Special paint hides vehicles and buildings from enemy sensors.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: ARMORED VEHICLE

PARIS -- As thermal scanners and other heat-sensitive sensors improve and proliferate, militaries have begun to realize such technologies also expose vulnerabilities, and are seeking ways to protect their troops and assets.

Intermat Defence Coatings, based in Athens, Greece, has developed an advanced technology paint that can reduce the thermal and infrared signatures of ground, naval and air vehicles and infrastructures, allowing troops to operate without triggering detection by heat-sensitive devices.

"We try to protect the object by eliminating its signature," says Bill Fills, assistant director of the company.

The coatings can be customized to reduce temperatures to a specific degree so that objects blend in with the ambient temperature, he says.

Infrared signatures can be reduced up to 50 percent, and surface temperatures can be reduced up to 65 percent, says Fills.

While there are other coatings in the market, most other products offer protection from a small range--about 2000 nanometers--of infrared spectrum, he says. Intramat's coatings, on the other hand, cover the wide infrared spectrum, from 400 to 20,000...