aircraft, heat seeking missiles has an "eye" on the front, which can see in the thermal spectrum. you tell it to lock onto a specific bright spot,
and then it flies after the bright spot.
if something dark obscures the bright spot, the missile loses the lock. if another bright spot appears between the original tracked target, the missile will lock onto that unknowingly, allowing the aircraft to evade.
there's also the radar locking missile, which has a lot longer range than the heat seeking missile (around 150-160km vs 6-8km)
no tanks in history has had heat seeking missiles.
russian tanks however, has had wire-guided, and radio-guided missiles, fired from the gun tube.
the americans tried copying this, by creating a 152mm low-pressure gun, capable of firing missiles and various tank rounds.
the gun however was mostly a disaster. high maintenance requirements, gun fumes blowing into the interior, low effectiveness of AP rounds, etc. the M60A2 version fitted with the 152mm gun, nicknamed the "starship" because of the immensely complicated Fire control system, only lasted 3 years in service before being completely phased out and replaced with the M60A3.
deja have you thought about paying someone to make you the tanke that "you" want? i mean offering crits is one thing, but if someone does not want to listen, theres no need to repeatedly tell them how to do what they are doing. its sheps tank and he is skilled and its looking fantastic
Replies
Keep it coming, GL!
you've probably noticed that metals being heated has a faint red glow in the dark which cannot be seen in daylight, when heated.
the infrared spectrum is just below that, able to see "deeper" kinds of red.
a thermal sight is an infrared sight, but can see an even deeper kind of red, capable of picking up heat signatures
which wouldn't glow in standard infrared sights, and displaying it as a monotonous greyscale image.
on some sights, these monotonous images are given a green hue.
http://www.kotsch88.de/f_m1a1_2.htm
a site explaining the M1A1 GPS(in german, but nice pictures)
what you see in the first picture is the main sight, with the infrared thermal sight on the left, and the daysight on the right. the gunner has a switch which he uses to switch between thermal and daysight. he looks in through the back of the sight.
here's a picture of an ukrainian thermal sight, which unlike the american thermal is separate from the daysight.
you can see the eyepiece for the gunner on the rear of it, while the sensor isn't in view.(its basically a flat panel sensitive to the thermal wavelength of light, which converts these signatures into a black and white image based on the strength of the signature received.
i don't think magnetic detectors would be such a good idea, there's a lot of large metal objects around, and future vehicles will most likely be made of superglass or some sort of super-kevlar material made from spiderweb proteins.
in fact, modern tanks have ceramics arranged in a honeycomb array embedded in their frontal turret armour.
as for poison gas warnings, modern tanks has NBC protection, which consists of nuclear, biological, and chemical warning and filtering systems.
if the tank is under an NBC attack, an alarm sounds, and the crew button up the tank, and get on their NBC gear.
the NBC filter, filters the air for any contaminants, keeping the crewmen safe.
i'd suppose in a future conflict however, that every soldier would be wearing exosceletons with built in airconditioning, NBC filters, an FCS to keep the hands stable while running, and a HUD displaying operation orders, zoomed in views of the action, etc. basically the weapons utilized will be part that plugs into the suit.
but a couple of points ceramic armour or not, alot of the vehicles at this time are magnetic powered and radiat strong feilds (thats what im saying anyway)
and i thought infra red was different to heat sensing, as one is passive and one active (like the difference between hearing and sonar (my beef)
i'd suggest putting glass orbs, or something like that at the end of some of the "whiskers".
(which would be attached by a wire through the turret, and connected to a screen for the gunner)
since i can only see one door, and the space in the vehicle seems to be very limited, i'd suppose theres only 1 crewman, the gunner. having extra crewmembers is always a plus, both for maintenance duties, and added situational awareness. for example tanks usually have 3-4 crewmembers.
there's the driver, which drives the vehicle around.
theres the gunner, which aims and fires the maingun and coaxial machinegun.
theres the TC, who keeps in order where the hell in the world you are, looks out for enemies, keeps in touch with other vehicles, and coordinates movement. he usually have something along with him to play with, either a 12.7mm heavy machine gun capable of blowing peoples heads off, or a 5.56 rifle which he fires from his hatch.
then theres the loader, who loads the maingun and coax, and stacks around ammunition. the loader usually have a 7.62mm machine gun to fire as well.
btw, cats whiskers are used for touch sensing. when the whiskers touch something, the cat knows not to go there.
i'd think the whiskers are capable of sensing pressure changes in the air as well.
as for passive and active,
active sights needs IR illumination to be able to see, and they usually only work well in the dusk period.
active IR sights is an ancient technology, introduced in world war 2, was further developed by the russians and americans, but the americans phased it out over the much better thermals around 1970s when the M60A3 got the TTS,
and the same for the rest of the western world.
russians however has been slower to adapt, only gaining thermal sights during the later 90's.
btw, passive thermal sights require cooling, and when in the interior, always makes a very distinctive compressor sound.
if you're thinking about aircraft, heat seeking missiles has an "eye" on the front, which can see in the thermal spectrum. you tell it to lock onto a specific bright spot,
and then it flies after the bright spot.
if something dark obscures the bright spot, the missile loses the lock. if another bright spot appears between the original tracked target, the missile will lock onto that unknowingly, allowing the aircraft to evade.
there's also the radar locking missile, which has a lot longer range than the heat seeking missile (around 150-160km vs 6-8km)
no tanks in history has had heat seeking missiles.
russian tanks however, has had wire-guided, and radio-guided missiles, fired from the gun tube.
the americans tried copying this, by creating a 152mm low-pressure gun, capable of firing missiles and various tank rounds.
the gun however was mostly a disaster. high maintenance requirements, gun fumes blowing into the interior, low effectiveness of AP rounds, etc. the M60A2 version fitted with the 152mm gun, nicknamed the "starship" because of the immensely complicated Fire control system, only lasted 3 years in service before being completely phased out and replaced with the M60A3.
just like to talk about tanks, thats all.