Heard Some Weirdness On Plates And Radar....

[Jellybean]

OK, so this sounds like complete BS to me, and probably should have been posted this in the "dumbest things heard.." thread but, WTF do I know.

So give me your expert opinions on this gem-
I was on a website a short while ago, and there was some discussion about plates.
Of course there was the usual "steel is so much better than ceramics" crowd (which I suppose is true in some areas), and there was even some discussion on chopping up target steel to make plates, and taping layers of kevlar to the steel to counteract spalling. Good times...:rolleyes:
And then someone posted this gem (and I paraphrase):

"The primary reason the military went to ceramics (plates) was to hide from ground search radar on drones/aircraft.
Drones/aircraft use the same ground search radar as truck mounted search teams (:confused:)- the more metal on you the easier you can be seen by this radar, up to 10-20 "klicks". You may be able to hide from FLIR under thick vegetation but the radar will still see you (if wearing steel)."

Opinions? Because I'm like :sarcastic:
But like I said, I have no clue when it comes to tech like this.
Not like it really matters, but it was just to odd not to ask about.

[Wake27]

That sounds retarded.

[BCO30]

Forward Looking Infrared picks up heat sources which creates the image in the camera if iam not mistaken. Seems like you would be seen by FLIR either using steel plates or ceramic if you're still alive and a warm 98 degrees.

maybe military/LEO's can better explain this.

[hotrodder636]

The bullshit flag is thrown!

[JSantoro]

I call "Cool story, bro..."

When looking at a thermal image of an armored person, the stuff that sticks out like a turd in a punch-bowl is the stuff NOT covered by armor. Face and hands, if uncovered, show as hot against background temps, clothed extremities less so but still often very distinct; clothing diffuses heat.

Armor of any sort diffuses heat even more so; under most circumstances, it's gonna assume something closer to the ambient temps than that of body....because the part that is observable is closer to ambient-temp air, not the flesh. Take that armor off, view the against-the-body surface, you'll typically see it show against background more. I'll spare you a comparative breakdown of conductivity/emissivity of disparate materials....

Radar....? Not my part of the electromagnetic spectrum, but that smells funny. Somehow metal plates are gonna show up in some fashion greater than that of the other ironmongery of the weapon(s)/ammo and any other equipment one is carrying...? Plus, allowing it to pick out such against anything in the background, like vehicles, manhole covers, mailboxes, corporate artwork...?

That seems a bit of a reach; the kind of thing that hints at seeming kinda-sorta plausible, as camouflage for being too cheap to buy a set of plates that work.