Air Cover, introduced in October by Texas-based Vigil Autonomy, is a flying camouflage screening system that conceals vehicles and equipment from thermal infrared cameras and radar. The system employs corner-mounted aerial lift units to suspend a multispectral camouflage screen over the item.
Air Cover is offered in configurations covering areas of 4 m², 9 m², and 100 m² (about 43, 97, and 1,076 square feet), operating at a maximum altitude of ten meters. Proprietary ISR Control software manages these lift units, positioning the canopy in Stealth Mode relative to the asset and allowing Air Cover to relocate with it. The system has a flight endurance target of two to four hours and a maximum operating altitude of 10 m (about thirty-three feet). The system also provides for an airborne Decoy Mode to divert enemy attention.
Being an airborne system, Air Cover would need to account for factors like wind gusts, rain, icing, and potential lift failure. Its performance in such conditions remains undefined.
Air Cover’s advantages include its ability to be positioned more rapidly than conventional pole-mounted screens and to relocate with the protected asset. It could therefore be an appropriate concealment solution for towed artillery or other systems that may be in an operating position for a relatively brief time and need to displace rapidly. It could also be an ideal solution when temporary concealment of an activity is desired. These might include forward maintenance, repair, or recovery, or a resupply action. It might also provide cover for aircraft on hot alert, mitigating cockpit overheating.
Decoy Mode offers an interesting capability. The ability to quickly deploy a decoy at an opportune moment would be useful as a counter-reconnaissance action. It would allow placement of a false target that could fool an opposing surveillance asset about the actual target it is trying to pinpoint. Activating the decoy only when active reconnaissance is anticipated enhances its effectiveness and reduces the chance it is compromised and the ruse discovered.
Air Cover is a new product and has not yet been fielded. Yet it is an innovative concept that addresses the need to achieve enhanced protection of battlefield assets in an entirely different way – by simply reducing their probability of being detected and identified, given the increasing precision and lethality of weapons that might well be the more rewarding approach.
by Stephen W. Miller
