Defeating Drones How To Build A Thermal Evasion Suit


Get a thermal blanket.

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

21 Comments

  1. James January 25, 2021 at 10:49

    Interesting,I noticed in the video the rifle keeps showing up in thermal vision,is this just do to it being fired or is rifle picking up and then giving off body heat,would gloves or could some kind of wrap be made to avoid this while rifle still being operable?

    • NC Scout January 25, 2021 at 11:22

      No. You’re not defeating physics.

      • James January 25, 2021 at 19:38

        Great,not defeating physics,guess that also means no Q-36 lludiam Explosive Space Modulator,well…..,this Monday officially sucks!

        • DirtNasty January 26, 2021 at 00:34

          Well up here in the North this looks just fine for half the year!
          “The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.” ~ James Madison
          The Same quote applies for technology; I remember hearing someone once say “if you don’t have camouflage, then you don’t have shit.” I seen a comment about the rifle showing a signature? I believe they (Brandon? from oath keepers) talked about “cloaking” the rifle.
          “These stupid Oath Keepers can build and research means to defeat thermal radiation but cannot watch a video they made before posting it online. Ya if they did then they sure would know how stupid they were for not noticing the rifle had a thermal signature.” ~A quote from the smartest man online!
          Thank you Physics Professor Dr.James!

    • Juri January 25, 2021 at 12:19

      You can not wrap. The problem is that with contact, the material what are you wrapping around your covered item, heats up itself and start emitting infrared radiation.
      There must be always air between the heat source and thermal screen. Of course, air can go hot also and this is the reason why thermal screens do not work well with large heat sources like tanks or trucks.
      But human body has approximately 70 watts energy , some of this is converted to the heat but this is so little than your thermal suit can be normally ventilated so that you will not overheated and the same time, air between your screen and body constantly moves and does not go so much warmer that most thermal cameras never pick it up.
      Another funny thing is artificial intelligence. You can watch you IR camera and recognize objects by yourself or you can leave this job to computer. US Army probably uses AI. Anyway, Taliban sometimes uses thermal screens for their cars and it seems working. Dumb computer sees big cloud of warm air and because it does not look like object the AI taught to recognize, computer just ignores and does not send picture to human to analyze.
      So when the full automatic drone circling around and monitoring, when you can not cover up heat source , you can use thermal screen to change shape. For AI, your weapon or car turns up to some weird hot spots what AI is programmed to ignore. But when human monitoring or AI is programmed not to ignore anything above certain temperature, then you get caught.

      • MarineMedic January 26, 2021 at 18:24

        Algorithms for drone software look for human shapes and movement rather than just hot spots. Anytime they try to make the software too sensitive it ends up giving too many false positives and it’s useless. You gotta remember that there are heat spots everywhere when looking through a FLIR device. If you have a minimal heat signature that doesn’t present a recognizable shape and they can’t see your movement then you’re basically invisible to drones. Thermal isn’t magic, and neither is AI.

  2. Cavguy January 25, 2021 at 10:49

    Our Body heat has to go someplace. This looks like a portable sauna.
    Kinda reminds me of MOPP Level IV training in the summer heat on Ft Bragg. After 15 to 20 minutes most soldiers were finished/not mission capable. The heat build up in the suits in the hot summer heat took its toll and rendered most unable to continue with the mission.
    right now in Idaho with the winter temps? The thermal difference between you and your surroundings?
    these suits appear to be effective in certain situations. If one was planning To evade thermal detection this is MOST CERTAINLY an option. Good on Snake bite!!!!
    Cavguy

    • Razorback Trapper January 25, 2021 at 14:49

      You read my mind. I think it is a great idea, and a great tool, but no way am I rucking 5 miles up and down the hills in that thing during the summer here in the south.

      • mihais May 3, 2021 at 19:50

        You will enjoy rucking in a grave even less :)
        Anyway,there is something called patience,and it is a virtue.You can move fast with heavy gear and sweat a lot.You can move very slow with lot of gear and sweat less.And you can move light and slow.
        Moving faster than the enemy is not always the answer.Controlling the tempo is what matters.In the current year and even more in the future,drones,AI,UGV’s and a plethora of other sensors will fill the battlefield.Arty will come crushing down in a matter of 1-2 minutes or even less.Infantry will not be able to outpace any of these,so a prolonged gunfight is not in the cards.So doing 3 miles in 10 or 20 hours while evading the eye in the sky might become the new normal.

  3. Anonymous January 25, 2021 at 11:45

    5

  4. Patrick O'Neil January 25, 2021 at 11:59

    May want to make a thermal drape to cover your rifle. After a few shots it starts glowing red. Could reduce the extent, or break up the heat sig, of the rifle with one.

  5. StormN January 25, 2021 at 13:30

    I watched the above video some years ago. Based on the Oathkeepers recommendation about the same time, I bought a large, one-side-reflective, heavy duty, poncho at a sporting goods store. The idea was/is that not only can it keep you dry and warm, etc. but properly placed overhead it will hide the heat signature from overhead thermal sensors. Believe me or not, someone actually had a friend fly a blackhawk(?) chopper over his backyard yard and confirmed it’s effectiveness, video and/or pictures were taken. If someone could find this video and/or photos and publish it here I think that would be great. I’m pretty sure I originally watched it on the Oathkeepers original forums about the same time the above video was produced. I searched a little without luck.

    • DirtNasty January 25, 2021 at 23:55
      • StormN January 26, 2021 at 20:18

        That’s it! Outstanding. I think it bears mentioning that even if there is a little bit of heat signature, in a real incident the chopper pilot may have to decide if it is animal or human before perhaps wasting limited, valuable resources, making alot of noise, revealing himself, etc. So consider not making snow angels while you’re under your blankie. Maybe curl up like a ball or torso. Just my 2 cents.

  6. Hillbilly jack January 25, 2021 at 18:09

    I prefer the cloaking method. Years ago I posted on Bracken’s site, the night fighting post.
    You can put together a quick deploy cape for emergency situations.
    1. Start with a combat casualty reflective thermal blanket OD and silver. 56”x84”
    2. On the od side using spray adhesive lightly over lay burlap cammo you can find at any sporting goods store .
    3. Make sure you roll it over a couple of inches to the silver side and secure it.
    4. On the 4 corners use para cord and fashion 1 foot loops.
    This setup will allow you to deploy as a canopy over your self grasping the loops to hold in place. Even when a rotary wind is rolling over.
    If you wand a all weather cloaking/ cape use white cloth to cover the other side with the modifications needed.
    Hillbilly jack

    • NC Scout January 25, 2021 at 23:01

      This is what I teach in the Scout course.

  7. Anonymous January 26, 2021 at 06:10

    4.5

  8. Joachim January 26, 2021 at 13:44

    Sorry, your footprints will leave a very nice, bright heat signature. Can’t beat that as it as to do with your body weight.

    • MarineMedic January 26, 2021 at 18:15

      If you have boots on your feet there is no heat or footprints left behind in thermal vision. Even if you were barefoot your prints would be gone in seconds. Your information is incorrect.

      • JoshAegis August 16, 2021 at 15:25

        Seconding MarineMedic here. I have one of the most sensitive thermal units available in the civilian sector (if you watch the footage, you’ll see it’s sensitivity and resolution puts predator drone and Apache footage resolution to shame), retail price $4k-$5.5k, and while yes I can see footprints, it’s dependent heavily on environmental temperature and ground conditions, and they last literally only seconds.
        Now then, yes I acknowledge predator and apaches are hundreds of feet to sometimes miles from their targets and so their cameras are absolutely technically superior for being able to resolve as well as they do at the distances they do, the fact remains, at the ground level, straight comparison, what is able to be seen on the camera by the operator in the air versus what is able to be seen on the ground from ten feet away on thermal camera, there is no comparison. Ground based win, it is the BEST most ideal conditions you are going to have for observation of thermal signature (this is indisputable) and so if imaging on the ground at close proximity fails, it will fail at distance too regardless of how expensive and fancy the gear is. You can count the hairs on the dog in this ground based footage, meanwhile a predator or Apache will at best get a general outline blob and not be able to distinguish medium dog from coyote from wolf from lynx from pig. Far cry from counting hairs. Sorry, it’s just reality. Their tech is remarkable and amazing, don’t get me wrong. But you can see how much more detail and sensitivity this ground based recording has versus aerial footage. And if footprints barely show on this, it’s definitely not showing on theirs.
        You can see the dog footprints in this video. Watch carefully. They disappear quickly. Bare pads full heat contact with ground, and observe how weak and rapidly they disappear:
        https://youtu.be/imUNHOzhHcU
        Cold ground and direct warm bare foot shows clearer for longer (like barefoot in winter) but even then we are still only talking one second, or partial second, and observation at distance? Forget about it.

  9. JoshAegis August 16, 2021 at 15:04

    He’s right. This is a really good design, and while I haven’t been able to test this exact suit, based on my experiences this is a very sound concept. Along with what MarineMedic said above about AI algorithms. If you can obfuscate your appearance to ANY degree, you are winning. The average thermal operator doesn’t expect nor anticipate thermal masking in their targets. 99% of folks out there run around bright as the daylight sun on thermal. That’s what they look for. Nobody actually masks their signature.
    Smaller signatures that don’t conform to human shape may be briefly looked at to verify non human target and written off as dog, cat, rabbit, deer, manure pile, campfire, ditch, puddle, whatever. If they even get attention amid a field of small scale signatures.
    Psychologically you are defeating the operator, not the equipment.
    The equipment may pick up a tiny bit of heat, but as long as you keep it small and not noteworthy, it’s lost in the virtual sea of likewise small and non-attention grabbing thermal signatures because the operator is looking for the bright white human shaped target they’ve seen a thousand times. Likewise, AI algorithms in drones are written, as indicated by MarineMedic above, to minimize false reports and demands on human operators. This means any masking whatsoever evades the AI even more effectively than the operator.
    Now then, all that said, actually reducing your signature can be accomplished in a variety of ways. As I already said, the video suit design above is a solid concept. But it’s not the only thing that works, nor is it the best or worst. Each method has its benefits and negatives, it’s tactical applications.
    Using a thermal imager with the highest sensor resolution currently available in the civilian market and with high NETD sensitivity (the same model is openly endorsed by the police officers association of America and is utilized by law enforcement in urban operations, SAR in rural operations and border patrol for border monitoring), I did several tests involving space blankets/Mylar/radiant barrier/Firefighter proximity gear, even umbrellas as rapidly deployable drone screens, and guess what, they are AMAZINGLY effectively. Here’s some of them. I have over 40 videos posted testing various methods and disproving several internet myths about dodging thermal. There are many ways to reduce your signature, and with today’s tech, some work better than others. Being aware that what used to fool cutting edge tech no longer works is extremely important! There’s a lot of bad info floating around out there.
    https://youtu.be/MG_Z6DOUYhs
    https://youtu.be/oTex0jB4xNQ
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E7VysRqOMGE&feature=youtu.be
    https://youtu.be/7bU7LM4nnP4
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dVbrOdZzIEU&feature=youtu.be

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